Durch die digitale Transformation des Gesundheitswesens können die Qualität der Patientenversorgung und die Leistungseffizienz hinsichtlich ökonomischer Zielgrößen verbessert werden. Die Adoptions- und Diffusionsforschung im Gesundheitswesen misst und vergleicht die Auswirkungen, Kosten und Qualität von Informationssystemen und den damit verbundenen informationslogistischen Wertschöpfungsprozessen. Daraus ging wiederholt hervor, dass im Speziellen Krankenhäuser unter zunehmenden Wettbewerbsdruck die IT als einen entscheidenden Faktor für die Optimierung der Leistungserbringung erkannt haben und diese somit Teil des Diskurses des strategischen Managements geworden ist. In der wissenschaftlichen Auswertung werden die daraus resultierenden Ergebnisse als Forschungsartikel für ein wissenschaftliches Publikum aufbereitet. Darüber hinaus sollten die Ergebnisse ebenfalls im Hinblick auf die Praxis, sprich dem strategischen IT-Management im Krankenhaus, zielgruppenorientiert, das heißt individualisiert für die betreffende Organisation und kontextualisiert in der jeweiligen Referenzgruppe, disseminiert werden. Solche Feedback-Systeme sind im klinischen Kontext bereits bekannt als sogenannte „Lernende Gesundheitssysteme“, in denen neue Erkenntnisse für die Diagnostik, Therapie, Rehabilitation und Pflege gewonnen werden. Im Bereich der IT-Adoptionsmessung fehlt es jedoch an einem System, welches das IT-Management und die Forschung kontinuierlich durch einen datengetriebenen Feedback-Zyklus verbindet und unterstützt. Die vorliegende kumulative Dissertation verwendet Methoden und Ergebnisse der empirischen Sozialforschung, um wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse der IT-Adoptionsforschung zu deutschen Krankenhäusern im Rahmen der konstruktionsorientierten Forschung in einem Informationssystem individuell für die spezifischen Krankenhäuser zu kontextualisieren. Neben der anwendungsnahen Aufbereitung wissenschaftlicher Ergebnisse für die Praxis ist dieses Informationssystem im gleichen Maß relevant für die nötige Grundlage des Datenmanagements und der Datenanalyse zur Unterstützung der IT-Adoptions- und Diffusionsforschung, in der Daten über mehrere Jahre erhoben und longitudinal ausgewertet werden.

The IT sector is in constant change and new IT emerges constantly. This enables organizations to adopt new IT at a correspondingly rapid pace. Nonetheless, it is not certain that the adoption of new IT contributes positively to the organization’s existing application portfolio. Hence, the purpose of this study is to provide insights to how organizations adopt IT and the factors that are important to ensure positive effects from adopting new IT. A case study, consisting of semi-structured interviews, was conducted on a Norwegian governmental organization. The majority of current literature on the field are describing IT adoption for commercial for-profit organizations. Since the case-organization is a governmental organization, this study will also aspire to investigate how that influence IT adoption. The empirical findings of this study show that there is a purpose of having a strategy for adopting new IT to an existing application portfolio. A framework describing the adoption process and factors of importance for successfully adopting new IT is provided. Also, the empirical findings show that being a governmental organization does not influence the adoption of IT significantly. However, the findings show that other aspects of each individual organization can have more significant influence on the adoption process. / IT-sektorn är i ständig förändring och ny IT blir ständigt tillgänglig. Detta gör det möjligt för organisationer att ta sig an ny IT i motsvarande snabba takt. Det är dock inte säkert att implementering av ny IT bidrar positivt till organisationens befintliga applikationsportfölj. Därför är syftet med denna studie att ge insikt om hur organisationer tar sig an IT och de faktorer som är viktiga för att säkerställa positiva effekter från adoption av ny IT. En fallstudie, bestående av semi-strukturerade intervjuer genomfördes på en norsk statlig organisation. Majoriteten av befintlig litteratur inom fältet beskriver IT-adoption för kommersiella vinstdrivande organisationer. Eftersom fallstudieorganisationen är en statlig organisation kommer denna studie också att undersöka hur det påverkar IT-adoption i organisationen. De empiriska resultaten från denna studie visar att det finns ett syfte med en strategi för att adoptera ny IT till en befintlig applikationsportfölj. Ett ramverk som beskriver adoptionsprocessen och faktorer som är viktiga för en framgångsrik adoptionsprocess av ny IT finns framtaget. De empiriska resultaten visar också att det att vara en statlig organisation inte påverkar adoption av IT i särskilt hög grad. Resultaten visar dock att andra aspekter av varje enskild organisation kan ha mer inflytande på adoptionsprocessen.

