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Using dynamic capability theory, this study investigates how information technology (IT) support affects firms' online and offline cross-channel integration (CCI). In addition, it applies institutional theory to examine how the relationships between IT support and CCI are moderated by firms' institutional environments.

A sample of 308 firms in China that conduct business in online and offline channels was empirically tested through hierarchical regression analysis.

The results showed two types of IT support facilitated CCI: IT support for strategy and IT support for process. The relationship between IT support for process and CCI was stronger than that between IT support for strategy and CCI. The results further indicated institutional environment (i.e. dysfunctional competition and government support) played differing roles in these effects, such that the relationship between IT support for strategy and CCI was significantly weakened by dysfunctional competition yet enhanced by government support. However, neither dysfunctional competition nor government support had a significant moderating role in the relationship between IT support for process and CCI.

This study identifies different IT support types as antecedents of CCI. It is also one of the earliest attempts to explore the influence of institutional environment on the relationship between IT support and CCI.

The purpose of this paper is to first evaluate the effect of IT service management (ITSM) tools in a practical environment followed by sharing experience in developing management process modules in a service outsourcing model. In order to improve the fault correlation from business and user perspectives, the aim is to propose a framework to automate network and system alerts with respect to its business service impact and user impact for proactive notification to IT operations management.

Three years of quantitative analysis using real operational data were used to present the effect on ITSM tools adoption. For the proposed framework, it consists of a hybrid case‐ and rule‐based reasoning module and a new approach for fault mapping with business criticality and user activities.

Over the past decade there has been significant focus in the context of ITSM in the IT services operations industry. In the market of ITSM software tools, customer and operational processes are not sufficiently developed nor integrated with other management applications following IT services daily processes which make it difficult to correlate faults to business service impacts and user impacts. For any fault of the same severity level, traditional fault discovery and notification tools provide equal weighting from business and user points of view.

Most of the related works were done individually in the entire ITSM processes. Moreover, some works present the enabling technology for outsourced facilities management rather than IT operations management. Lack of research activity was noted in the areas of user and business impact correlation with service management.

This paper outlines the implications of implementing ITSM tools in outsourced IT operation. The business continuity planning also forms one of the critical factors to improve responsiveness in service management.

This paper illustrates the effect of ITSM tools adoption by analyzing real operation data. Central to the service‐oriented philosophy in ITSM, we introduce a framework to correlate with user and business elements. Inclusion of the dimensions of business and user impact in the fault correlation process could further improve service efficiency and user satisfaction.

This paper aims at presenting the benefits from implementing IT service management (ITSM) in an organization for managing campus‐wide IT operations. In order to improve the fault correlation from business perspectives, we proposed a framework to automate network and system alerts with respect to its business service impact for proactive notification to IT operations management.

The authors first evaluate the effect of IT service management (ITSM) tools in practical adoption followed by experience sharing in developing management process modules in service outsourcing model. Three years of quantitative analysis using real operational data were used to present the effect on ITSM tools adoption. A framework was developed from the study of literatures in service management, incident prioritization, and business continuity planning. For the proposed framework, it consists of a hybrid case‐based and rule‐based reasoning module and a new approach which utilizing business continuity planning for service‐resource mapping with business criticality and user activities.

For the past decade in the IT industry, a paradigm shift in managing IT could be observed. People are concerned more in managing IT services instead of traditional device‐oriented IT system or network components. With the term “business‐driven IT services,” it has raised new challenges in the area of IT service management, especially with respect to the management of service level agreement with service provider and the management of system and network faults.

Further work should be carried out on the aspect of using real data for the framework as motivated by the limitations of the present study. Practical real data could help the reader to experience its quantitative benefits.

This paper highlights the value of effective IT service management, placing particular emphasis on service outsourcing consideration and the mechanism in service‐event correlation.

This paper illustrates the effect of ITSM tools adoption by analyzing real operation data. The proposed framework explicitly utilizes business continuity planning (BCP) processes to identify the relationships between business services and IT resources that helps to improve the IT service management.

Discusses a solution to a growing need for Industry Knowledge Base in the construction industry. This paper shows a Case Based Reasoning model based on the Rough Sets Theory and applied as a decision support in the preliminary design phase of construction projects.

Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

Towns and cities across Canada face rapidly changing economic circumstances and many are turning to a variety of strategies, including tourism, to provide stability in their communities. Community Economic Development (CED) has become an accepted form of economic development, with recognition that such planning benefits from a more holistic approach and community participation. However, much of why particular strategies are chosen, what process the community undertakes to implement those choices and how success is measured is not fully understood. Furthermore, CED lacks a developed theoretical basis from which to examine these questions. By investigating communities that have chosen to develop their tourism potential through the use of murals, these various themes can be explored. There are three purposes to this research: (1) to acquire an understanding of the “how” and the “why” behind the adoption and diffusion of mural-based tourism as a CED strategy in rural communities; (2) to contribute to the emerging theory of CED by linking together theories of rural geography, rural change and sustainability, and rural tourism; and (3) to contribute to the development of a framework for evaluating the potential and success of tourism development within a CED process.

