| The Effect of Team Composition on Decision Scheme, Information Search, and Perceived Complexity | | BIBAK | 1-20 | |
| H. Raghav Rao; Joon M. An | |||
| This study assesses the effect of team composition on decision schemes,
perceived complexity, and external information search conducted during team
problem-solving processes. The study draws on a systematic review of relevant
literature in group psychology, organization behavior, and marketing science,
and it is followed by a quasi-experimental study for verification of the
propositions. The independent variable chosen is team composition: teams are
classified into "experienced" teams and "inexperienced" teams. The intervening
variables are external information search, decision schemes, and perceived
complexity. The study has implications for team decision support system
design. Keywords: Team composition, Decision scheme, Information search, Perceived complexity | |||
| EBT: A Tool for Electronic Brainstorming Researchers | | BIBAK | Web Page | 21-24 | |
| Danial L. Clapper | |||
| EBT is a stand-alone electronic brainstorming tool designed specifically for
researchers. It can be used for face-to-face as well as dispersed groups, and
will work in a typical college computer lab LAN environment. Its features
include anonymous and nonanonymous idea-generation modes, the ability to run
multiple simultaneous sessions, and the option of generating a session logfile
which indicates the originator and time of each idea generated during a
session. EBT is available to researchers on the Internet via anonymous ftp. Keywords: Electronic brainstorming, GSS, Group support systems, CMC, CSCW, Group
tools, EMS | |||
| Desktop Multimedia Conferencing: IBMs Person to Person in Organizational Context | | BIBAK | 25-29 | |
| Schahram Dustdar | |||
| A trend in cooperative systems is the emergence of multimedia systems that
aim to support synchronous cooperation in a manner which unifies both remote
and colocated users. These systems combine information-sharing facilities
provided in real time with video- and audiocommunication services. This review
of IBM's desktop multimedia conferencing system Person to Person (P2P) presents
the characteristics of its utilities. Further, it discusses some
organizational impacts and implementation issues within an organizational
context. Keywords: Desktop multimedia conferencing, Organizational design, Organizational
communication, CSCW | |||
| Dependent Variables for Organizational Computing Research: An Empirical Study | | BIBAK | 31-51 | |
| Clyde W. Holsapple; Wenhong Luo | |||
| An important area of organizational computing (OC) research involves
empirical evaluation of OC systems. However, there has been insufficient work
on identifying dependent variables that need to be measured to assess the
impacts of such systems. We have previously suggested a framework from which
various OC research models can be derived, each having five organization
infrastructure purposes as dependent variables. In this article, we report on
an empirical study conducted to verify that a) these five purposes are distinct
dimensions of organizational performance and that b) collectively, they
characterize the performance of an organization. The results show that the
five purposes are considered to be important, distinct, and comprehensive
factors in measuring organizational performance by management scholars. Keywords: Organizational computing, Organization infrastructure, Organizational
performance, Research methodology, Survey | |||
| The Role of Information Infrastructure and Intelligent Agents in Manufacturing Enterprises | | BIBAK | 53-67 | |
| Su-Shing Chen | |||
| Manufacturing is a complex application domain, traditionally a realm of
engineers and factory workers. As we are in the information age, the
manufacturing domain has become more dependent on information through the use
of computers and computer-controlled machines. In the arena of advanced
manufacturing, a number of concepts such as the "virtual corporation" and
"virtual factory" have emerged, requiring that manufacturing be highly
information-intensive and knowledge-based.
This article examines the role of the information infrastructure and explores the use of intelligent agents in its implementation for advanced manufacturing enterprises. The information infrastructure forms a complex hierarchy of distributed, heterogeneous information systems. Intelligent agents play various roles at different levels of the hierarchy to provide interoperability, reliability, programmability, and controllability. Keywords: Information infrastructure, Manufacturing enterprise, Intelligent agent | |||
| Introduction to the Special Issue: WITS'92 | | BIB | iii-iv | |
| Stuart E. Madnick; Veda C. Storey; Richard Y. Wang | |||
| Integrating Information from Global Systems: Dealing with the "On- and Off-Ramps" of the Information Superhighway | | BIBAK | 69-82 | |
| Stuart E. Madnick | |||
| The notion of an "information superhighway" has attracted considerable
attention. It offers the possibility to access information from around the
world in support of many important applications in areas such as finance,
manufacturing, and transportation (e.g., global risk management, integrated
supply chain management, and global in-transit visibility). Unfortunately,
there are significant challenges to be overcome. One particular problem is
context interchange, which can be thought of as dealing with the "on- and
off-ramps" of the information superhighway. Each source of information and
potential receiver of that information may operate with a different context. A
context is the collection of implicit assumptions about the context definition
(i.e., meaning) and context characteristics (i.e., quality) of the information.
