In recent year, the Internet of Things (IoT) has drawn significant research attention. IoT is considered as a part of the Internet of the future and will comprise billions of intelligent communicating `things'. The future of the Internet will consist of heterogeneously connected devices that will further extend the borders of the world with physical entities and virtual components. The Internet of Things (IoT) will empower the connected things with new capabilities. In this survey, the definitions, architecture, fundamental technologies, and applications of IoT are systematically reviewed. Firstly, various definitions of IoT are introduced; secondly, emerging techniques for the implementation of IoT are discussed; thirdly, some open issues related to the IoT applications are explored; finally, the major challenges which need addressing by the research community and corresponding potential solutions are investigated.

The internet of things: a survey

The author systematically examines one of the important issues of information — establishing the market price. He introduces the concept of «search» — where a buyer wanting to get a better price, is forced to question sellers. The article deals with various aspects of finding the necessary information.

Economics of Information

The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray. Part of the problem is due to Smith’s "veil of ignorance": individuals unknowingly pursue society’s interest and, as a result, have no clue as to the macroeconomic effects of their actions: witness the Keynes and Leontief multipliers, the concept of value added, fiat money, Engel’s law and technical progress, to name but a few of the macrofoundations of microeconomics. A good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan’s economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker’s Rule. Very simply, the banks, whose lending determined deposits after Roosevelt, and were a public service became private enterprises whose deposits determine lending. These underlay the great moderation preceding 2006, and the subsequent crash.

The Economic Institutions of Capitalism

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.

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

This study used institutional theory as a lens to understand the factors that enable the adoption of interorganizational systems. It posits that mimetic, coercive, and normative pressures existing in an institutionalized environment could influence organizational predisposition toward an information technology-based interorganizational linkage. Survey-based research was carried out to test this theory. Following questionnaire development, validation, and pretest with a pilot study, data were collected from the CEO, the CFO, and the CIO to measure the institutional pressures they faced and their intentions to adopt financial electronic data interchange (FEDI). A firm-level structural model was developed based on the CEO's, the CFO's, and the CIO's data. LISREL and PLS were used for testing the measurement and structural models respectively. Results showed that all three institutional pressures-mimetic pressures, coercive pressures, and normative pressures-had a significant influence on organizational intention to adopt FEDI. Except for perceived extent of adoption among suppliers, all other subconstructs were significant in the model. These results provide strong support for institutional-based variables as predictors of adoption intention for interorganizational linkages. These findings indicate that organizations are embedded in institutional networks and call for greater attention to be directed at understanding institutional pressures when investigating information technology innovations adoption.

Predicting intention to adopt interorganizational linkages: an institutional perspective

Information technology is generally considered an enabler of a firm's agility. A typical premise is that greater IT investment enables a firm to be more agile. However, it is not uncommon that IT can also hinder and sometimes even impede organizational agility. We propose and theorize this frequently observed but understudied IT-agility contradiction by which IT may enable or impede agility. We develop the premise that organizations need to develop superior firm-wide IT capability to successfully manage their IT resources to realize agility. We refine the conceptualization and measurement of IT capability as a latent construct reflected in its three dimensions: IT infrastructure capability, IT business spanning capability, and IT proactive stance. We also conceptualize two types of organizational agility: market capitalizing agility and operational adjustment agility. We then conduct a matched-pair field survey of business and information systems executives in 128 organizations to empirically examine the link between a firm's IT capability and agility. Business executives responded to measurement scales of the two types of agility and organizational context variables, and IS executives responded to measurement scales of IT capabilities and IS context variables. The results show a significant positive relationship between IT capability and the two types of organizational agility. We also find a significant positive joint effect of IT capability and IT spending on operational adjustment agility but not on market capitalizing agility. The findings suggest a possible resolution to the contradictory effect of IT on agility: while more IT spending does not lead to greater agility, spending it in such a way as to enhance and foster IT capabilities does. Our study provides initial empirical evidence to better understand essential IT capabilities and their relationship with organizational agility. Our findings provide a number of useful implications for research and managerial practices.

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Understanding the link between information technology capability and organizational agility: an empirical examination

The dramatic growth of interorganizational systems (IOS) has changed the way organizations conduct their business, and has resulted in significant tangible and intangible benefits being realized by participating firms. However, the implementation of these IOS requires the cooperation and commitment of all the participating members. These members may have complex economic and business relationships among themselves that can result in a number of social, political, and economic factors influencing the adoption and implementation of IOS.

