Organizational Systems & Technology Theme

INFORMATION SYSTEMS TRACK
ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY

Creativity/Innovation in IS Organization

This minitrack on Creativity/Innovation in I.S. concentrates on the four components of creativity: person, process, product and press (environment). The objective in this minitrack is not to prouce papers on creative applications of the computer but to identify ways in which the I.S. organization can become more creative. The context is broad - papers that are theoretical, conceptual, or empirical in nature, describing approaches to enable I.S. people to be more creative, to improve the creativity of processes and to produce more creative services/products. The full set of activities within the i.S. organization are included, e.g. management, system development, quality assurance - any area within I.S.

J. Daniel Couger
College of Business and Administration
University of Colorado, Colorado Spring
Box 7150
Colorado Spring, CO 80933-7150
(719) 593-3403
FAX: (719) 593-3494
jdcouger@uccs.edu

Organizational DSS

Since early 90's organizational decision support systems(ODSS) have received much attention from a growing body of researchers and practitioners. The general field of MIS has always claimed that its ultimate role is to support the organizational need for information. Advances in information technologies are making ODSSs feasible. ODSSs seek to coordinate and disseminate decision making throughout the organization, spanning functional and hierarchical levels, making it easy for decisions to be more focused on organizational goals. Other related systems such as DSS, GDSS, NSS have also helped in refining the extent of reach of these ODSSs.

The increasing relevance of ODSS to the study of information systems in organizational decision making is evident from the level of activity seen at the past few HICSS meetings. In spite of the fact that a mini-track has been functioning only for the last few years, the quality of papers presented as well as the levels of interest shown (reasonable attendance at the sessions, usually the last few sessions of the conference) have been noteworthy. Papers on ODSS have appeared in MIS Quarterly, Journal of MIS, Decision Support Systems and even written about in Decision Line . These and ongoing research in the area portend a healthy and productive future for ODSS.

The papers in the following area but not limited to areas are requested:

. Object-oriented analysis of ODSS
. Multi-media approaches to enhance ODSS
. Theoretical and Design Issues of ODSS
. Business re-engineering and its implications on ODSS
. Suceeses and failures in ODSS applications
. Cross-cultural and Globalization issues in ODSS
. Field or lab studies that provide innovative ideas in ODSS analysis, design or implementation
. World-wide-web and its implications for ODSS
. Data warehousing and data accessibility issues related to ODSS
. ODSS on the super highway

Sree Nilakanta
Department of Management
College of Business
300 Carver Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-2063
(515) 294-8113
FAX: (515) 294-6060
nilakant@iastate.edu

Anil Aggarwal
Merrick School fo Business
1420 N. Charles Street
University of Baltimore
(410) 625-3438
FAX: (410) 752-2821
ravjaka@ube

Measuring the Effectiveness of Emerging Technologies:

Papers are welcome which deal with developing and testing effectiveness measures of emerging technologies. Research dealing with instrument validation and model/hypotheses testing are especially desired. Investigation of new constructs are also encouraged. Papers for this minitrack should be oriented toward describing the research study rather than advancing the findings or results of the research.

Finally, papers accepted for this minitrack may probably yield implications that are more theoretical than practical, as much of the research discussed is yet immature. This minitrack is oriented toward describing the research study in order to advance knowledge of a specific construct rather than reporting research findings (which will be forwarded on to other HICSS minitracks).

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING ABSTRACTS:
Abstracts must be submitted in order for your paper to be considered in the review process. Each abstract submitted for review is limited to no more than 5 e-mail screens and must contain the numbers and titles for each section addressing each of the following:

(1) Title, authors, institute, telephone numbers, and e-mail address;
(2) Emerging technology you are investigating;
(3) Measures used in your research;
(4) Research design orientation;
(5) Analysis tools and techniques;
(6) Contribution to research (contribution to practice should be stated for mature research constructs only).