When the information moves from one context to another, it may be
misinterpreted (e.g., sender expressed the price in French francs; receiver
assumed that it meant U.S. dollars). This article describes various forms of
context challenges and examples of potential context mediation services, such
as data semantics acquisition, data quality attributes, and evolving semantics
and quality, that can mitigate the problem. Keywords: Global systems, Information superhighway, Information integration,
Intelligent integration, Context interchange, Mediators, Data semantics, Data
quality | |||
| Message Management Systems at Work: Prototypes for Business Communication | | BIBAK | 83-100 | |
| Scott A. Moore; Steven O. Kimbrough | |||
| In this article, we describe two applications based on a system for office
communication that is more flexible and expressive than other systems. This
system allows the computerization of tasks that previously required manual
intervention because of each task's complexity. The applications, one
automating office tasks and the other simulating a bicycle industry, highlight
the system's ability to accommodate changes to the communication language.
They also highlight the utility of both the formal language used by the system
and the inferential model of communications used to interpret the messages. Keywords: Electronic commerce, Office automation, Speech act theory, Communication
tools, Electronic data interchange, Message management | |||
| A Qualitative Approach to Automatic Data Quality Judgment | | BIBAK | 101-121 | |
| Yeona Jang; Alexander T. Ishii; Richard Y. Wang | |||
| As the integration of information systems enables greater accessibility to
multiple data sources, the issue of data quality becomes increasingly
important. In general, data quality is determined by several factors, or
quality parameters, which are often not independent of each other. As a
consequence, it is often necessary to represent, and reason with,
domain-specific knowledge about the relationships among quality parameters, if
insightful judgments about the overall quality of data are to be made. This
article presents a formulation of the data-quality judgment problem that is
amenable to a "knowledge-based" approach, where a data consumer can input such
domain-specific knowledge and then rely on an automated system to deduce
information about overall data quality. A primary feature of this work is the
notion of a data quality calculus. The data quality calculus is a data quality
judgment framework based on a "census of needs," and provides a framework for
deriving an overall data quality value from a collection of local relationships
among quality parameters. By specifying new, or alternate, local
relationships, individual data consumers can tailor the framework to reflect
individual requirements. This customizability has the potential to be useful
when various pieces of data come from different sources, some of which may be
unfamiliar. Based on the calculus, it is possible to implement a data quality
reasoner system that is capable of assisting data consumers in judging data
quality. Keywords: Data quality, Total data quality management, Ontological modeling, System
design for data quality | |||
| Inference Channel Detection in Multilevel Relational Databases: A Graph-Based Approach | | BIBAK | 123-138 | |
| George T. Duncan; Ramayya Krishnan; Sumitra Mukherjee | |||
| In a multilevel relational (MLR) database, users are not allowed to access
data classified at a level higher than their own security classification.
However, it may be possible for a low-level user to infer high-level data.
This article provides methods to detect and eliminate such inference channels.
A graph-based representation of the database schema developed provides a
convenient method for inference channel detection by reducing the problem to
one of connectivity in the network. Inference channels are eliminated while
imposing minimum restrictions on legitimate access using an algorithm based on
minimum cut set identification. This approach is then extended to address the
problems of abductive and probabilistic inference channels. An abductive
inference channel is said to exist when information external to the database is
used in the inference process. By demonstrating that only arcs between nodes
in different strongly connected components may lead to abductive inference
channels, the complexity of the problem of abductive inference channel
detection is reduced. The uncertainty about the nature and extent of external
information used in the inference process is captured by assigning subjective
probabilities. Under the assumption of statistical independence, an algorithm
based on identification of paths bounded in length is developed that is
adequate for probabilistic inference channel detection. When this assumption
is relaxed, upper bounds on the probability of the existence of inference
channels is provided. Keywords: Database security, Multilevel relational databases, Network optimization | |||
| Modeling Time-Performance Trade-Offs in Federated Databases | | BIBAK | 139-166 | |
| Abhirup Chatterjee; Arie Segev; Rakesh Chandra | |||
| One of the key roles played by information technology is to increase
organizational productivity. However, an uncontrolled proliferation of
heterogeneous DBMSs can affect the user in an adverse way. Query processing
becomes a complicated problem in such an environment, as the same data item can
have conflicting definitions and values in different databases. We introduce
the Matching join for the heterogeneous environment where the tuples are
compared of and joined if they match, where matching can be defined by the
user's choice rules and weights. Matching joins are generally processing
intensive and can interfere with the performance of the individual databases.
