Corporations are actively pursuing business model innovation and organizational agility in the quest for sustainable competitive advantage in today??s global marketplace. The paradigm of service-oriented computing (SOC) has emerged as a popular approach to flexibility and agility, not just in systems development but also in business process management. The associated concept of service-oriented architecture (SOA) enables the defining of business flows as technology independent services, potentially providing avenues for agility in business process transformation. This architectural concept is growing in popularity and is being rapidly adopted by industry organizations. Studies of the practical impacts of adopting SOA are crucial because it involves a non-trivial and expensive overhaul of both business and technology infrastructures. There is, however, a paucity of critical research on the adoption of SOA. What is needed is a focus on the study of the real-world adoption of SOA across the enterprise and the factors that aid or impede such adoptions. This research examines the organizational use of SOA, both analytically and empirically through case studies, and posits a diffusion framework for the adoption and implementation of SOA as an enterprise strategy. The SOA Diffusion Framework addresses the following key areas ?? the organizational factors influencing the decision to adopt SOA, the organizational aspects of adopting and implementing SOA, and the outcomes or realized benefits of implementing SOA across the enterprise. For researchers, this study (i) fills a crucial knowledge gap because there is little empirical evidence of the practical use of SOA, (ii) adds to the innovation diffusion literature, (iii) introduces a tool to assess the organizational impact of SOA, and (iv) provides direction for future research into the organizational factors relating to the enterprise adoption of service-orientation. For practitioners, this study provides an adoption framework and a set of guidelines to help implement SOA successfully across the enterprise.

Corporations are actively pursuing business model innovation and organizational agility in the quest for sustainable competitive advantage in today??s global marketplace. The paradigm of service-oriented computing (SOC) has emerged as a popular approach to flexibility and agility, not just in systems development but also in business process management. The associated concept of service-oriented architecture (SOA) enables the defining of business flows as technology independent services, potentially providing avenues for agility in business process transformation. This architectural concept is growing in popularity and is being rapidly adopted by industry organizations. Studies of the practical impacts of adopting SOA are crucial because it involves a non-trivial and expensive overhaul of both business and technology infrastructures. There is, however, a paucity of critical research on the adoption of SOA. What is needed is a focus on the study of the real-world adoption of SOA across the enterprise and the factors that aid or impede such adoptions. This research examines the organizational use of SOA, both analytically and empirically through case studies, and posits a diffusion framework for the adoption and implementation of SOA as an enterprise strategy. The SOA Diffusion Framework addresses the following key areas ?? the organizational factors influencing the decision to adopt SOA, the organizational aspects of adopting and implementing SOA, and the outcomes or realized benefits of implementing SOA across the enterprise. For researchers, this study (i) fills a crucial knowledge gap because there is little empirical evidence of the practical use of SOA, (ii) adds to the innovation diffusion literature, (iii) introduces a tool to assess the organizational impact of SOA, and (iv) provides direction for future research into the organizational factors relating to the enterprise adoption of service-orientation. For practitioners, this study provides an adoption framework and a set of guidelines to help implement SOA successfully across the enterprise.

A falta da qualidade da informação resulta em prejuízos para as organizações. No entanto, a mensuração desses prejuízos é uma tarefa complexa e, muitas vezes, não é do interesse das organizações. Apesar de várias pesquisas de abrangência global sobre qualidade da informação confirmarem seu impacto sobre o desempenho organizacional, muitas das organizações que atuam no Brasil parecem não estar interessadas na gestão da qualidade da informação de maneira formal. Do ponto de vista acadêmico, há que se definir indicadores apropriados para a mensuração dos impactos da qualidade da informação sobre as organizações, bem como, contextualizar essas medidas de forma a propiciar sua generalização. O objetivo desta pesquisa é, portanto, evidenciar que a qualidade da informação impacta o desempenho de organizações que atuam no Brasil e indicar parâmetros que possam moderar essa relação. A medida de impacto organizacional foca o nível individual, para que seja possível avaliar quais características do knowledge worker e de seu ambiente de trabalho interferem na sua percepção da qualidade da informação e do desempenho de seu trabalho. O estudo é de natureza descritiva, portanto, os construtos utilizados são conhecidos e anteriormente validados. No entanto, o arranjo desses construtos e a utilização de variáveis externas, que podem influenciar na relação entre qualidade da informação e impacto individual percebidos são o diferencial desta pesquisa. A unidade de pesquisa é o indivíduo que trabalha em uma organização e utiliza, no mínimo, um sistema de informação para realizar o seu trabalho. Foi realizada pesquisa de levantamento social, por meio de questionário eletrônico autoaplicado, em duas organizações atuantes no Estado do Paraná. A análise dos dados se deu por modelamento de equações estruturais, com a utilização de análise multigrupos. Os resultados confirmam a relação positiva direta da qualidade da informação sobre os impactos individuais e apontam para possíveis variáveis moderadoras dessa relação. A complementação futura desta pesquisa pode-se dar com a avaliação de organizações de diferentes setores econômicos e com a inclusão de outras variáveis externas que diferenciem melhor os indivíduos que atuam nas organizações. / Low-quality information negatively impacts organizational performance. However, the measurement of such impacts is a complex task which not all the organizations perceive as worthwhile accomplishing. Although many worldwide researches about information quality confirm its impact over organizational performance, many organizations that operate in Brazil seem not to be interested in managing information quality. Concerning academic research, it is necessary to define proper indicators to measure the organizational impacts of information quality, considering contextual characteristics. The aim of this research is to confirm that information quality impacts organizational performance of organizations operating in Brazil and show which external variables may moderate this relationship. In this research organizational impact is measured at the individual level, in order that it is possible to define which personal and workplace characteristics influence knowledge workers perception of information quality and individual performance. This research is descriptive and the constructs used are known and previously validated. However, the research model, that includes external variables that may influence the relationship between perceived information quality and individual impact, has never been proposed nor validated by other researchers. The research unit is the individual that work in organizations and use at least one information system to do his job. A survey using self employed electronic questionnaire was applied to two large organizations that operate in Paraná State. Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the data. The results confirmed the positive influence of information quality over individual impacts and suggested possible moderators of that relationship. Future studies could include the evaluation of organizations operating in different industries and could test other external variables tha differentiate the individuals better.

