Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Abstract

Volume 14, Number 1, 2005

 

 1. Systems Development Tools and the Relationship to Project Design: Cost and Budget Implications

Gerald V. Post, University of the Pacific

Albert Kagan, Arizona State University

 

An investigation into current system development trends, including a summary of projects, platforms, and tools. The majority of projects get completed on time and within budget, but 14 percent still present problems. The choice of tools appears to be changing to represent the demand for new projects on new platforms—particularly the Internet. CASE tools are used sparingly, and Java is beginning to replace C++ in many projects. Database management systems are critical to almost all projects.

 

15. Online Privacy Policies: An Assessment of the Fortune Global 100

Randy Ryker, M. Khurrum S. Bhutta, Nicholls State University

 

Both industry leaders and government officials around the globe are struggling with how to address online privacy.  One solution suggested by both groups within the United States is for companies to voluntarily comply with the fair information practices of Notice, Choice, Access, and Security.  A content analysis of the online privacy policies of the firms in the Fortune Global 100 was conducted to determine the extent to which the most successful global companies comply with fair information practices.  The results indicate that 1.2% fully comply, 87.2% partially comply and 11.6% fail to comply with one or more fair information practice.

 

25. Leveraging Information Technology to Gain Competitive Advantage: A Case Study on General Electric Consumer Products

Bih-Ru Lea, University of Missouri Rolla

 

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of merging General Electric Lighting (GEL) and General Electric Appliance (GEA) into General Electric Consumer Products (GECP) and how IT strategies are used to gain competitive advantages in its industry. This study will analyze major IT projects being developed and implemented in relation to their impact on major information flows, organizational structure, IT architecture, control systems, and the labor characteristics of the IT function. Alternatives to achieve integration will then be discussed and recommendations will be proposed.

 

41. Best Practices And Web Practices: Comparing Corporate Supplier Diversity Programs With Web-Based Minority Supplier Content

Dale Young, Georgia College and State University

 

The growing use of the Web for business-to-business transactions means corporate Web sites could be used to communicate with diverse suppliers. This study compares the Web-based supplier diversity content on Fortune 500 public sites with the content of off-line minority supplier programs. Web sites are underused for communicating with diverse suppliers, as the content appears on only 12.5% of the sites. They emphasize information publishing because the most common Web-based supplier diversity items are contact information, such as a title and name, and third-party certification. Web-based supplier diversity content, however, is very similar to off-line diversity program content.

 

53. A Cross-cultural Comparison of U.S. and Chinese Website Customers

Eleanor T. Loiacono, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Huiping Lin, Tsinghua University, P.R.China

 

Website quality has been given much attention as of late. In particular the factors that impact a consumer’s perception of website quality is of great interest. This paper takes a currently validated measure of business-to-consumer website quality (WebQual™) and applies it to Chinese Web users in order to study the cross-cultural differences and similarities of U.S. and Chinese customers. Several cultural differences between U.S. and Chinese customers are revealed.

 

71. Impacts of B2C e-Commerce on Hospital Productivity: An Empirical Study

Shin-Yuan Hung, National Chung Cheng University

Hsin-Min Hung, National Chengchi University

Mu-Yi Huang, National Chung Cheng University

 

This work conducted a comprehensive study of Business-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce (B2C e-Commerce) applications in Taiwanese hospitals. To further assess the impacts of B2C e-Commerce on hospital productivity, this study also employed three quantitative methods to analyze historical data. The results confirm those of broader research into applications of B2C e-Commerce to hospitals. Additionally, the results of the quantitative analysis demonstrate that B2C e-Commerce significantly impacts the hospital productivity.