The partitioning strategy introduced in this article can be used to reduce the
query processing cost. This approach can also be applied to the general types
of time-constrained queries. Keywords: Federated database, Database management system, Rules, Approximation, Join,
Graph theory, Weighted matching, Partitioning, Time constraints, Query
optimization | |||
| A Classification of Semantic Conflicts in Heterogeneous Database Systems | | BIBAK | 167-193 | |
| Channah F. Naiman; Aris M. Ouksel | |||
| Increasingly companies are doing business in an environment replete with
heterogeneous information systems which must cooperate. Cooperation between
these systems presupposes the resolution of the semantic conflicts that are
bound to occur. In this article, we propose a classification of semantic
conflicts which can be used as the basis for the incremental discovery and
resolution of these conflicts. We classify conflicts along the two dimensions
of naming and abstraction, which, taken together, capture the semantic mapping
of the conflict. We add a third dimension, level of heterogeneity, to assist
in the schematic mapping between two databases. The classification provides a
systematic representation of alternative semantic interpretations of conflicts
during the reconciliation process. As a result, the design of query-directed
dynamic reconciliation systems is possible. The classification is shown to be
sound and minimal. Completeness is discussed. Keywords: Heterogeneous database systems, Legacy systems, Semantic modeling,
Classification of semantic conflicts, Context, Coordination, Reconciliation | |||
| Introduction to the Special Issue on Economics of Information Systems | | BIB | 195-196 | |
| Anitesh Barua; William B. Richmond | |||
| Outsourcing Information System Functions: An Organization Economics Perspective | | BIBAK | 197-217 | |
| Paul Alpar; Aditya N. Saharia | |||
| Outsourcing of information systems functions has become a frequently chosen
alternative of providing information systems services. This is true across
many industries and all firm sizes. Practitioners have developed a number of
guidelines relating to outsourcing. While many of these guidelines seem
plausible their underlying economic reasons are often not identified because
they are not based on any theory. We analyze outsourcing of information
systems functions using the transaction cost economics framework. The
framework allows us to incorporate production as well as coordination costs in
evaluating the outsourcing option. Keywords: IS outsourcing, Organization economics, Transaction cost, Markets,
Hierarchies, Asset specificity | |||
| The Decision to Outsource IS Processing Under Internal Information Asymmetry and Conflicting Objectives | | BIBAK | 219-253 | |
| Eric T. G. Wang; Terry Barron | |||
| The central management's decision to outsource an organization's information
processing to an external supplier is studied. The internal computing resource
is represented by a queuing model; its manager has private information about
the department's cost and has objectives that may differ from those of the
organization. Outsourcing decision rules are derived for both the cost center
and profit center organizational forms for the internal department. With a
cost center, the IS manager must report on the department's cost parameter,
which models his or her private information, in order for the central
management to make its decision; a mechanism design approach is used to ensure
truthful reporting. The decision is shown to be quite complex, depending in
part on the shape of the long-run marginal cost function for the internal
department, thus requiring considerable knowledge on the part of the central
management. Full and no outsourcing are the most frequent outcomes, but
partial outsourcing is optimal in one case. Various other implications are
discussed, including the distortion of the decision caused by the information
asymmetry and the beneficial effects of even the threat of outsourcing on the
internal department's efficiency. In contrast, the decision rule for a profit
center is very simple: The internal department should be retained as long as it
can at least break even in the face of the external competition. Thus, very
limited communication between the IS manager and central management suffices in
this case. Again, full, partial, and no outsourcing are all possible as the
optimal decision. The efficiency of the profit center can also be expected to
be improved by the presence of the external source as the result of a reduction
in its monopoly power. Keywords: Management of information systems, Outsourcing, Information asymmetry,
Mechanism design, Capacity choice, Cost center, Profit center | |||
| An Empirical Study of the Business Value of the U.S. Airlines' Computerized Reservations Systems | | BIBAK | 255-275 | |
| Rajiv D. Banker; Holly H. Johnston | |||
| The U.S. airlines' computerized reservations systems (CRSs) have frequently
been cited as examples of the successful use of information technologies (ITs)
for strategic purposes. Recent literature contains logical arguments and
anecdotal evidence which suggest that the carriers that have invested in the