A falta da qualidade da informação resulta em prejuízos para as organizações. No entanto, a mensuração desses prejuízos é uma tarefa complexa e, muitas vezes, não é do interesse das organizações. Apesar de várias pesquisas de abrangência global sobre qualidade da informação confirmarem seu impacto sobre o desempenho organizacional, muitas das organizações que atuam no Brasil parecem não estar interessadas na gestão da qualidade da informação de maneira formal. Do ponto de vista acadêmico, há que se definir indicadores apropriados para a mensuração dos impactos da qualidade da informação sobre as organizações, bem como, contextualizar essas medidas de forma a propiciar sua generalização. O objetivo desta pesquisa é, portanto, evidenciar que a qualidade da informação impacta o desempenho de organizações que atuam no Brasil e indicar parâmetros que possam moderar essa relação. A medida de impacto organizacional foca o nível individual, para que seja possível avaliar quais características do knowledge worker e de seu ambiente de trabalho interferem na sua percepção da qualidade da informação e do desempenho de seu trabalho. O estudo é de natureza descritiva, portanto, os construtos utilizados são conhecidos e anteriormente validados. No entanto, o arranjo desses construtos e a utilização de variáveis externas, que podem influenciar na relação entre qualidade da informação e impacto individual percebidos são o diferencial desta pesquisa. A unidade de pesquisa é o indivíduo que trabalha em uma organização e utiliza, no mínimo, um sistema de informação para realizar o seu trabalho. Foi realizada pesquisa de levantamento social, por meio de questionário eletrônico autoaplicado, em duas organizações atuantes no Estado do Paraná. A análise dos dados se deu por modelamento de equações estruturais, com a utilização de análise multigrupos. Os resultados confirmam a relação positiva direta da qualidade da informação sobre os impactos individuais e apontam para possíveis variáveis moderadoras dessa relação. A complementação futura desta pesquisa pode-se dar com a avaliação de organizações de diferentes setores econômicos e com a inclusão de outras variáveis externas que diferenciem melhor os indivíduos que atuam nas organizações. / Low-quality information negatively impacts organizational performance. However, the measurement of such impacts is a complex task which not all the organizations perceive as worthwhile accomplishing. Although many worldwide researches about information quality confirm its impact over organizational performance, many organizations that operate in Brazil seem not to be interested in managing information quality. Concerning academic research, it is necessary to define proper indicators to measure the organizational impacts of information quality, considering contextual characteristics. The aim of this research is to confirm that information quality impacts organizational performance of organizations operating in Brazil and show which external variables may moderate this relationship. In this research organizational impact is measured at the individual level, in order that it is possible to define which personal and workplace characteristics influence knowledge workers perception of information quality and individual performance. This research is descriptive and the constructs used are known and previously validated. However, the research model, that includes external variables that may influence the relationship between perceived information quality and individual impact, has never been proposed nor validated by other researchers. The research unit is the individual that work in organizations and use at least one information system to do his job. A survey using self employed electronic questionnaire was applied to two large organizations that operate in Paraná State. Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the data. The results confirmed the positive influence of information quality over individual impacts and suggested possible moderators of that relationship. Future studies could include the evaluation of organizations operating in different industries and could test other external variables tha differentiate the individuals better.

