According to previous studies, attitude towards information technology (IT) among small business owners appears to be a key factor in achieving high quality IT implementations. In an effort to extend this stream of research, we conducted case studies with small business owners and learned that high quality IT implementations resulted with owners who had positive or negative attitudes toward IT, but not with owners who had uncertain attitudes. Owners with a polar attitude, either positive or negative, all took action to temper the uncertainty and risk surrounding the use of new IT in their organization. In contrast, owners with uncertain attitudes did not make mitigating attempts to reduce uncertainty and risk. A consistent finding among those with high quality IT implementations was an entrepreneurial, or shared, management style. It is proposed, based on case study data, that small business owners with an uncertain attitude towards IT might experience higher quality IT results in their organizations through practicing a more entrepreneurial, or shared, management style. The study provides insights for both computer specialists and small business owners planning IT implementations.
The use of information technology in health care fields is often touted as a way to lower the spiraling costs of health care while making it more accessible to both patient and physician. Faced with increasing government regulations and eroding profit margins, Blocker Medical ~ssociates' has made a bold decision to implement an electronic medical record and reengineer its office work processes. This case follows Blocker Medical Associates' journey through the first stage of a three-stage electronic medical record implementation model. Additionally, this case focuses on the physicians' interactions and resistance to the adoption of electronic medical records.
Markus and Benjamin (1996) proposed a change agentry model that identifies three change agent roles for the information system (IS) specialist: the traditional, the facilitator, and the advocator. This study explores these roles for IS consultants who are engaged as independent contractors by small businesses. Presented here is a field study of twenty-five cases to test these three roles. In general, the results of the study suggest that IS consultants' view themselves as change agents and can identify a role that they prefer to follow. Key relationships emerged between the change agent role selected by an IS consultant for an engagement and the quality of the IS implementation. A main finding indicates that the advocator role model is most effective when resistance to change is encountered. The study concludes with suggestions to help IS consultants improve their effectiveness as change agents, such as acquiring the broader type of skills to adopt an advocator role and attaining the flexibility to follow different change agent roles.
This paper reports on a survey of literature on the implementation of information technology (IT), primarily in small businesses. The result of this survey is the identification of key factors that impact an IT implementation, with a special focus on the infusion stage. Infusion is the last stage of a suggested IT implementation model. This stage, representing IT implementation success, is important because studies show that increasing the depth and breadth of IT penetration into a small business should lead to increased efficiency and effectiveness. From this literature review, we develop a conceptual model showing how the infusion stage is evaluated using a stepwise scheme of analysis. The model is an extension of the Ein-Dor and Segev model originally used to evaluate management information systems and later, end-user computing.
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