Information systems (IS) evaluation is a dif cult problem in both theory and practice. While theoreticians are moving away from a positivistic approach towards a more interpretive approach, organizations are adopting a more entrepreneurial approach. We examine such a move through a case study of a large utility company in the UK which was relatively unsuccessful in its attempts at improving the evaluation of its IS. This paper uses an interpretive approach to explain the lack of success in introducing the new entrepreneurial evaluation procedures. However, we argue that the failure was not so much due to a lack of understanding of evaluation but more due to a failure to appreciate and support the necessary organizational changes.
Information systems evaluation has strong social and organizational dimensions while existing research focuses primarily on the formal and positivistic characteristics. We investigate the organizational roles of the key stakeholders within the particular evaluation context (orientation). We focus on four evaluation orientations: control, sense-making, learning and exploratory. Experience from a case study is used to analyse these concepts and relations. The case organization attempted to move from a state of an ad-hoc evaluation practice to a more business-driven one. New tools, processes, roles and responsibilities were developed during the attempt. We examine the behavioural and organizational integration aspects of evaluation during that journey.
Based on a postal survey and interviews, this paper analyses employee empowerment in the UK manufacturing industry, including how it is pursued and perceived, and the key factors that determine success. Success seems to depend on far-reaching changes in procedures, hierarchies and reward structures. This need to mobilise individual agents and structure reconfirms the agency-structure duality.
This study examines the importance of the Internet as a distribution channel for mediumsized and small accommodation enterprises, identifying the characteristics that could make the Internet a source of competitive advantage. From the resource-based view, online visibility is considered a differentiating factor in the accommodation business, able to produce superior organisational performance through the capture of new clients and by increasing the occupancy rate. The hypotheses are evaluated using regression models with data from small-and medium-sized hotels in Spain available in the public database SABI. The results show a positive effect of online visibility on organisational performance, although explaining only 10% of performance variance. However, online visibility is a determinant for the percentage of reservations made via the Internet.
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