Electronic mail should be used for submitting abstracts. Send allabstracts to

DONALD L. AMOROSO, Ph.D., HICSS Minitrack Chair
University of Colorado
Information Systems Department
246 Dwire Hall
Campus Box 7150
Colorado Springs, CO 80933-7150
(719) 593-3335
AMOROSO@UCCS.EDU

Systems in Technology Transfer:

HICSS-29 announces a mini-track on systems in technology transfer and commercialization. Submissions may be theoretical, conceptual, behavioral, tutorial, descriptive, or empirical in nature. Of special interest are papers detailing the movement of technologies from public or private R&D laboratories to commercial application.

Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Systems and mechanisms of innovation diffusion and technology transfer.
- Transfer of ideas from one application area to another or across national boundaries (international technology transfer) and across cultural boundaries.
- Collaborative work on technology transfer and commercialization.
- Systems to support Inventions, patents, intellectual property, licensing and other legal issues in technology transfer.
- Systems and mechanisms of collaborative work between federal laboratories, universities, R&D organizations and consortia.
- International transfer of innovative technologies.
- Information support systems for technology transfer and commercialization.
- Learning systems and their relationship to tehnology transfer.

Sul Kassicieh
University of New Mexico
Anderson School of Management
Albuquerque, NM 87131
(505) 277-8881
Fax: (505) 277-7108
kasicieh@triton.unm.edu

David Gibson
Assistant to the Director
IC2 Institute
The University of Texas at Austin
2815 San Gabriel
Austin, TX 78705
(512) 478-4081 x 266
Fax: (512) 499-0245
davidg@icc.utexas.edu

Information Technology and Market Structure:

Papers are invited for the minitrack on "Information Technology and Market Structure" as part of the Information Systems track at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS).

Information technology is leading to profound changes in financial market institutions, the mechanisms for trading, and the competitive positioning of market participants. Because financial markets have no physical product for distribution and numerous mechanisms are available for providing information and executing transactions, the transformation of financial markets is occurring rapidly. Papers from both the finance and I.T. communities and from both academic and practitioner contributors are invited on the following topics:

* Productivity of traders and financial services firms
* The competitive balance of among different firms in a sectors of the industry, and the possibilities for gaining competitive advantage from I.T.
* Market structure alternatives and the appropriate mechanism for organizing trading
* Information endowments, transparency, and profitability -- how does private information affect trading strategies and the profitability of the these players?
* What is the future role of broker and dealer intermediaries?
* Globalization of financial market and increasing global competition.

Eric K. Clemons
Operations and Information Management Department
Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104
clemons@opim.wharton.upenn.edu

Robert A. Schwartz
Finance Department and Information Systems Department
Stern School, New York University
44 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10012
rschwart@rnd.nyu.edu

Information Systems in Global Business

A global business represents a complex network of communication, coordination, and decision making. Information and telecommunication technologies (IT) play crucial roles in the organization and management of global businesses. In some cases information systems are enabling fundamental shifts in the structure of global markets. Recognizing the importance of the link between IT and structure, this minitrack aims to bring together researchers and practitioners from the areas of information systems and organizational strategy and design with an interest on international issues. This minitrack will consider the increasingly important interaction between the globalization of business, structural changes in global markets, and the impact of information systems.

This minitrack will draw together research on a wide range of problem areas including:

- Management of business relationships,
- Management of global information systems,
- Globalization of logistics,
- Competion in changing global industrial structures,
- Electronic commerce in international business
- Virtual organizations--their creation and management, and
- International marketing, financial and manufacturing information systems.

