Editorial

Citation

Irani, Z. and Dwivedi, Y. (2012), "Editorial", Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 25 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim.2012.08825aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Volume 25, Issue 1

It gives us great pleasure to welcome our readers to the first issue of the volume 25 of Journal Enterprise Information Management (JEIM), and express our appreciation to them for their continuous support and acknowledgment during the preceding years. The continuous update of the journal’s scope to promote theory and practice has led to an increase in regular research paper submissions. These two issues incorporate quality submissions focusing on providing a mixture of conjectural and practical contributions.

The first issue of volume 25 commences with a research paper by Maqsood Sandhu and Mian Ajmal, entitled “The adoption of ICT in project-based and traditional organisations: evidence from Finnish and Swedish companies’. Their research investigates the adoption of electronic communication tools and seeks to shed more light on diffusion. A challenging task for project-based (PBO) and traditional business organisations (TBO). The authors collected data through three surveys, one total population survey in the Finnish and Swedish house building industries representing traditional business organisations, together with a focused and a total population survey in project-based organisations. The empirical findings illustrate a difference in attitude between the employees of TBOs and PBOs. In addition to these findings, the authors also reported that electronic document management and scheduling were more prominent among PBOs, because these firms exhibit more inter-organisational communication. Despite these results, the findings are limited to the context of project-based and traditional business organisations. The authors in this research emphasise that PBOs make more inter-firm collaboration efforts and thus, require more extensive communication systems for inter-organisational links. Based on this argument, the authors assert that further research is needed in other industries to validate the present research findings. In analysing the use of ICT in organisations, the authors identified the type of e-communication tools that are more tightly coupled with the management and the ways in which firms can benefit from these tools for organisational governance. The authors claim that this research is one of the few studies to examine the uses of ICT in a PBO and TBO context and especially in Finnish and Swedish background.

The above research paper is followed by Umesh Gulla and M. P. Gupta, entitled “Deciding the level of information systems outsourcing: proposing a framework and validation with three Indian banks”. The authors in this paper recommend a framework that would guide the practicing manager to decide the degree of IS outsourcing. This framework is derived from the findings of a previous empirical study and qualitative inputs. Thereafter, the authors employ the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique to apply the framework. The framework has been validated in three India-based banks. This framework supports the strategic alignment between the business strategy and information system strategy. The authors claim that the application of framework illustrates managers’ preferences towards high IS outsourcing. From their empirical findings, the authors accentuate that strategic alignment and medium term impact emerged as the key factors in IS outsourcing. The authors further claim the validity of their proposed framework by testing their framework in three local Indian banks. However, there are some limitations in this research i.e. the validation exercise was based on a small sample due to resources constraints, thus a study involving a larger sample is desired. The authors also recommend reconsidering the framework on regular intervals and making appropriate changes in decision factors. Despite the limitations, the authors assert that the framework will prove helpful to managers in identifying the critical factors in the IS outsourcing process, which can act as useful inputs in taking informed decisions on the degree of IS outsourcing to adopt. With regards to novelty in this research paper, the authors allege that this research fills a gap by suggesting a practice-oriented framework that will guide the decision-makers to undertake a systematic and structured approach in arriving at outsourcing decision.

Then we have a research paper by Maditinos et al., entitled “Factors affecting ERP system implementation effectiveness”. The authors propose a conceptual framework that investigates the way that human inputs are associated with communication effectiveness, conflict resolution and knowledge transfer in the ERP consulting process including the effects of these factors on ERP system effective implementation. The authors validated the proposed conceptual framework through a questionnaire base survey, distributed to a group of Greek companies that have implemented an ERP system. The empirical data were analysed using the “structural equation modelling” technique. The main findings illustrate that the assistance provided by external consultants during the ERP implementation process is more essential than from the top management. Knowledge transfer is an extremely significant factor for ERP system success, knowledge transfer concerning technical aspects of ERP systems is more important than effective handling of communication, and conflict resolution among organisational members. Lastly, the role of top management support seems to be of less importance that the one provided by users. Despite the results, the present study is limited to poor definition of its population and the relatively smaller sample size. The paper illustrates that adopting companies should emphasize in order to successfully implement an ERP system and, therefore, harvest its potential benefits. The authors claim that their conceptual framework examines vital issues concerning ERP system effective implementation, thus, providing valuable outcomes for decision makers and academics. Additionally, the authors thoroughly examined the contribution of “people” in ERP implementation, arguing that people decide the success and/or failure of the ERP system.

The last paper of this issue is by Jackson and Smith, entitled “Retrieving relevant information: traditional file systems versus tagging”. In a business context, the authors investigate and clarify whether tagging is a more effective method of discovering relevant information when compared to traditional hierarchical filing systems. In so doing, a five-step interpretive hybrid approach of using a focus group, questionnaires and SWOT analysis was used to test the proof of concept of tagging files compared to a traditional hierarchical filing system. The participants were encouraged to use the questionnaires and the SWOT analysis to record their thoughts anonymously whilst the focus groups allowed elaboration and discussion to help understand the true feelings and thoughts of the group collaboratively. The authors empirically illustrate that the traditional hierarchical filing systems can lead to the retrieval of irrelevant information or to none at all, even though the information exists. This study has shown that tagging could provide a cost-effective solution by providing a better structured filing system that can help reduce duplication and the retrieval of irrelevant information. This research work is limited by the lesser number of participants from just one organisation. Thus, generalisation from this study to the wider population must be done with great care. With regards to consequences on practice, the organisations should evaluate the functionality of their chosen operating system and Information Store software in light of the potential benefits offered by tagging, and costly limitations of traditional file stores. The authors claim to contribute to the information retrieval and information overload literature by studying the affect tagging files has on an organisation. It provides an insight to the future of filing systems for management and triggers future empirical work into reducing information overload in the workplace.

Zahir IraniEditorYogesh DwivediAssistant Editor