Two levels of data collection and analysis were employed in this research. Initially, a survey of Canadian provincial tourism guides was conducted to determine the number of communities in Canada that market themselves as having a mural-based tourism attraction (N=32). A survey was sent to these communities, resulting in 31 responses suitable for descriptive statistical analysis, using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). A case study analysis of the 6 Saskatchewan communities was conducted through in-depth, in person interviews with 40 participants. These interviews were subsequently analyzed utilizing a combined Grounded Theory (GT) and Content Analysis approach.

The surveys indicated that mural development spread within a relatively short time period across Canada from Chemainus, British Columbia. Although tourism is often the reason behind mural development, increasing community spirit and beautification were also cited. This research demonstrates that the reasons this choice is made and the successful outcome of that choice is often dependent upon factors related to community size, proximity to larger populations and the economic (re)stability of existing industry. Analysis also determined that theories of institutional thickness, governance, embeddedness and conceptualizations of leadership provide a body of literature that offers an opportunity to theorize the process and outcomes of CED in rural places while at the same time aiding our understanding of the relationship between tourism and its possible contribution to rural sustainability within a Canadian context. Finally, this research revealed that both the CED process undertaken and the measurement of success are dependent upon the desired outcomes of mural development. Furthermore, particular attributes of rural places play a critical role in how CED is understood, defined and carried out, and how successes, both tangible and intangible, are measured.

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

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.

The objective of this study is to investigate how country risk, different political actions from the government and bureaucratic behavior influence the activities in industry supply chains (SCs) in emerging markets. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of these external stakeholders’ elements to the demand-side and supply-side drivers and barriers for improving competitiveness of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in the way of analyzing supply chain. Considering the phenomenon of recent change in the RMG business environment and the competitiveness issues this study uses the principles of stakeholder and resource dependence theory and aims to find out some factors which influence to make an efficient supply chain for improving competitiveness. The RMG industry of Bangladesh is the case application of this study. Following a positivist paradigm, this study adopts a two phase sequential mixed-method research design consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. Qualitative field study is then carried out 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. A survey is carried out with sample of top and middle level executives of different garment companies of Dhaka city in Bangladesh and the collected quantitative data are analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling. The findings support eight hypotheses. From the analysis the external stakeholders’ elements like bureaucratic behavior and country risk have significant influence to the barriers. From the internal stakeholders’ point of view the manufacturers’ and buyers’ drivers have significant influence on the competitiveness. Therefore, stakeholders need to take proper action to reduce the barriers and increase the drivers, as the drivers have positive influence to improve competitiveness.

This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. This study represents an important contribution to the theory by integrating two theoretical perceptions to identify factors of the RMG industry’s SC that affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. This research study contributes to the understanding of both external and internal stakeholders of national and international perspectives in the RMG (textile and clothing) business. It combines the insights of stakeholder and resource dependence theories along with the concept of the SC in improving effectiveness. In a practical sense, this study certainly contributes to the Bangladeshi RMG industry. In accordance with the desire of the RMG manufacturers, the research has shown that some influential constructs of the RMG industry’s SC affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. The outcome of the study is useful for various stakeholders of the Bangladeshi RMG industry sector ranging from the government to various private organizations. The applications of this study are extendable through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.

The study aimed to focus on how well information technology (IT) was supporting business processes in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

The study collected data using a questionnaire that incorporated the 12 processes of the American Productivity and Quality Center's (APQC) process classification framework. Structured interviews were conducted with managers in 66 SMEs.

The data indicated the importance of each process and how well IT supported each process. The following two core business processes were identified as strategically most important: deliver products and services, and manage customer service. Although the evidence indicated that the most important business processes were supported at an acceptable level, IT support was found to be low for many business processes. IT support also varied considerably across the sample, indicating that some firms have much higher IT support for business processes than others.

A limitation of the study is that it used a new instrument. Also, all the firms were SMEs in one part of one country. The study created an instrument that can be used by managers as a diagnostic tool to help SMEs identify areas for business improvement.

The study indicates that the business process view provides a useful lens for studying IT support. There seems to be much potential for SMEs to improve their IT support for some business processes.

The focus on IT support for business processes is original, especially by examining support for the broad range of processes of the APQC's model.