William G. Chismar
University of Hawai'i
College of Business Administration
2404 Maile Way
Honolulu HI 96822-2223
USA
(808) 956-7276
FAX: (808) 956-9889
chismar@dscience.cba.hawaii.edu

Christopher P. Holland
Manchester Business School
University of Manchester
Booth Street West
Manchester M15 6PB
UNITED KINGDOM
+44 (0)161 275 6460
c.holland@fs2.mbs.ac.uk

Geoff Lockett
School of Business and Economic Studies
Blenheim Terrace
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
UNITED KINGDOM
+44 (0)114 333 4459
agl@bess.leeds.ac.uk

Technology Management: Systems and Processes

Papers are invited for the minitrack on Technology Management: Systems and Processes. The purpose of this mini-track is to stimulate applications of systems sciences to the management of technology (MoT) by providing a forum for the exchange of new research findings and concepts related to MoT and organizational change. The scope includes both systems for management of technology (cases and models of success, the identification of critical success factors in MoT) and social and psychological factors, models, and processes of organizational change and technology implementation. The unifying theme is that of managing technology so that an organization learns from its implementation of technologies, particularly information technologies.

1. The Transition from R&D Management to Technology Management
2. Technology Adoption, Organizational Change, and Learning
3. Technology Joint Ventures and Organizational Learning
4. Managing Technology in SMEs

Robert M. Mason
Weatherhead School of Management
Case Western Reserve University
E-mail: Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7235
FAX (216) 368-4776
rmm3@po.cwru.edu
rmm3@pyrite.som.cwru.edu

Louis A. Lefebvre
Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal
Case Postale 6079, Succursale Centre Ville
Montreal, CANADA H3C 3A7
FAX (514) 340-5960
lefebvrl@cirano.umontreal.ca

Methods & Tools for IS Development:

It is no exaggeration to say that modern society is totally and irreversibly dependent on information systems in virtually every area of human enterprise. Information systems are a core enabling technology in sectors such as business, manufacturing, communications, education, health care, and government, to name just a few. This growing dependence brings fresh demands for more efficient and timely development of ever more complex systems that must be complete and correct, and that must be capable of evolution to meet changing requirements.

Effective information systems development requires a close integration of methods and tools throughout the system development life cycle. The objective of this minitrack is to present the latest research and development ideas on development methods and tools with an emphasis on their synergistic integration. We particularly encourage papers that present operational system development tools and their use on actual development projects.

For HICSS'30, we are expanding the scope of this minitrack by soliciting papers on software development process issues. The interdependence of software development processes with effective methods and tools is essential for successful software development projects. Relevant process issues would include innovative research and experience on reference models for process assessment and improvement (e.g., ISO 9000, SEI CMM), process assessment results, process improvement reports, and international process standards (e.g., SPICE). Papers that demonstrate the integration of process with methods and tools are especially solicited.

Alan R. Hevner
IS/DS Dept.
College of Bus. Admin.
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL 33620-7800
(813) 974-6753
ahevner@cis01.cis.usf.edu

Richard C. Linger
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
(412) 268-5851
rlinger@sei.cmu.edu

Risks in Information Systems

Recently, Fidelity made a billion-dollar error on a spreadsheet, sending ripples of problems through the ranks of its investors. While most problems created by information systems are less dramatic, there is a growing realization that information systems can create serious risks for users and for the organizations that install them.

Research papers are sought on all aspects of risks in information systems. This January?s Minitrack focused on risks in end user computing and was concerned with such things as errors in spreadsheeting, errors in query language interactions, and end user application development. For a list of papers in last year's minitrack, see the following URL:http://www.cba.hawaii.edu/panko/reuc.htm

The 1997 minitrack will welcome such papers but will also broaden the focus to all information systems. We are interested in papers that measure error rates in experiments and field audits, that develop or study methodologies for reducing risks in application development, or that present a case study of a specific incident. Studies of the development of applications with third-generation and object-oriented languages are specifically included. Because this is a research conference, descriptions of commercial products are not likely to be accepted. Studies that present data generally are preferred, although this is not a requirement.

