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)

/pdf/qualitative-research-in-information-systems-1sezxwy02d.pdf

Qualitative Research in Information Systems

The Object Management Group's (OMG) Model Driven Architecture (MDA) strategy envisages a world where models play a more direct role in software production, being amenable to manipulation and transformation by machine. Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is wider in scope than MDA. MDE combines process and analysis with architecture. This article sets out a framework for model driven engineering, which can be used as a point of reference for activity in this area. It proposes an organisation of the modelling 'space' and how to locate models in that space. It discusses different kinds of mappings between models. It explains why process and architecture are tightly connected. It discusses the importance and nature of tools. It identifies the need for defining families of languages and transformations, and for developing techniques for generating/configuring tools from such definitions. It concludes with a call to align metamodelling with formal language engineering techniques.

Model Driven Engineering

Redesigning Social Inquiry Fuzzy Sets And Beyond

Exploring Corporate Strategy Text And Cases

Mobile technologies have increasingly become an integral part of individuals’ work and personal lives. Although research exists in this domain, most of it focuses on the customer’s adoption factors rather than assessing the value or the impact of mobile business (m-business) usage on firms. The present study fills this gap in the literature through the analysis of the value m-business can provide for firms. The Technology-Organization-Environment framework, Diffusion of Innovation theory and Resource-Based theory ground this research’s conceptual model for assessing the post-adoption stages of usage and value of mobile business from an organizational perspective. The value of m-business includes the impact on marketing and sales, internal operations, and procurement. This research uses a mixed method research design; interviews are first conducted to develop a model to assess m-business usage, and survey data collected from 180 Portuguese organizations is then used to test the proposed model. The results indicate that seven of the nine proposed antecedents of m-business usage are significant, and that m-business usage has a positive and significant relationship with m-business value. Furthermore, the three dimensions of value (marketing and sales, internal operations, and procurement) are significant, but only two of them have direct positive impacts on firm performance. Implications of these findings for practice and research are discussed.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fejis.2014.15.pdf

An organizational perspective on m-business: Usage factors and value determination †

Uncovering top-ranking factors for mobile apps through a multimethod approach

Mobile business is expected to create a large spectrum of business opportunities. There are many studies analyzing the contribution of IT to firm performance and whether IT is capable of creating value. One process-level model of IT business value, defined as the contribution of IT to firm performance, focuses on how IT impacts critical business activities within the firm’s value system (in the context of the firm’s value chain). Building on these concepts, we argue that the m-business value corresponds to the impact of m-business usage on firm performance, which is estimated through the perceived impact on the three major groups of activities on the value chain: (i) downstream dimension, (ii) upstream dimension, and, (iii) internal operations. We claim that m-business leverages the potential of the unique features of mobile technologies to improve business performance. This paper is exploratory and aims at answering the following research questions: (i) How does m-business create value to firms? and (ii) Which are the components of the construct m-business value for firms? Interviews were conducted with experts to explore the construct of m-business value and its components. The interviews’ results show that m-business does have impacts on the organizational downstream and internal dimensions. However, its impacts on upstream dimensions are not clear yet. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and the limitations of the current study.

How Does Mobile Business Create Value for Firms

Mobile business m-business creates new business opportunities. Yet, existing research focuses on customer adoption factors rather than an assessment of the value of m-business for organisations. This study fills this gap through the development of a conceptual model of m-business value at the organisational level, which is grounded in the technology-organisation-environment TOE framework and the resource-based view RBV theory. The model suggests seven determinants of m-business use and value: technology readiness, firm size, managerial obstacles, competitive pressure, regulatory environment, partner pressure, and mobile environment. M-business value is a second order construct comprising the impact on downstream dimensions e.g., sales support, customer service, market growth, on internal dimensions e.g., internal processes, staff productivity, and on upstream dimensions e.g., procurement, coordination with suppliers. This study develops an instrument to assess m-business usage and value. Data collected from 111 professionals is then used to test the proposed instrument. Implications and contributions are discussed.

Winnie Ng Picoto

Papers

An organizational perspective on m-business: Usage factors and value determination †

Uncovering top-ranking factors for mobile apps through a multimethod approach

How Does Mobile Business Create Value for Firms

A technology-organisation-environment TOE-based m-business value instrument

Cultural impact on mobile banking use – A multi-method approach