[AISWorld] JITCAR 19.3 Published (Journal of IT Case and Application Research)

Wed Nov 1 19:29:03 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.  The journal prides itself on focusing on case research methodology. Only research methodology that is NOT acceptable 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 the third JITCAR issue of 2017.  The contents of this issue are:  Editorial Preface article by Dr. James B. Pick; Research Case article co-authored by Mohamed M. Mostafa and Nicolás Roser Nebot; Teaching Case article authored by Deanna House,; Expert Opinion report by Mahesh S. Raisinghani; and Book Review by Deepali Bharadwaj.  Summary information of these items is as follows.

In the editorial preface article titled, “The US Digital City: A Laboratory for MIS Studies,” the author emphasizes that evolving smart cities of today worldwide provide improved  intelligence and interactivity for their citizenry through contemporary information and communication technologies (ICTs).  Citizens gain easy access to previously unavailable information about various aspects of a city and its environment like: analytics on progress toward city goals; interactive and real-time information regarding vehicle routing, safety, and parking; information about urban geography of recycling and renewable energy.  Smart solutions implemented by exemplary cities of Seattle, Los Angeles, and Amsterdam are described. Smart cities offer researchers, practitioners and government myriad opportunities for theory based research, improvement in services and satisfaction for citizens, and implementation of ICT enabled efficient and effective solutions.

First research article is titled, “Sentiment Analysis of Arabic Language Influence on Spanish Vocabulary: An El País Newspaper and Twitter Case Study.”  In the context of mining sentiments from digital online media and social networks, this study investigates layman’s sentiments towards Spanish words of Arabic etymology related to Islam by analyzing digital corpus of the Spanish leading daily newspaper El País along with a random sample of tweets collected using a specialized software. An expert-predefined Spanish lexicon of around 6,800 seed adjectives was used to conduct the sentiment analysis. Results indicate a generally positive sentiment towards several Spanish words of Arabic etymology related to Islam.

The Teaching Case article is titled, “Switching from a Semi-Computerized to an Online Employment Application System: A Case Study.” This case documents the challenges faced while switching from semi-computerized to an online employment application system by a medium sized Telecommunications company.  The project was eventually implemented, but not without a significant development effort to customize a third party software product.  The project was over budget, over time, and did not have all of the functionality that the users were expecting.   Key factors responsible for project failure were:  lack of user involvement and participation throughout the project including documentation of requirements for the target system, lack of a dedicated project manager, resistance to change, poor communication, inadequate requirements, and issues with the chosen software development methodology.

The Expert Opinion report documents interview by Dr. Mahesh S. Raisinghani with Mr. Victor Carneiro is a management consultant, executive coach, technology evangelist and currently CEO Xpertek, Inc. His past 27 years of Information Technology experience is in management, application architecture, application development, and multi-platform infrastructure. In his recent pat role as Vice President & CIO for an insurance company, he was intimately involved with selecting, implementing and launching a new system, building high-performing continuous delivery teams and transforming the organization’s IS development practice from waterfall to agile.  When time permits, he teaches relevant IT classes at the University of Phoenix. Victor is a member and adviser of several professional organizations including Oklahoma State University, Project Management Institute (PMI), Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), Victor is a certified project manager (PMP) and certified scrum master (CSM). He holds a master’s degree in Information Systems from the University of Texas at Arlington, and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with a minor in Business Administration from the University of Central Oklahoma.  Questions posed to Mr. Carneiro are: (a) How important is information technology (IT) in the insurance industry? (b) What would you consider strategic IT applications in the insurance industry? (c) What trends are you seeing that might disrupt the industry in 2017 and beyond? (d) What has been the role of IT in helping businesses expand beyond the current geographical and demographical boundaries? (e) Please name and briefly describe some key IT applications in the insurance industry. (f) What have been the most important technologies that have facilitated growth in the insurance industry? (g) What have been the key technical challenges/problems in the implementation of IT applications? (h) What have been the key management challenges/issues with IT applications implementation in the Insurance industry? (i) What are the cultural issues that you have seen arise during a core system replacement? (j) What advice can you offer to insurance companies?

Book review report by Dr. Deepali Bharadwaj provides a detailed critique of the 2015 book titled, “The New Rules of Marketing and Public Relations (PR)” authored by Mr. David<https://smile.amazon.com/Nicholas-D.-Evans/e/B001IYVE4I/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1492661110&sr=8-1> Merman Scott, the author of ten books including Real-Time Marketing & PR, The New Rules of Sales & Service, and Newsjacking.  In his casual and easy to comprehend writing style and mostly directed towards SMEs, David Scott shares his experience, ideas and suggestions for organizations to effectively use web and social media tools for the functions of marketing and public relations.  The book has three parts: Part-I (3 chapters) talks about how Internet has changed the rules of marketing and PR, Part- II (6 chapters) discusses the various web-based media that marketers can leverage, and Part-III (15 chapters) gives more practical guidance on how to use these media and make the new rules to work for an organization. Dr. Bharadwaj surmises that in spite of some minor limitations, this book is a great guide for practitioners and professors of Internet based marketing.

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

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