This study examines the role of interorganizational and organizational factors on the decision mode for adoption of IOS, in the specific context of electronic data interchange (EDI). Four interorganizational factors, based on the socio-political framework derived from research in marketing, and five organizational factors based on research in IS were used in the study. The data for the study were collected through a large scale field survey. Two respondents, the sales/purchase manager and the IS manager, from 201 firms responded to the survey. The results of discriminant analysis of the data reveal that two interorganizational variables, competitive pressure and exercised power, and two organizational variables, internal need and top management support, are important variables to differentiate firms with proactive decision mode from firms with reactive decision mode.

The study also evaluates the differences between proactive and reactive firms on three implementation outcomes. Proactive firms are found to have greater extent of adaptation, more external connectivity with trading partners, and better integration of EDI information in their internal IS applications.

The Role of Interorganizational and Organizational Factors on the Decision Mode for Adoption of Interorganizational Systems

Companies' information security efforts are often threatened by employee negligence and insider breach. To deal with these insider issues, this study draws on the compliance theory and the general deterrence theory to propose a research model in which the relations among coercive control, which has been advocated by scholars and widely practiced by companies; remunerative control, which is generally missing in both research and practice; and certainty of control are studied. A Web-based field experiment involving real-world employees in their natural settings was used to empirically test the model. While lending further support to the general deterrence theory, our findings highlight that reward enforcement, a remunerative control mechanism in the information systems security context, could be an alternative for organizations where sanctions do not successfully prevent violation. The significant interactions between punishment and reward found in the study further indicate a need for a more comprehensive ...

Organizations' Information Security Policy Compliance: Stick or Carrot Approach?

The trend toward distributed processing has significantly increased the awareness of data as a key corporate resource and underscored the importance of its management. In spite of this, there is a lack of empirical investigation of issues related to data resource management (DRM) in distributed processing environments. Being perhaps the first empirical attempt, this exploratory study identifies four information systems (IS) variables related to DRM in a distributed environment. It also seeks to examine the notion of gestalt fit to describe the nature of the relationships among these variables. In addition, the study evaluates whether intemally congruent groups outperform their opposites in realizing DRM success. The results of cluster analysis support the view of gestalt fit by identifying five clusters. The results also suggest that organizations represented by a well-blended configuration of high intersite data dependence, high centralization of IS decisions, high concentration IS resources at the central site, and low DRM-related autonomy granted to local sites appear to realize a greater degree of DRM success than the other groups. The implications of the study are discussed, and further research directions are proposed.

Success of data resource management in distributed environments: an empirical investigation

Data warehousing (DW) has emerged as one of the most powerful decision support technologies during the last decade. However, despite the fact that it has been around for some time, DW has experienced limited spread/use and relatively high failure rates. Treating DW as a major IT infrastructural innovation, we propose a comprehensive research model - grounded in IT adoption and organizational theories - that examines the impact of various organizational and technological (innovation) factors on DW adoption. Seven factors - five organizational and two technological - are tested in the model. The study employed rigorous measurement scales of the research variables to develop a survey instrument and targeted 2500 organizations in both manufacturing and services segments within two major states in the United States. A total of 196 firms (276 executives), of which nearly 55% were adopters, responded to the survey. The results from a logistic regression model, initially conceptualizing a direct effect of each of the seven variables on adoption, indicate that five of the seven variables (three organizational factors - commitment, size, and absorptive capacity - and two innovation characteristics - relative advantage and low complexity) are key determinants of DW adoption. Although scope for DW and preexisting data environment within the organization were favorable for adopter firms, they did not emerge as key determinants. However, the study provided an opportunity to explore a more complex set of relationships. This alternative structural model (using LISREL) provides a much richer explanation of the relationships among the antecedent variables and with adoption, the dependent variable. The study, especially the revised conceptualization, contributes to existing research by proposing and empirically testing a fairly comprehensive model of organizational adoption of an information technology (IT) innovation, more specifically a DSS technology. The findings of the study have interesting implications with respect to IT/DW adoption, both for researchers and practitioners.

K. Ramamurthy

Papers

Understanding the link between information technology capability and organizational agility: an empirical examination

The Role of Interorganizational and Organizational Factors on the Decision Mode for Adoption of Interorganizational Systems

Organizations' Information Security Policy Compliance: Stick or Carrot Approach?

Success of data resource management in distributed environments: an empirical investigation

An empirical investigation of the key determinants of data warehouse adoption