Ajit Kambil

Bio: Ajit Kambil is an academic researcher from Deloitte. The author has contributed to research in topics: Information technology & Common value auction. The author has an hindex of 13, co-authored 37 publications receiving 1203 citations. Previous affiliations of Ajit Kambil include Accenture.

Consumer Behavior in Web-Based Commerce: An Empirical Study

Abstract: Electronic commerce challenges companies to design electronic systems and interactions that retain customers and increase sales. This exploratory study examines the impact of consumer experience and attitudes on intention to return and unplanned purchases on-line. It also examines how certain consumer and Web site factors influence the on-line consumer experience. The study finds that perceived control and shopping enjoyment can increase the intention of new Web customers to return, but seemingly do not influence repeat customers to return. It also finds that a Web store that utilizes valueadded search mechanisms and presents a positively challenging experience can increase customers' shopping enjoyment. Further, the more often customers return to a Web store, the more their shopping enjoyment is determined by their product involvement. Customers with low need specificity (i.e., who do not know what they are looking for) are more likely to use value-added search mechanisms. Finally, neither perceived control nor shopping enjoyment has any significant impact on unplanned purchases.

Electronic integration and business network redesign: a roles-linkage perspective

Abstract: Electronic integration--the use of information technology to reengineer key business processes and business relations--enables new forms of organization that transcend traditional industry and firm boundaries. Indeed, electronic integration strategies alter the fundamental structure of both firms as well as their environments, requiring a shift in the study of organizations from the level of a focal firm to that of the business network. The business network represents the pattern of interdependent relationships between the activities of a given firm and those of other firms in its competitive environment that influence each other's strategies.We analyze here the effects of electronic integration on organization structure and competitive processes at the level of the business network. We propose the roles-linkage perspective as a useful abstraction to characterize the business network and guide research on the effects of information technology on industry structures. Building and analyzing the effects of electronic filing on the tax preparation market, we build a preliminary model of how electronic integration strategies alter roles and linkages in a business network.The contributions of this article are a provisional theory of electronic integration at the level of the network, and an abstraction mechanism to characterize and study business networks.

Making Markets: How Firms Can Design and Profit from Online Auctions and Exchanges

Abstract: Markets are transitioning from place to space—but as the collapse of the initial B2B boom demonstrated, the journey won't be easy. Pioneering market makers from eBay and British Petroleum to the Dutch Flower Auctions and ChemConnect are leading the way to create new value through markets. Their experiences make two things increasingly clear: Success in the marketspace will require new ways of operating, and participation won't be optional. Ajit Kambil and Eric van Heck—respected authorities on electronic markets—argue that online auctions and exchanges will soon be an essential part of business practice. They explain why companies must adopt electronic markets now if they hope to compete in the future. And they prove that success lies not in achieving "first-mover" advantage in new markets, but in creating winning strategies to design and use markets to manage the supply chain, connect with customers, increase efficiency, and make decisions. Based on the authors' decade-long study of nearly one hundred successful and failed electronic markets in the United States, Europe, and Asia, the book reveals how market makers are rewriting the rules of commerce. They offer a strategic blueprint for designing, implementing, and profiting from electronic markets.

Research Notes: Looking Back and Thinking Ahead: Effects of Prior Success on Managers' Interpretations of New Information Technologies

Abstract: We investigated the effects of a company's success with using an existing information technology (IT) on its managers' strategic issue interpretations of new information technologies in their indus...

Re-inventing value propositions

Abstract: While many managers face the challenge of lower profits in increasingly competitive and commoditized industries, a few firms break out as market value leaders generating superior growthand shareholder returns. How do these firms break out of the commoditization trap? In this paper we propose these firms invent unique value propositions and offer them in superior ways to their customers. Based on our study of a number of market leaders, we provide a framework for systematically understanding and reinventing the firm's value propositions. We propose that clearly understanding and defining the dimensions of a firm's value proposition is a critical first step in building an effective strategy.

The nature of theory in information systems

Abstract: The aim of this research essay is to examine the structural nature of theory in Information Systems. Despite the importance of theory, questions relating to its form and structure are neglected in comparison with questions relating to epistemology. The essay addresses issues of causality, explanation, prediction, and generalization that underlie an understanding of theory. A taxonomy is proposed that classifies information systems theories with respect to the manner in which four central goals are addressed: analysis, explanation, prediction, and prescription. Five interrelated types of theory are distinguished: (1) theory for analyzing, (2) theory for explaining, (3) theory for predicting, (4) theory for explaining and predicting, and (5) theory for design and action. Examples illustrate the nature of each theory type. The applicability of the taxonomy is demonstrated by classifying a sample of journal articles. The paper contributes by showing that multiple views of theory exist and by exposing the assumptions underlying different viewpoints. In addition, it is suggested that the type of theory under development can influence the choice of an epistemological approach. Support is given for the legitimacy and value of each theory type. The building of integrated bodies of theory that encompass all theory types is advocated.

Transferring, Translating, and Transforming: An Integrative Framework for Managing Knowledge Across Boundaries

Abstract: The paper examines managing knowledge across boundaries in settings where innovation is desired. Innovation is a useful context because it allows us to explore the negative consequences of the path-dependent nature of knowledge. A framework is developed that describes three progressively complex boundaries--syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic--and three progressively complex processes--transfer, translation, and transformation. The framework is used to specify the practical and political mismatches that occur when innovation is desired and how this relates to the common knowledge that actors use to share and assess each other's domain-specific knowledge. The development and use of a collaborative engineering tool in the early stages of a vehicle's development is presented to illustrate the conceptual and prescriptive value of the framework. The implication of this framework on key topics in the organization theory and strategy literatures is then discussed.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Abstract: What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.