Idag råder en företagsmiljö som består av digitaliserade strukturer i form av informations- och affärssystem där den digitala informationen är central. Den nya företagsmiljön kräver enligt forskningen nya metoder för utvärdering och rapportering. Medan digitaliseringen kommit långt i utveckling inom företagande och samhället i stort så har redovisnings- och revisionsmetoder stått stilla.Ett koncept som har kommit att bli aktuellt i tomrummet mellan digitaliseringens framväxt och revisionsmetoders traditionella utförande är Continuous Auditing. Konceptet har forskats kring under en relativt lång tid, varvid förhoppningen var att företag skulle ta till sig konceptet och byta ut sina omoderna revisionsmetoder. Bland annat förespråkas att revisionen borde utföras på ett mer proaktivt sätt och att automatiserade lösningar ska ersätta manuella utföranden. Undersökningar har visat på att Continuous Auditing enbart har tillämpats i en begränsad utsträckning. Syftet med denna studie är därmed att utreda varför så är fallet genom att undersöka huvudanvändarna, internrevisorernas inställning till konceptet.För att genomföra undersökningen tillämpar denna studie en kvalitativ forskningsansats med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med internrevisorer. Intervjuerna och analysen kring dessa har utgått ifrån en teoretisk referensram bestående av tidigare litteratur och forskning inom internrevision, Continuous auditing och teori kring teknologitillämpning.Bland annat ger resultatet uttryck för att studiens internrevisorer är öppna för att införa närliggande koncept och upplever att det finns ett behov av att införa sådana i företag. Däremot råder det tveksamheter kring vilka användarna av sådana koncept ska vara. / There is a discussion about the current way of conducting business that contains a digitalized structure in the form of information- and enterprise systems where the digital information is vital. According to research this new environment requires new methods for measurement and reporting. While the development of the digitalization in businesses and society has gone far, the accounting and auditing methods have not.One concept that has become relevant in the process of digitalization is Continuous Auditing. There has been research about the concept for a while and there was a hope that businesses would start adopting it and switch from traditional auditing methods. For instance, the research has spoken about the possibility to do auditing in a more proactive way and implement automated technology. However, the research has shown that the concept only has been implemented in a few cases. This study has the purpose to examine why through examining the main users, the internal auditors` attitudes towards the concept.This study has applied a qualitative approach with the help of semi-structured interviews with internal auditors. The interviews and the analysis have been formed by previous literature and conducted research on internal auditing, continuous auditing and also theory about technology adoption.For instance, the results of this study were that internal auditors are willing to adopt similar concepts and are feeling the need to implement such. However, it is unclear whether the users should be internal auditors.

