Communications of the ACM
Communications of the ACM
In the Virtual Extension
Is Stickiness Profitable for Electronic Retailers?
Lin Lin, Paul Jen-Hwa Hu, Olivia R. Liu Sheng, and Johnny Lee
Current e-commerce practices suffer from a lack of accurate bottom-line performance metrics. Although conventional wisdom suggests that measurements such as stickiness or number of visitors might offer a clue, no empirical evidence to date has shown any conclusive proof for such assumptions. The authors analyze the relationship between customers' in-session visiting behavior measured by "stickiness" and their conversion behavior. This study directly answers the question: "Does visiting behavior measurement really serve as an effective tool for predicting customer purchase intentions?" Their findings greatly improve our understanding of the phenomenon under study and would have immediate impact on current business practice.
Practitioner-Based Measurement: A Collaborative Approach
S.T. Parkinson, R.M. Hierons, M. Lycett, and M. Norman
It is widely understood that a program to improve software quality can be expected to recoup its cost many times over. The authors put forward two distinctly different models as the way to successfully implement such programs. This work defines a hybrid, practitioner-based model and evaluates the implementation of a measurement framework in a major insurance organization. Research was conducted to understand the critical success factors in implementing software measurement programs, develop a measurement framework to address these factors, implement a pilot program, and reflect on the outcomes.
Organizational Adoption of Open Source Software: Barriers and Remedies
Del Nagy, Areej M. Yassin, and Anol Bhattacherjee
Considerable excitement in the business community surrounds open source software as these applications appear to offer increased contextual functionality or technical performance along with reduced costs. Several barriers, however, prevent organizations from easily adopting these technologies. The authors examine adoption barriers surrounding organizational knowledge, legacy integration, open source software forking, sunk costs, and technological immaturity, as well as provide potential remedies to these barriers for organizations looking to adopt open source software.
Aligning Undergraduate IS Curricula With Industry Needs
John H. Benamati, Zafer D. Ozdemir, and H. Jeff Smith
Industry executives now seek IS graduates with higher-level skills. The vast majority of the top business schools (69%) have made recent curricular changes consistent with changing industry demands. Across MIS programs in top 50 business schools, the collective number of IS graduates was down 60% from 2003 to 2007. From 2006 to 2007, schools with changes combined to graduate 19% more MIS students while the number of graduates continued to decline in schools with no curricular changes. A coordinated effort by industry executives and academics is required to address IS industry demand for both skills and number of graduates.
Agent-Oriented Embedded Electronic Measuring Systems
Hing Kai Chan
Most of the reported literature regarding agent technology have been focusing on the theoretical foundations of agent applications. This article, in contrast, sets out to discuss two real-life applications of agent technology on embedded electronic measuring systems. The author discusses the reason why agent technology was employed in each case as well as addresses the difficulties that occur during the course of design, agent-based software development, and implementation. Pros and cons with respect to the two applications are presented, allowing readers to gain insights into why, and how, agent-technology could be applied in real-life applications.
Business Continuity and the Banking Industry
Fabio Arduini and Vincenzo Morabito
Recent natural disasters and acts of terrorism have propelled renewed interest in emergency planning in both the private and public sector. Business continuity (BC) is fast becoming a key task within all industrial and business specificities. The authors focus on the importance of BC strategies throughout any organization, particularly the banking industry where management has often depended on technologies it does not fully understand. BC planning should be considered a businesswide approach and not an IT-focused one, the authors warn. Moreover, such planning must be an ongoing commitment adopted among the various levels of management within an organization.
User Participation in Software Development Projects
Ramanath Subramanyam, Fei Lee Weisstein, and M.S. Krishnan
Eliciting user input has been considered crucial for successful software development. Consistent with this notion, both researchers and practitioners have viewed user participation as an important way to improve software quality, increase user satisfaction, and promote user acceptance. Product development leaders and project managers might lean toward increasing the users' input into the development process. However, empirical evidence also shows that user participation might negatively influence performance by making the process more difficult, lengthy, and less effective. In this study, the authors empirically examine both the 'developer-side' and 'user-side' impacts of user participation and underscore the need to carefully manage customer-team interactions.
A Framework for Health Care Information Assurance Policy and Compliance
Sherrie Drye Cannoy and A.F. Salam
As many as 400 people may have access to one's personal medical information throughout the typical care process. Patients and consumers need to feel their sensitive electronic records or information are protected against unauthorized access, transmission, and disclosure. HIPAA and related policies ensure that health records are kept confidential. However, if employees fail to understand compliance policies, it becomes difficult to keep patient information confidential. Based on a multi-site case study, this article presents a framework of Information Assurance Policy and Compliance factors addressing the behavioral dimension in the context of patient health care information.
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