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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 multifaceted effect of IT in organizations has been widely examined. However, the intervening role of IT strategy and business strategy on the effect of managing IT on firm performance remains less strong. This study examines how managing information technology (MIT) effects on firm performance by looking at the mediating role of IT strategy and business strategy.

Drawing on the resource-based view of IT and contingency perspective, theoretical insights for managing IT and the mediating effect of IT strategy and business strategy on firm performance are established. The model is empirically tested by using hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling for the data collected through the survey of 194 senior IT and business managers in China.

The significant and impactful relationship found in the model for the proposed idea. The results show that both IT strategy and business strategy partially mediate the effect of managing IT on firm performance.

The findings highlight that managing IT does not merely influence better firm performance; instead, the coherent amalgamation of IT strategy and business strategy can enrich firm performance. The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

In line with the call for rigorous research to integrate the managing IT and firm strategies, this study demonstrates the mediating role of business strategy and IT strategy between the managing IT and the firm performance relationship, hence contributing to the IS research literature.

This study seeks to examine the impact of owner's knowledge of information technology (IT) on business and IT strategic alignment, as well as on IT use in the small firm context, using the resource‐based view as a theoretical foundation.

A random sample of 217 small manufacturers and financial services firms in the USA answered a two‐page survey containing questions pertaining to the company's business strategies, the extent IT supported each business strategy, types of IT used, and the level of owner's IT knowledge.

Owner's knowledge of IT was found to be a significant predictor of IT strategic alignment, as well as adoption of traditional IT and internet technologies, while controlling for differences in firm attributes (size, age, industry affiliation, and strategic focus).

Small firm owners are well advised to seek ways of improving their knowledge of IT, integrating IT use in firm‐level business planning, as well as reexamining their business strategy and IT use to detect and correct misalignments, if any.

From the resource‐based view, the owner's IT knowledge is a critical resource that cannot be easily codified, hence less susceptible to competitive erosion, since it is embedded in the owner's tacit knowledge and expressed in the unique but complementary use of IT in support of the firm's strategic goals. This study confirmed small firm owner's knowledge of IT as an important, knowledge‐based capability and a vital component of business‐IT strategic alignment.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and evaluate a good knowledge management (KM) framework for IT services companies to provide an integrated approach to IT services for efficient knowledge management.

The framework is evaluated at three Indian IT organizations providing global IT services with successful KM programs dedicated to services. Expert interviews were conducted with senior management involved in the KM programs. Information collected was used for studying the KM framework implemented by each organization for services and then content analyzed and evaluated.

The paper provides evidence of various strategic, technological critical factors influencing the success of KM programs in IT services companies. Organizations with successful KM programs typically adapt attrition control measures, rewards and recognitions. Application of key enabler tools of KM help in robust knowledge management, reducing cost to client, helping companies to excel better.

Interviews are limited to three large companies in the Bangalore region. Future in‐depth studies across regions, with a mix of medium/large organizations would benefit from a larger and more diverse sample.

It is suggested that IT services organizations develop specific capabilities to create knowledge management system (KMS) for productivity benefits and increased profitability. To provide clear benchmarks for developing these capabilities, mainly from the outsourcing point of view, a KM framework for IT services is provided.

Integrated KMS is discussed from a unique perspective of IT services by integrating knowledge management and IT services. The paper also reviews customers' expectations from IT service providers. The paper conducts preliminary evaluation of the KM framework for IT services and provides a broader view for future research opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the business value of IT (BVIT) and illustrate the relationship between IT practices and BVIT.

The paper uses a case study approach to collect the subject firm data over a period of one year. The data are about various IT systems used in the firm and their associated capital and operational cost components. The derived data are then compared with industry benchmarks.

The IT practices employed by the firm enable it to achieve a BVIT which is higher than the industry norm, from both strategic and operational perspectives.

In this study, a year’s worth of data from a single firm is considered. The temporal frame of the research data limits the generalization of the results. To improve the generalizability, data from many years and across many firms may be used.

The paper provides insights to managers to identify the measures of BVIT. Further, managers can make necessary interventions based on IT practices to derive IT capabilities which, in turn, impact the firm’s performance.

The contribution of the work is manifold: illustration of the relationship between IT practices and BVIT; illustration of a methodology to evaluate firm-level BVIT; and an approach to collect IT expenses – both capital and operational level.

The multimedia data are also known as interactive data. The multimedia is progressively turning into the “greatest big data” which are the most imperative and important hotspot for bits of knowledge and data. The multimedia data also provide incredible open door for the multimedia computing in the big data centric as a functioning disciplinary research field. As per current technological usage in terms of Internet or smart devices, the data manipulate in the form of digital. Massive multimedia data have been produced in the different forms like text, image, video, and audio which is shared among vast number of people. The multimedia data are real-time unstructured, heterogeneous, and multimodal. It has vast scope to mine model, learn, and analyze the service provided by multimedia. Of course, some primarily level challenges need to be addressed like analysis, storage, retrieval, and data processing. The most complicated thing in multimedia big data (MMBD) analytics is that the computer cannot understand higher level of semantics. The quality of experience (QoE) is the most evolving part of MMBD which are directly intended with storage and performance. MMBD are highly resource intensive. They often require dedicated processing capabilities in terms of graphical processing unit (GPU). An advance-level storage-related mechanism is also needed for efficient parallel processing, transmission, and presentation. Generally, non-multimedia data are always forming in text which is normally understood by machine. The multimedia data always in the form of videos are easily understood by human compared to textual data, but it is more complex task to make it understandable to machines. The MMBD performs the task by converting the human language to computer language in an efficient manner. This chapter is also introducing salient features of MMBD. The main aim of this chapter is to cover the fundamentals for MMBD computing and feasibility study. The chapter explores the technical problems and challenges to be addressed. It also focuses on methodologies and approaches that are available from the perspectives of MMBD computing life cycle. The chapter may be beneficial for the readers to understand the features, importance and application of MMBD.

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 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.