Idag råder en företagsmiljö som består av digitaliserade strukturer i form av informations- och affärssystem där den digitala informationen är central. Den nya företagsmiljön kräver enligt forskningen nya metoder för utvärdering och rapportering. Medan digitaliseringen kommit långt i utveckling inom företagande och samhället i stort så har redovisnings- och revisionsmetoder stått stilla. Ett koncept som har kommit att bli aktuellt i tomrummet mellan digitaliseringens framväxt och revisionsmetoders traditionella utförande är Continuous Auditing. Konceptet har forskats kring under en relativt lång tid, varvid förhoppningen var att företag skulle ta till sig konceptet och byta ut sina omoderna revisionsmetoder. Bland annat förespråkas att revisionen borde utföras på ett mer proaktivt sätt och att automatiserade lösningar ska ersätta manuella utföranden. Undersökningar har visat på att Continuous Auditing enbart har tillämpats i en begränsad utsträckning. Syftet med denna studie är därmed att utreda varför så är fallet genom att undersöka huvudanvändarna, internrevisorernas inställning till konceptet. För att genomföra undersökningen tillämpar denna studie en kvalitativ forskningsansats med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med internrevisorer. Intervjuerna och analysen kring dessa har utgått ifrån en teoretisk referensram bestående av tidigare litteratur och forskning inom internrevision, Continuous auditing och teori kring teknologitillämpning. Bland annat ger resultatet uttryck för att studiens internrevisorer är öppna för att införa närliggande koncept och upplever att det finns ett behov av att införa sådana i företag. Däremot råder det tveksamheter kring vilka användarna av sådana koncept ska vara. / There is a discussion about today’s current way of conducting business that contains a digitalized structure in the form of information- and enterprise systems where the digital information is vital. According to research this new environment requires new methods for measurement and reporting. While the development of the digitalization in businesses and society has gone far, the accounting and auditing methods have not. One concept that has become relevant in the process of digitalization is Continuous Auditing. There has been research about the concept for a while and there was a hope that businesses would start adopting it and switch from traditional auditing methods. For instance, the research has spoken about the possibility to do auditing in a more proactive way and implement automated technology. However, the research has shown that the concept only has been implemented in a few cases. This study has the purpose to examine why through examining the main users, the internal auditors` attitudes towards the concept. This study has applied a qualitative approach with the help of semi-structured interviews with internal auditors. The interviews and the analysis have been formed by previous literature and conducted research on internal auditing, continuous auditing and also theory about technology adoption. For instance, the results of this study were that internal auditors are willing to adopt similar concepts and are feeling the need to implement such. However, it is unclear whether the users should be internal auditors.

Submitted by Daniele Santos (danielesantos.htl@gmail.com) on 2015-12-22T16:29:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Del Pilar.pdf: 7485846 bytes, checksum: 99d9725cbf08a39b8b4899ca0d8f88e1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2015-12-29T13:05:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Del Pilar.pdf: 7485846 bytes, checksum: 99d9725cbf08a39b8b4899ca0d8f88e1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2016-01-07T12:04:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Del Pilar.pdf: 7485846 bytes, checksum: 99d9725cbf08a39b8b4899ca0d8f88e1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-07T12:05:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Del Pilar.pdf: 7485846 bytes, checksum: 99d9725cbf08a39b8b4899ca0d8f88e1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-10-28 / Nowadays there are many information technologies that can make a significant difference to support collaborative efforts in the workspace. The role of IT is to support group collaboration by empowering team members with the right capabilities. One way to assess capabilities is through a maturity model. This paper proposes a first version of the Collaboration-Technology Maturity model (CTMM), aiming to serve as a strategic instrument for IT managers to control and manage the adoption of Collaboration Technologies (CITs) among their organizations. Our contribution is both theoretical and practical as we propose a descriptive maturity model. Nevertheless, it is also an application method and assessment instruments. We also completed an empirical evaluation by conducting 89 assessments at Latin American companies of all sizes and industries. This extensive field exercise allowed us to not only evaluate the usefulness of the model and instruments but also investigate CIT adoption patterns in Latin America in an attempt to collect historical data to further evolve CTMM into a comparative model. Responses were used to provide conclusions on CIT adoption in Latin America with respect to three specific backgrounds: the country of origin (region), size (in number of employees) and industry type. The implications of our findings are discussed for practitioners and researchers.

