[AISWorld] JITCAR 19.1 Published (Journal of IT Case and Application Research)

Thu Apr 20 00:57:01 EDT 2017

Dear Friends Around the World:

Please note that JITCAR is in its 19th year now and based on what I hear from the world renowned publisher Taylor & Francis, the journal is very well received from individuals and institutions in terms of both subscriptions and downloads.

You are invited to submit your manuscripts on any IT related theme.  Only research methodology that is unacceptable is a broad brush survey and analysis.  If the survey is backed up by a case(s) or interview(s), the manuscript will be reviewed through double blind review process.

I am delighted to present 2017's FIRST issue of JITCAR.

The contents of this issue are:  Editorial Preface article by Drs. Anil Kumar, Poonam Kumar, Shailendra Palvia and Sanjay Verma; Research article one co-authored by Dr. Mahsa Mehrpoor, Dr. Dirk Ahlers, Dr. Jon Atle Gulla, Dr. Kjetil Kristensen and Dr. Ole Ivar Sivertsen; Research article two co-authored by Dr. Arup Kumar Das and Dr. Sangeeta Shah Bahardwaj; Expert Opinion report by Dr. Mahesh Raisinghani; and Book Review by Dr. Saji Mathew and Ms. Saman Nihal.  Summary information of these items is as follows.

In their editorial preface article titled, “Online Education Worldwide: Current Status and Emerging Trends,” the authors emphasize the ubiquity of information technology which has impacted almost every aspect of our lives: the way we work, interact with others, process, analyze, and share information.  E-education is changing the way we approach teaching and learning.  Changes in education delivery models due to recent advances in digital technologies have created a very dynamic education landscape that has generated a lot of interest among researchers, educators, administrators, policy makers, publishers, and businesses.  Many institutions are experimenting with innovative models. Fast emerging online education presents many opportunities as well as challenges for all stakeholders.

First research article is titled, “Investigating Contextual Ontologies and Document Corpus Characteristics for Information Access in Engineering Settings.”  Knowledge and information resources play a pivotal role in enterprises for solution reuse and learning.  Identifying relevant information from a rapidly growing number of unstructured resources is challenging.  This article focuses on creating a recommender system meant to provide relevant documents for users in specific work context (a multidisciplinary engineering project building an energy-efficient vehicle) based on domain-specific ontologies. This article validates the ontology-based content matching approach by evaluating the level of retrievability and coverage of the ontology against the indexed document corpus. The results show that even a simple domain ontology is able to match a majority of documents from a domain-oriented corpus.

The second research article is titled, “Framework for Alignment of Service Provider Value Drivers with Client Expectations in IT Services Outsourcing.”  Service providers are keen to create value for their client organizations for long term survival and sustenance.  There is a gap between client expectation of value and vendor’s actual value provided.  This is caused by: (a) lack of understanding by vendor of client organization’s needs; (b) even after understanding client organization’s needs, not having matching product/service offerings; (c) even after having the first two conditions met, failing to deliver; and (d) even if delivering properly, the vendor is unable to adjust to client’s changing needs.  This article proposes a framework for three levels of alignment between client and vendor – contractual, knowledge, and business.

The Expert Opinion report documents interview by Dr. Mahesh Raisinghani with Dr. Lia A. DiBello, President and Director of Research, Workplace Technologies Research, Inc. (WTRI). Dr. DiBello has developed many innovative (non-verbal) methods of assessing skill and business judgment among executives. She is the innovator behind the FutureView™ Profiler, which has been recognized as a theoretical and methodological breakthrough in knowledge elicitation and executive intelligence. This Profiler was also awarded an Innovative Technology Award by TechAmerica in 2008.  Questions posed to Dr. diBello are: (a) Please name and briefly describe some of your strategic IT applications. (b) What has been the role of IT/VR in the internationalization of your business? (c) Please describe the worldwide global IT architecture in your organization. (d) Please name and briefly describe some of your key international IT applications. (e) What have been the most important technologies (such as mobile, Internet-based, imaging, satellite communications) that have facilitated international expansion? (f) What have been the key technical challenges/problems in the overseas implementation of IT applications? (g) What have been the key management challenges/issues in the overseas implementation of IT applications? (h) Have you faced specific issues dealing with trans-border data flows and data privacy. (i) What are the cultural issues that have arisen as a result of using native technology and management practices in foreign markets? (j) Please name three opportunities for international IT application, based on your company’s experience. (k) What are some of the lessons learned in these applications of IT /VR?

Book review report by Dr. Saji Mathew and Ms. Saman Nihal provides a detailed critique of the 2016 book titled, “Global Sourcing of Services: Strategies, Issues and Challenges” edited by Dr. Shailendra C. Jain Palvia and Dr. Prashant Palvia.  The book is published by World Scientific – Now Publishers Series in Business.  The book consists of four sections: (a) first section consisting of three chapters is devoted to explaining the conceptual and research frameworks governing sourcing of services including imparting an understanding of what sourcing is, how it can be used, under what circumstances can it be used for competitive advantage and where it can be used, (b) second section articulates what client and vendor issues are, or might be, (c) third section focuses on how the global sourcing process works including veracious business models and global sourcing life cycle, and (d) fourth and final section identifies inherent risks in global sourcing including strategies to mitigate the risks and the role of social capital.   Salient features of the book as extracted from the Book Review are as follows.

“This book can be positioned as a ready reference for managers at all levels in client as well as vendor companies to understand the nuances of global sourcing of services. The book ….provides a comprehensive view of what sourcing of services is all about at a global level. The chapter authors ….have used examples from extant research, industry practices and case studies that clearly elucidate the current status of the sourcing industry. The mini-cases at the end of most chapters illuminate the key concepts and issues…..A key strength of this book is the logical flow of concepts. Each section leads to the other as it would while trying to make decisions for an outsourcing project.  This book is very well compiled and rightly address all the concerns of sourcing services globally for both managers and also for researchers who look for quality research papers to conduct further research in this area. I will recommend this course to my students.”

Routledge, in line with the ongoing trends, has published this journal online since 2014.  The website to find all JITCAR issues is: http://www.tandfonline.com/utca. All authors and reviewers are encouraged to start using Routledge’s online manuscript submission and reviewing system http://www.editorialmanager.com/jitcar/.  I urge all our current and future authors and reviewers to familiarize themselves with this system.

I hope you will enjoy reading all the items in this issue.  With best regards,

Sincerely

Dr. Shailendra Palvia

Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellow for 2016-17

Professor of MIS, College of Management

Long Island University Post, Brookville, NY 11801.

http://liu.edu/CWPost/Academics/Faculty/Faculty/P/Shailendra-Palvia?rn=Faculty+Profiles&ru=/CWPost/Academics/Faculty/Faculty

Recipient of Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar Award 2016-17

2012 & 2016 LIU Post Nominee for Abraham Krasnoff Lifetime Scholarship Achievement Award

Founding Editor and current EIC, Journal of IT Case and Applications Research (JITCAR)

Phone #: 732-983-7034