As more and more companies are deploying, or plan to deploy, information systems, the organizational capabilities to effectively deploy information technologies to support and shape businesses become increasingly important. While many studies have focused on how to acquire state-of-the-art information technologies and on how to effectively utilize implemented information technologies, more studies are still needed to investigate how a company can successfully deploy acquired information technologies to support and shape businesses strategies and value chain activities. IT deployment capabilities are defined as the organizational capabilities to configure and reconfigure a company's information system by adding new IT components or by adapting the existing information systems in order to make the whole information system available to support and shape businesses. This study identifies and investigates the three building blocks of IT deployment capabilities: strategic IT flexibility, business-IT partnership, and business-IT alignment. Using the resourcebased view, we propose a framework to explain the relationship between IT deployment capabilities and competitive advantage. The research model is tested on data collected in China. Results show that strategic IT flexibility and business-IT partnership have direct impacts on competitive advantage, while business-IT alignment has an indirect impact on competitive advantage. The effect of business-IT alignment on competitive advantage is fully mediated by strategic IT flexibility and business-IT partnership. The results provide support for the relationship between IT deployment capabilities and competitive advantage. The study presents implications for how to develop IT deployment capabilities and how to generate business value from IT investment.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to further build up the knowledge about reasons for small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt open source enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Design/methodology/approach -The paper presents and analyses findings in articles about proprietary ERPs and open source ERPs. In addition, a limited investigation of the distribution channel SourceForge for open source is made. Findings -The cost perspective seems to receive a high attention regarding adoption of open source ERPs. This can be questioned and the main conclusion is that costs seem to have a secondary role in adoption or non adoption of open source ERPs.Research limitations/implications -The paper is mainly a conceptual paper written from a literature review. The ambition is to search support for the findings by doing more research in the area. Practical implications -The findings presented are of interest both for developers of proprietary ERPs as well as SMEs since it is shown that there are definitely reasons other than costs involved when deciding on proprietary ERPs or open source ERPs. Originality/value -It can be argued that there is a lack of research conducted and published about why SMEs choose open source ERPs instead of proprietary ERPs. This paper identifies the gap and suggests future research directions about this subject.

Abstract

Two new vectors are described, the expression vector pB3 PGK and the CRE recombinase vector pCRE3. The pB3 PGK has a zeocin-selectable marker flanked by loxP sequences and an expression cassette consisting of the strong PGK1 promoter and the GCY1 terminator. The S. cerevisiae genes RKI1, RPE1, TAL1 and TKL1 were cloned in pB3 PGK and integrated in the locus of the respective gene, resulting in overexpression of the genes. S. cerevisiae TMB 3026, simultaneously overexpressing the RKI1, RPE1, TAL1 and TKL1 genes, was created by successive integrations and removal of the loxPzeocin-loxP cassette using pCRE3. The 2m-based pCRE3 carries the aureobasidin A, zeocin and URA3 markers. pCRE3 proved to be easily cured without active counterselection. The zeocin marker is present on both the pB3 PGK and on pCRE3, so that screening for zeocin sensitivity indicates both chromosomal marker loss and loss of the pCRE3 vector. This feature saves time, since only one screening step is needed between successive chromosomal integrations. Marker recycling did not lead to increased zeocin resistance, indicating that the zeocin marker could be used for more than four rounds of transformation. The use of the CRE/loxP system proved to be a practical strategy to overexpress multiple genes without exhausting available markers.

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