D. Tech. (Logistics, Faculty of Management Science), Vaal University of Technology / The strategic importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their role in stimulating economic growth and competitiveness in many countries are well documented in literature. The same applies to South Africa, where the SME sector has grown tremendously to become an important contributor to social and economic development through employment creation and constant input to the gross domestic product. However, in spite of these contributions, South African SMEs face numerous challenges, which negatively impact their prospects for growth and success. Some of these challenges include the limited access to financial capital, the lack of infrastructure and the lack of skills, which play a significant role in the high mortality rate of SMEs. One of the proposed solutions to address these operational challenges is the adoption of supply chain management strategies to strengthen the operational and long-term capabilities of SMEs. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between supply chain management best practices, supply chain agility, risk management and supply chain performance in South African SMEs. The study applied a quantitative approach in which a cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data to test direct and indirect relationships between different constructs (buyer-supplier collaboration, supply chain integration, total quality management, IT adoption, supply chain agility, supply chain risk management and supply chain performance). A structured survey questionnaire was developed using adapted measurement scales and administered to 407 randomly selected SME owners, managers and professional employees who had some knowledge about supply chain management. The collected quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS version 24.0) and the Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS version 24.0) statistical software. The actual data analyses techniques applied included descriptive statistics and inferential statistics using structural equation modelling. The latter included a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to test the psychometric properties of measurement scales and the testing of the six hypotheses using the path analyses technique. The results of the study showed positive and significant relationships between all supply chain management practices and supply chain agility. Specifically, buyer-supplier collaboration and total quality management exerted a moderate and significant influence on supply chain agility. Moreover, IT adoption had a strong positive and significant relationship with supply chain agility iv while supply chain integration had a weak but significant relationship with the same factor. More results provided from the analysis confirmed the existence of a very strong and significant relationship between supply chain agility and supply chain risk management. In turn, supply chain risk management had a strong positive relationship with supply chain performance. The study also takes note of its contributions to highlight its merits. From a theoretical perspective, it provides an in-depth examination of some driving factors to supply chain agility, supply chain risk management and supply chain performance within SMEs. Given that a study of this nature has not been performed before amongst South African SMEs, the results are an essential addition to the existing body of literature within the area of supply chain management within SMEs in developing countries such as South Africa. From a management perspective, the study suggests that specific attention should be directed to all of the four supply chain management practices (buyer-supplier collaboration, supply chain integration, IT adoption and total quality management) considered as possible avenues to address operational challenges in SMEs.

Enterprise Information Portals (EIPs) have become crucial components in contemporary organisations, including universities. Campus portals (CPs) have found their way into the academic environment and universities are increasingly implementing these technologies. While there are many studies concerning EIPs in organisations, there are few studies that touch this issue in the academic environment. This study investigates factors affecting the adoption, implementation and utilisation of CPs from the implementers’ and users’ perspectives. It adopts a comparative approach based on multiple case studies in some Saudi and UK universities. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and documentation, which was analysed using hermeneutics and other qualitative data analysis techniques. Findings show that adoption and implementation of CPs are affected by factors including: technological, organisational, environmental, financial, innovation and user-related factors. Results from the users perspective reveal that although CPs are perceived to be useful in terms of accessing information and services, there are many concerns related to system, content and service quality. Moreover, the study has identified two main gaps between users and the implementers: a communication gap and an expectations gap. Consequently, users complained about a lack of user involvement and poor communication. Findings are interpreted using elements from institutional theory. Development of CPs is affected by many institutional factors such as coercive, mimetic, normative and competitive pressures. Furthermore, the introduction of CPs could lead to a clash of institutional logics among various stakeholders. Institutional arguments are likely to arise between portal teams and other campus constituents such as service providers and users. This study has three major contributions. First, it used institutional theory to investigate CPs adoption and implementation. As a result, it extends the line of research on the use of this theory to study IS in organisations. Second, it responds to calls from other IS researchers to study portals by conducting in-depth field investigation using qualitative research. Third, it addresses issues related to the development of bilingual portals in universities.

In recent years, IT has come to play an important role in companies. So successful execution of business processes often depends on mission-critical IT-solutions. Managing such IT is challenging. Companies have to keep up with rapid developments, but also consider long-term consequences while doing so. How do they survive in the long run without surrendering in the short run? What should be done in-house? What should be bought from external providers? How should they allocate scarce IT resources? This book answers these questions on the basis of four cases from the financial industry. After describing and analyzing IT portfolios, it investigates the questions of sourcing and technology adoption. Finally, it explores the relationship between mission-critical IT and business operations. The study suggests different ways of analyzing the role applications play in a company rather than the applications themselves. The character of an application may be in the eye of the beholder. Framing applications from both business and IT perspectives is also important, especially in information intensive companies. The Resource Allocation Matrix provides a tool for characterizing four types of IT-management efforts: agile action, firefighting, business transformation and platform construction. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2003