systems have been able to use them, in concert with other operating and
marketing strategies, to achieve competitive advantage. However, very little
rigorous, model-based empirical evidence has been brought to bear on this
issue. The purpose of this article is to develop economic models for examining
the business value of the CRSs and to provide empirical evidence regarding that
value during the early 1980s. The modelling builds upon previous research
aimed at estimating the business value of ITs and is generalizable to
estimating the value of ITs in other settings. We find that increases in the
use of the CRSs were associated with more highly significant increases in their
owners' shares of air passenger traffic than reductions in the costs of
reservations and sales labor and travel agent commissions. Also, the
associations for the two leading CRSs, American's Sabre and United's Apollo,
were stronger and more highly significant than those for Delta's DATASII,
Eastern's SODA, and TWA's PARS. Keywords: Computerized reservations systems, Airlines, Information technology,
Strategic information systems | |||
| Managerial Incentives and the Value of Information Systems Timeliness | | BIBAK | 277-294 | |
| Rajiv M. Dewan; Sanjeev Dewan | |||
| The emergence of "time-based competition" is making timeliness an
increasingly important attribute of information systems in modern business
organizations. This article focuses on the decision support role of
information systems and examines the time value of information in delegated
decision settings. We extend the principal-agent model to incorporate the
timing of information in the agent's decision-making process. The analysis
demonstrates that while more timely information results in higher value in the
absence of incentive conflicts, more timely information is not necessarily more
valuable in settings with incentive conflict. This potentially adverse impact
of managerial incentives on the value of timeliness has to be considered in
designing information systems. Consideration of user incentives may result in
designing information systems that do not completely satisfy individual user
"requirements," perhaps through suitable access restrictions. Keywords: Timeliness, Incentive conflict, Principal-agent model, Delay cost,
Information systems design | |||
| Optimal Policies for Subsidizing Supplier Interorganizational System Adoption | | BIBAK | 295-325 | |
| Frederick J. Riggins; Tridas Mukhopadhyay; Charles H. Kriebel | |||
| We develop a static two-stage model of network externalities where the buyer
has adequate information about the suppliers' costs to join the network such
that it is able to make differential subsidy payments. If the expected network
size is small, suppliers encounter negative externalities as the buyer rewards
the suppliers joining the system, but at a decreasing rate. On the other hand,
if the expected network size is large, the buyer can exert increasing pressure
on the few remaining suppliers to join the network, thus forcing positive
externalities on these suppliers. We show that if the buyer can make
differential subsidy payments, it may need to subsidize only a fraction of the
nonjoiners up to a "spontaneous expansion point," after which the positive
externalities force the remaining suppliers to join the network. We also
examine a dynamic model where the suppliers' costs to join the network decrease
over time. We show that in this case, the buyer should incorporate a
"bang-bang" strategy, such that after some specified time period the buyer
should immediately pay for the costs to join the network of all suppliers
needed to reach the spontaneous expansion point. Keywords: Differential subsidy payments, Electronic data interchange,
Interorganizational systems, Network externalities | |||
| Bypass Trading and Market Quality in Electronic Securities Exchanges | | BIBAK | 327-353 | |
| Bruce W. Weber | |||
| Electronic financial markets use information technology to disseminate
prices, quantities, and buyer and supplier identities. Increased visibility
and market transparency have recognized benefits, but may introduce
imperfections, and create profitable opportunities to "bypass" established
exchanges. In the U.S., dissemination of real-time securities market
information has equipped several firms to develop competing, off-exchange
trading mechanisms that rely on central market price data, but whose
transactions bypass the established market. Significant trading away from the
principal market may reduce market quality and increase transactions costs. A
simulation model of trading in a continuous auction market (similar to the
market structure of the New York Stock Exchange) is used to examine the effects
of increasing levels of trading activity through an off-exchange dealer. The
results indicate competition from an alternative trading venue has mixed
effects on the trading costs borne by investors -- raising costs for some and
lowering them for others. Contrary to U.S. regulatory goals, off-market
trading expands the role of profit-seeking dealers and lowers the probability
that some investors' orders will execute. Keywords: Electronic markets and transactions costs, Regulation of securities trading,
