[AISWorld] JAIS 2014 Volume 15, Issue 1 (January) Contents

[JAIS]

Contents of Volume 15, Issue 1 (January) Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS) Official Publication of the Association for Information Systems

Published: Monthly Electronically

ISSN: 1536-9323

Published by the Association for Information Systems, Atlanta, USA http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/
Editor-in-Chief:  Professor Suprateek Sarker, University of Virginia, USA

PAPER ONE

IT and Agility in the Social Enterprise: A Case Study of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s “Cure4Kids” IT-Platform for International Outreach

Sandra Richardson, University of Memphis 
William J. Kettinger, University of Memphis
Michael Shane Bank, University of North Alabama 
Yuri Quintana, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Abstract
The agility literature suggests a positive relationship between IT-investments, agility, and performance for firms operating in turbulent contexts. However, agility studies have primarily focused on conceptual concerns, leaving these relationships empirically unexplored. In addition, the literature has focused on for-profit firms operating in commercial markets, thereby leaving other important organizational types unexamined; one such type is the social enterprise (SE). SEs are entrepreneurial organizations with a mission to improve complex social challenges (i.e., healthcare, hunger, education, etc) rather than profit maximization. This void leaves SEs in the dark as to how they can leverage IT to become more agile and improve performance. We draw on the agility perspective to examine how one exemplary SE operating in the context of pediatric global health utilized IT to enhance its agility and improve performance. We identify how the SE’s IT-investment decisions resulted in an IT platform that facilitated increased agility in launching new products aimed at improving survival rates of children. Specifically, we analyze how the SE’s IT platform positively impacted customer, partnering, and operational agility, and demonstrate how this led to dramatic improvements in performance. Finally, we offer evidence to support positive relationships between IT, agility, and performance in social sector contexts.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below:
http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol15/iss1/2/


PAPER TWO

Confirmation Biases in the Financial Analysis of IT Investments

Renaud Legoux, HEC Montreal
Pierre-Majorique Leger, HEC Montreal
Jacques Robert, HEC Montreal
Martin Boyer, HEC Montreal


ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on the optimistic and confirmation biases of experts with respect to major IT investments and their interaction with financial analysts’ competencies in finance and information technology. We used an experimental design that involved asking subjects to predict the financial market’s reaction to major IT investment announcements. Drawing on the literature on optimistic biases, we showed that IT and financial expertise lead to different forecasting patterns. We found that financially competent participants are more subject to confirmatory biases and have a tendency to hold on to a currently favored hypothesis throughout their analysis. IT expertise, though, mitigates the analyst’s confirmatory bias, so that dual expertise leads to less optimistic biases.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below:
http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol15/iss1/1/