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors influencing information and computing technology (ICT) adoption for Omani faculty members from a framework of Rogers' theory of diffusion of innovation. Three hundred Omani faculty members from Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) participated in the study. The survey consisted of five parts: (a) an 18-item questionnaire on ICT uses and skills, (b) a 1-item questionnaire on adopter category, (c) a 44-item self-constructed questionnaire on perception of barriers to adopting ICT, (d) a 50-item questionnaire on ICT attributes adapted from Moore and Benbasat, and (e) a 15-item questionnaire on demographic and job-related variables. Descriptive statistics indicated that the faculty members overall used ICT at the "Sometimes" level and had ICT skills at the "Intermediate" level. The most frequently used and skillful ICT functional areas were Website browsing, Internet search engine, and word processing. One-way ANOVAs found significant group differences of ICT uses and skills, perception of barriers, and perception of ICT attributes in the category of adopter. Early adopters used ICT more, had higher ICT skills, perceived fewer barriers in the adopting process, and recognized higher values of ICT attributes than later adopters did. Multiple regression analysis showed the level of ICT uses could be predicted by ICT skills, adopter category, perception of barriers, ICT attributes, and the selected demographic and job-rated background variables, to a large magnitude with an adjusted R2 value of .70. The level of ICT skills was the most salient predictor. Perception of ICT attributes and the number of traditional classes taught appeared to be important as well. Results supported Rogers' theory at the macro level but not at the micro level.

Diese kumulative Dissertation leistet einen Erklärungsbeitrag zu der Frage der theoretischen Beziehung zwischen der Informationstechnologie-(IT-)Governance und der Adoption von IT-basierten Innovationen auf Organisationsebene. IT-Governance kann in diesem Zusammenhang als der Ort der Verantwortungshoheit für IT-Entscheidungen verstanden werden. Adoption bezieht sich auf die Aneignung einer technologischen Innovation durch eine Organisation. Zwei übergeordnete Forschungsfragen leiten diese Dissertation: (1) Wie beeinflusst die Form der IT-Governance die Aneignung neuer Technologien, und umgekehrt (2) wie beeinflussen neue Technologien die Form der IT-Governance? Hinsichtlich Forschungsfrage (1) wurden vier Studien zu Innovationen im Mobile Government durchgeführt, d.h. zu der Nutzung von mobilen Technologien im öffentlichen Sektor mit dem Ziel Verwaltungsdienstleistungen und interne Prozesse zu verbessern. In Bezug auf Forschungsfrage (2) wurde in weiteren vier Studien die Aneignung von Unternehmenssoftware as a Service (SaaS), d.h. die Nutzung von Geschäftsanwendungen als webbasierte Dienste, untersucht. Zusammenfassend gibt diese Dissertation Aufschluss darüber, wie IT-Governance und entsprechende Mechanismen die Innovativität in bestimmten organisationalen Kontexten begünstigen können (in öffentlichen Verwaltungen z.B. durch die Verknüpfung von organisationalen und technologischen Verantwortlichkeiten) und umgekehrt wie die Form der IT-Governance selbst durch das Aufkommen von technologischen Neuerungen (z.B. durch externe Bereitstellungsmodelle wie SaaS) umgestaltet wird bzw. werden muss. Methodisch demonstriert diese Arbeit den Reichtum, der durch den wechselnden Einsatz von qualitativen und quantitativen Ansätzen erzielt werden kann. Abschließend werden eine Reihe von Implikationen für IT-Entscheider in öffentlichen und privatwirtschaftlichen Kontexten aufgezeigt. / This cumulative dissertation contributes to the question of the theoretical relationship between information technology (IT) governance and the adoption of IT-based innovations. IT governance has been described specifically as the locus of responsibility for IT functions within organizations. Innovation adoption in this context refers to the decision of an organization to make use of a technological innovation. Two principal research questions (RQ) guide this dissertation: (1) how does the mode of IT governance influence adoption of new technologies, and conversely (2) how does the adoption of new technologies affect organizational IT governance? In order to address RQ1, I conducted four studies in a public sector context regarding innovations in Mobile Government referring to the use of mobile technology to improve government services and internal processes. Regarding RQ2, I investigated the adoption of enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) in four further studies. In this context, it is hypothesized that for some applications SaaS-based provision leads to a ‘governance shift’ of IT responsibilities from IT towards business units. In summary, this dissertation sheds light on the question of how IT governance and its mechanisms can foster innovativeness in certain contexts (e.g., through aligning organizational and technological responsibilities in public sector organizations), and conversely how the mode of IT governance itself can be shaped by the emergence of new technological innovations (e.g., external delivery models such as SaaS). Methodologically, this work demonstrates the richness provided by alternating between qualitative and quantitative empirical approaches. Finally, a number of relevant practical implications for IT decision makers in governmental and entrepreneurial contexts are outlined.