This study examined Kirkpatrick’s training evaluation model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2006) by assessing a sales training program conducted at an organization in the hospitality industry. The study assessed the employees’ training outcomes of knowledge and skills, job performance, and the impact of the training upon the organization. By assessing these training outcomes and their relationships, the study demonstrated whether Kirkpatrick’s theories are supported and the lower evaluation levels can be used to predict organizational impact. The population for this study was a group of reservations sales agents from a leading luxury hotel chain’s reservations center. During the study period from January 2005 to May 2007, there were 335 reservations sales agents employed in this Global Reservations Center (GRC). The number of reservations sales agents who had completed a sales training program/intervention during this period and had data available for at least two months pre and post training composed the sample for this study. The number of agents was 69 (N = 69). Four hypotheses were tested through paired-samples t tests, correlation, and hierarchical regression analytic procedures. Results from the analyses supported the hypotheses in this study. The significant improvement in the call score supported hypothesis one that the reservations sales agents who completed the training improved their knowledge of content and required skills in handling calls (Level 2). Hypothesis two was accepted in part as there was significant improvement in call conversion, but there was no significant improvement of time usage. The significant improvement in the sales per call supported hypothesis three that the reservations agents who completed the training contributed to increased organizational impact (Level 4), i.e., made significantly more sales. Last, findings supported hypothesis four that Level 2 and Level 3 variables can be used for predicting Level 4 organizational impact. The findings supported the theory of Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model that in order to expect organizational results, a positive change in behavior (job performance) and learning must occur. The examinations of Levels 2 and 3 helped to partially explain and predict Level 4 results.

Organizations make large investments in Information Systems (IS) expecting positive impacts to the organisation and its functions. Yet, there exists much controversy surrounding the 'potential' impacts of these systems, with some studies reporting broadly positive impacts of IS across organizations (Barua, Kriebel and Mukhopadhyay 1995; Barua and Lee 1997; Brynjolfsson and Hitt 1996; Lehr and Lichtenberg 1999; Mukherjee, Ray and Miller 2001), while others have shown nil or detrimental impacts (Attewell and Rule 1984; Brynjolfsson and Yang 1996; Cameron and Quinn 1988; Wilson 1993). Various authors have suggested that these conflicting results may be due to poor measurement - E.g. incomplete or inappropriate measures of success (DeLone and McLean 1992; Gable 1996; Melone 1990), lack of theoretical grounding and hence agreement on appropriate measures of success (Bonner 1995; Myers, Kappelman and Prybutok 1998), myopic focus on financial performance indicators (Ballantine, Bonner, Levy, Martin, Munro and Powell 1996; Kaplan and Norton 1996), weaknesses in survey instruments employed (Gable, Sedera and Chan 2003) (e.g., constructs lacking in validity), or (5) inappropriate data collection approach (Seddon, Staples, Patnayakuni and Bowtell 1999; Sedera and Gable 2004) (e.g., asking the wrong people, unrepresentative sample). Enterprise Systems (ES) have over the past decade emerged to be one of the most important developments in the corporate use of information technology. Anecdotal evidence reveals discontent with these large application software packages. Yet Enterprise System investments are seldom systematically evaluated post-implementation; the review process and measures typically being idiosyncratic and lacking credibility. Impacts resulting from 'Enterprise Systems' are particularly difficult to measure, with an Enterprise System entailing many users ranging from top executives to data entry operators; many applications that span the organization; and a diversity of capabilities and functionality. Despite the substantial investments made by organizations and the anecdotal evidence of discontent, systematic attempts to measure their success have been few. The primary objective of this research is to develop and test a standardized instrument for measuring ES-Success. Other related objectives of this research include: (1) to identify the dimensions and measures of ES-Success, (2) to validate a maximally generalizable measurement model and survey instrument for gauging ES-Success; (3) to develop an understanding of the state of Enterprise Systems using descriptive/comparative statistics, and (4) to identify and test an antecedent of ES-Success. With the above objectives, and in attention to the weaknesses identified in past IS-success research, this study follows and extends the 'research cycle' guidelines of Mackenzie and House (1979) and McGrath (1979). The research cycle entails two main phases: (1) an exploratory phase to develop the hypothesized measurement model, and (2) a confirmatory phase, to test the hypothesized measurement model against new data. The two surveys (termed as identification-survey and specification-survey) conducted in the exploratory phase of this research go beyond the activities recommended by Mackenzie and House (1979) and McGrath (1979). A third "confirmation-survey" was completed in the confirmatory phase of the research cycle. The three surveys gathered and analyzed data from six hundred (600) respondents. The purpose of the identification-survey was to discover the salient ES-Success dimensions and measures to include in an a-priori ES-Success model. Data from 137 respondents representing 27 Australian State Government Agencies that had implemented SAP R/3 in the late 1990s were analyzed. The analysis of identification-survey data yielded an a-priori model with 41 measures of 5 dimensions of ES-Success that provide a holistic view across the organization from strategic to operational levels. The specification-survey was employed to validate the a-priori ES-Success measurement model derived in the preceding identification-survey. Employing 310 responses from the same 27 public sector organizations, exploratory data analysis validated 27 measures of success pertaining to the 4 dimensions: information quality, system quality, individual impact and organizational impact. Data for testing the influence of an antecedent of ES-Success was simultaneously gathered during the specification-survey. This analysis, based on the Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST), investigated the influence of Knowledge Management Structures Adequacy (KMSA) on ES-Success. Preliminary results indicate a strong relationship between the Knowledge Management Structures Adequacy and ES-Success. The purpose of the confirmation-survey was to further validate the dimensions and measures of the ES-Success model, using new data, employing confirmatory statistical techniques. Data was gathered from 153 respondents across a large University that had implemented the Oracle Enterprise System, which facilitated further construct validity of the ES-Success measurement instrument was further established using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).

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