Dealers and financial intermediaries, Market structure and market quality,
Computer simulation of markets | |||
| Nonverbal Cues in Computer-Mediated Communication, and the Effect of Chronemics on Relational Communication | | BIBAK | 355-378 | |
| Joseph B. Walther; Lisa C. Tidwell | |||
| Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been described as lacking
nonverbal cues, which affects the nature of interpersonal interaction via the
medium. Yet much CMC conveys nonverbal cues in terms of chronemics, or
time-related messages. Different uses of time signals in electronic mail were
hypothesized to affect interpersonal perceptions of CMC senders and
respondents. An experiment altered the time stamps in replicated e-mail
messages in order to assess two time variations: (a) the time of day a message
was sent and (b) the time lag until a reply was received. Results revealed
significant interactions among these variables, and the task-orientation or
socioemotional orientation of the verbal messages, which affected perceptions
of communicators' intimacy/liking or dominance/submissiveness. Findings extend
recent theories regarding social attributions and the adaptation of social cues
in CMC behavior. Keywords: Computer-mediated communication, Electronic mail, Temporal factors,
Interpersonal judgments, Dominance, Intimacy/liking | |||
| Using Quiddities for Detecting Semantic Conflicts in Information Systems | | BIBAK | 379-400 | |
| Hemant K. Bhargava | |||
| When multiple people are involved in designing an information systems
application, there can be conflicts in terminologies used by them for various
elements represented in the application. These problems are recognized in
database design, federated databases, knowledge-based systems, mathematical
modeling systems, and cooperative work systems. A computer-based method for
detecting such naming conflicts, once the users have declared certain
additional information for all of the represented elements, is presented. The
approach extends earlier work by Bhargava, Kimbrough, and Krishnan in the
context of model integration. There is a description of how this additional
information (called quiddity) is to be formulated and represented, and several
automated procedures are presented that detect naming conflicts on the basis of
this information. The practical utility of this approach is also discussed. Keywords: Schema integration, Quiddities, Semantic conflicts, Collaborative computing | |||
| Collaborative Computing for Decision Support in Cardiovascular Consulting | | BIBAK | 401-416 | |
| Alexander B. Bordetsky; Pavel J. Levy | |||
| Vascular medicine is a newly developing discipline heavily based on
geographically distributed consulting, and there is thus a strong need for
computerized decision support in doctor-to-doctor collaboration for the
management of vascular patients. The latest achievements in collaborative and
multimedia computing for group decision support are incorporated into
cardiovascular consulting. Feasibility analysis of the two basic components is
addressed: (a) the communication system of collaborative computing as
identified subject to the specifics of data flow and networking in
geographically distributed cardiovascular consulting; and (b) the structure and
representations for intelligent software agents that enable transfer of
individual expert cardiovascular knowledge, support group brainstorming, and
maintain the ongoing learning of group experience and analysis of patients
cases. Keywords: Groupware, Distributed decision support, Desktop videoconferencing,
Knowledge-based agents, Cardiovascular consulting | |||
| Creating a Collaboratory in Cyberspace: Theoretical Foundation and an Implementation | | BIBAK | 417-442 | |
| Anitesh Barua; Ramnath Chellappa; Andrew B. Whinston | |||
| Internet applications such as the World Wide Web (WWW) have created the
possibility of developing global collaborative platforms for supporting
interactions between professionals and academics in various disciplines. While
Web browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape have revolutionized the way we use the
Internet, we envision the need for a theory-based approach to the development
of Collaboratories on the Internet. Based on complementarity theory, we
provide a conceptual foundation for designing Collaboratories which maximize
users' value through the judicious choice of complementary design factors. We
emphasize the need for developments in the area of "open" collaborative
systems, and suggest that analyzing the design problem from a complementarity
theory standpoint can lead to useful insights regarding the value users derive
from the system. We also describe the design and an early implementation of an
MIS Collaboratory, which uses this theoretical foundation to organize
information and to provide a forum for document-centric, multimedia
interactions between users. While the prototype focuses on the MIS discipline,
we believe that the general principles of our design are applicable to other
areas as well. Keywords: Collaboration, Rich interactions, Information access, Internet, World Wide
Web (WWW), Complementarity, Open systems | |||