For further information, please contact the minitrack coordinator:

Prof. Raymond R. Panko
College of Business Administration
University of Hawaii
2404 Maile Way
Honolulu, HI 96822
(808) 956-5049
Fax: (808) 956-9889
panko@hawaii.edu

Data Warehousing

The building of data warehouses (and data marts) is one of the biggest developments in the information systems field, with many organizations spending millions of dollars on their efforts. The primary purpose of a data warehouse is to make appropriate data available to end users, who, in turn, access and analyze the data in support of their decision-making needs. The scope of data warehousing activities is large, including extracting and cleaning data from source systems (e.g., legacy systems, spreadsheet data), storing the data (e.g., multidimensional and relational databases), accessing and analyzing the data (e.g., EIS,DSS, queries), and mining the data for hidden relationships. Building and operating a data warehouse involves a large number of technical and managerial considerations.

Although considerable time, effort, and money are being spent on data warehousing, little research has been conducted on the topic. This minitrack is intended to serve as a focal point for researchers who are interested in studying data warehousing. Possible research includes, but is not limited to, research frameworks, case studies that provide new insights, discussions of technical issues, field surveys, and tests of important relationships.

Hugh Watson
Department of Management
Terry School of Business
Universty of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
(706) 542-3744
FAX: (706) 542-3743
hwatson@uga.cc.uga.edu

Joseph Walls
Aeroquip Advanced Computer Technology
Corporate Technology Laboratory
2323 Green Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48105-1530
(313) 741-4268
FAX: (313) 741-5333
jwalls@trinova.com

Information Technology and Social Accountability

The so-called "information age" has given us new technologies promising data on demand and access to information and tools which were previously unavailable or difficult to use. On the other hand, many people are understandably concerned that new information technologies might have a negative impact on their quality of life. As the details of individuals and organizations seem to become more readily available, many argue that those responsible for the new information technologies also consider their consequences for privacy and confidentiality. More broadly, information technologists with the best intentions sometimes overlook some of the consequences of their creations.

The Information Technology and Social Accountability mini-track is a way for scientists knowledgable in IT to contribute to an understanding of potential negative societal effects of IT and to devise and propose solutions overcoming them. Specific topics of relevance include, but are not limited to:

* database privacy and confidentiality
* disclosure limitation techniques
* information system security
* organizational restrictions on IT use
* data accuracy and integrity
* impact of computer-based medical records
* data ownership

Stephen F. Roehrig
Carnegie Mellon University
roehrig+@andrew.cmu.edu

George T. Duncan
Carnegie Mellon University
gd17@andrew.cmu.edu

HYPERMEDIA IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND ORGANIZATIONS

The minitrack has two subareas:

Hypermedia in Information Systems and Organizations, and General Hypermedia Research. HICSS is the major international forum for the first subarea -- hypertext and hypermedia research focused on management information systems and organizations.

We also are seeking qualified reviewers. Please contact the minitrack coordinators below for further details.

MINITRACK SUBAREA: INFORMATION SYSTEMS & ORGANIZATIONS ******

Augmenting the myriad of today's business applications with hypermedia functionality should result in new ways to view a system's knowledge and processes conceptually, to navigate among items of interest and analysis stages, to enhance a system's knowledge with comments and relationships, and to target information displays to individual users and their tasks. In addition, adding hypermedia to the structure and interface of global networks may increase the effectiveness of communicating among, and accessing information for, individuals and organizations. Introducing hypermedia technology into information systems brings forth a number of organizational issues. How will the organization change with enhanced access to information and the new communication channels this facilitates? How will people's work practices be affected? How do we evaluate hypermedia's impact? In this subarea we explore the benefits and the challenges that arise as hypermedia support for information systems, global network services, the World Wide Web and work practices grows.

Papers submitted to this subarea should relate to one of the following two focuses: organizational aspects (how hypertext and hypermedia impact individual, group and organizational processes) or information systems aspects (how hypertext and hypermedia impact on the effectiveness of management information systems). These focuses allow for a rich range of subject areas, as evidenced in the suggested topics section below. Note that papers may discuss technical details, but these should not constitute their main emphasis.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS TRACK ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY