Decision execution mechanisms of IT governance: The CRM case

Employing the literature on IT governance and the structuration theory of technology assimilation, this research develops a conceptual model to examine decision execution mechanisms of IT governance in post-adoption stages of CRM diffusion, i.e. CRM use, impacts on business processes, and impacts on firm performance. While the literature mainly addresses the forms and contingencies of IT governance structures for decision making, we focus on IT governance mechanisms for decision execution, that is, the role of top management, business managers and IT managers in post-adoption stages of technology diffusion and how these groups are held accountable for their role. We conceptualize decision execution mechanisms of IT governance as including two dimensions: vertical advocacy from top management and horizontal coordination between business and IT managers. Decision execution mechanisms are assumed to facilitate CRM use and value creation. We analyze a dataset of 82 Chinese firms to examine the model and associated hypotheses. Our results show that: (1) decision execution mechanisms, including both vertical advocacy and horizontal coordination, significantly contribute to the three stages of CRM diffusion; (2) vertical advocacy has a notably greater effect on CRM use and firm performance gains than horizontal coordination, which has a greater effect on process gains. (3) CRM use creates operational and strategic benefits in customer-oriented business processes, which further improves firm performance. These findings have important implications for understanding how IT governance shapes the diffusion of CRM technology.     

Examining the Relationship between Social Media Analytics Practices and Business Performance in the Indian Retail and IT Industries: The Mediation Role of Customer Engagement

Social media analytics (SMA) is a dynamic field which has received considerable attention from both academics and management practitioners alike. A significant number of the scholarly research currently being conducted in SMA, however, is conceptual. Industry experts know that SMA creates new opportunities for organisations who want to more strongly engage with their customers and improve business performance. However, the relationship between social media analytic practices (SMAP), customer engagement (CE), and business performance (BP) has not yet been sufficiently investigated from an empirical perspective. In order to gain a better understanding of the relationship between SMAP and BP and the mediation role of CE in that process, a large-scale survey was conducted among senior and mid-level managers as well as consultants in the Retail and information technology (IT) industries in India. Specifically, a structured closed-ended questionnaire was administered to managers and management consultants country-wide and gathered usable responses from 281 respondents holding positions such as: Digital Marketing Executive/Digital Marketing Specialist, Management Consultant, Analytics Manager, Customer Relationship Manager, Marketing Director, Engagement Manager, etc. who were in charge of digital marketing strategies in the respondent retail and IT organisations. The questionnaire addressed issues related to the way in which SMAP contribute to an enhanced business performance through the mediation role of customer engagement. Structural Equation Modelling was employed to analyse the received empirical data. On the basis of the findings our research concludes that there is a significant positive relationship between SMAP and BP mediated by CE in the Indian retail and IT industries.     

Making a case for speech analytics to improve customer service quality: Vision,implementation, and evaluation

Firms operating in highly competitive markets must find ways to deliver customer value beyond offering competitive prices. Providing superior customer service in such environments becomes a strategic initiative because it can create a competitive advantage by fostering customer loyalty, which can also help ease pressure on profit margins and secure continued revenue flow. In this case study we report a case of utilizing speech analytics to improve customer service quality at a call center of a pharmaceutical supply chain service provider in the U.S. We first describe the strategic rationale behind enhancing customer service quality, followed by the implementation of a quality management program using a novel approach of speech analytics. We then present a longitudinal study that evaluated customer service performance using the data gathered from a team of 120 customer service agents during an 8-month period. Two categories of key performance indicators were established and measured, namely “workforce management” metrics and “customer experience” metrics, which served as the primary indicators in the analysis of the level of success in attaining three strategically identified performance goals to improve customer service quality.     

Mediation effect of business process and supply chain management capabilities on the impact of IT on firm performance: Evidence from Chinese firms

Motivated by the seeming presence of the productivity paradox in China, this research revisits the question of how information technology (IT) affects firm performance. Leveraging the process-based view of IT, we establish a theoretical framework for the mediation factors for the relationship between IT capabilities and performance. Based on a survey of 127 companies in China, we find that a firm's management capabilities to manage both its internal and external business processes fully mediate the impact of IT on firm performance. The two management capabilities in this study are business-process management capability and supply-chain management capability. Our results show that only the coherent integration of IT capability with firm’s ability to optimize business processes and to improve management of supply chains can enhance firm performance. Firms should avoid the fallacy that IT investments are solely responsible for better firm performance. Based on our findings, we discuss the implications for research and practice.     

The roles of infrastructure capability and customer orientation in enhancing customer-information quality in CRM systems: Empirical evidence from Taiwan

This study adopts both a resource-based perspective that combines technology, human, and business resources to develop an infrastructure capability, and a strategic-positioning perspective that emphasizes customer orientation to examine customer information quality in customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Specifically, this study examines how firms bundle infrastructure capability and customer orientation to enhance the quality of customer information that enhances customer relationships and firm performance. The results of data gathered from 116 financial service firms in Taiwan suggest that the impact of quality on firm performance begins with infrastructure capability and customer orientation, and that the complementarity between these factors positively influences customer information quality. The results indicate that customer information quality positively affects customer relationship performance, which consequently leads to improvements in overall firm performance.     

Real-time analytics,incident response process agility and enterprise cybersecurity performance: A contingent resource-based analysis

Emerging paradigms of attack challenge enterprise cybersecurity with sophisticated custom-built tools, unpredictable patterns of exploitation, and an increasing ability to adapt to cyber defenses. As a result, organizations continue to experience incidents and suffer losses. The responsibility to respond to cybersecurity incidents lies with the incident response (IR) function. We argue that (1) organizations must develop ‘agility’ in their IR process to respond swiftly and efficiently to sophisticated and potent cyber threats, and (2) Real-time analytics (RTA) gives organizations a unique opportunity to drive their IR process in an agile manner by detecting cybersecurity incidents quickly and responding to them proactively. To better understand how organizations can use RTA to enable IR agility, we analyzed in-depth data from twenty expert interviews using a contingent resource-based view. The results informed a framework explaining how organizations enable agile characteristics (swiftness, flexibility, and innovation) in the IR process using the key features of the RTA capability (complex event processing, decision automation, and on-demand and continuous data analysis) to detect and respond to cybersecurity incidents as-they-occur which, in turn, improves their overall enterprise cybersecurity performance.     

Role of visual analytics in supporting mental healthcare systems research and policy: A systematic scoping review

The availability of healthcare data has exponentially grown, both in quantity and complexity. The speed of this evolution has generated new challenges for translating complex data into effective evidence-informed policy. Visual analytics offers new capacity to analyze healthcare systems and support better decision-making. We conducted a systematic scoping review to look for evidence of visual analytics approaches being applied to mental healthcare systems and their use in driving policy. We found 79 relevant studies and categorized them in two ways: by study purpose and by type of visualization. The majority (67.1%) of the studies used geographical maps, and 11% conducted highly complex studies requiring novel visualizations. Significantly, only 15% of the studies provided information indicating high levels of usability for policy and planning. Our findings suggest that while visual analytics continues to evolve rapidly, there is a need to ensure this evolution reflects the practical needs of policy makers.     

跨越的一步:中小企业"愿望CRM"初探

举目当下,经济全球化,技术多元化,知识经济化,服务信息化……诚然,CRM软件抓住了中国SMB信息化带来的市场机会,但其发展却乏善可陈.面对客户无止境的需求,中小企业CRM供应商该如何应对？客户究竟需要什么样的CRM？怎样从竞争市场掘金？笔者根据大量市场调研和深入研究分析,首次提出＂愿望CRM＂概念,并根据SMB的实际运营现状为该概念赋予了明确定义.此番旨在促进中国SMB信息化发展的进程,推动CRM的迅速普及、推广应用.     

Business Intelligence Capabilities and Firm Performance: A Study in China

The development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology expands the boundary of business practice, inducing the emergence and application of business intelligence (BI) that has promoted the transformation of information techniques to optimize business decision and operation. However, there is a lack of theoretical consensus and measurement of the technology embedded in BI at present. This study exploratively develops the Sense-Transform-Drive (STD) conceptual model of BI based on dynamic capabilities theory and organizational evolutionary theory to explain the core BI capabilities. By using factoring analysis and structural equation modeling analysis, we extract the latent constructs and empirically verify the validity of the STD model and further examine the correlation and mode of interaction of the three core BI capabilities and the impact of BI application on firm performance in the real economy with a sample contextual to Chinese business practices. The study results show that there are direct and high-intensity cumulative positive effects among the structural components of the STD conceptual model and BI-related dynamic capabilities can enhance operating efficiency and firm performance.     

网络关系视角下技术生态位态势研究——基于东北三省新能源汽车产业的实证分析

近年来,技术生态位作为战略生态位管理理论的核心内容,被越来越多的学者用来研究新兴技术产业的发展问题。在将态势观点引入技术生态位的基础上,从网络关系的视角分析了生态位态势的愿景、力量和知识三个机制,在此前提下阐述了技术生态位态势的四个阶段。以东北三省新能源汽车产业为研究对象,根据前期的实地调查结果,分别讨论了三个机制作用下的生态位态势。实证结果表明:东北三省的新能源汽车产业均拥有不断成长的技术生态位网络和稳步发展的技术生态位态势,其中辽宁省的技术生态位态势处于填满期,吉林省处于原型II期,而黑龙江省处于胚胎期。根据实证结果,研究有重点地针对四个阶段的技术生态位态势提出了发展建议,为技术生态位理论在我国区域新兴技术产业实践中的运用进行了有益探索。