Knowledge that Transforms

This paper chronicles the evolution and content of an integrated MBA (IMBA) at the University of Denver and relates an IS-oriented view of the curriculum integration and teaching experience. The study emphasizes IS faculty efforts to integrate curricula from the traditional MIS course into three of the seven team-taught, interdisciplinary IMBA courses. Their teaching experiences illustrate pedagogy, and ensuing sections summarize student feedback and provide insights on what appears to work and what does not, as well as what remains to be done. A process is recommended to MIS faculty for infusing IS topics into an integrated curriculum. Gaining respect from other faculty for teaching the use and management of IT beyond its use for personal productivity, and incorporating IS into multiple class sections with scarce IS faculty resources are major problems. What appears to work best for MIS faculty is to attend curriculum discussions with (1) an appreciation of what IS/IT knowledge is essential for an MBA to (a) understand IS contributions to the solution of business problems and (b) participate in systems development activities to obtain (and later manage) IT applications; and (2) a willingness to look for opportunities to position IS/IT topics to complement other curricula.

This study evaluates the extent to which the added value to customers from a supplier’s application of information technology (IT) is manifested through premium prices of a traded good. The study demonstrates that IT can add value to an otherwise undifferentiated good and shows how these benefits accrue to customers from the adoption of IT. Analyzing a case in which the traded good is a homogeneous commodity—commercial fueling—our study shows that the critical impacts of IT are convenience and control—that is, convenience that provides improved access to fuel and control that reduces problems of delegating purchasing authority for the customer. The value of this additional service is exhibited in premium prices customers are willing to pay for the IT-enhanced traded good, relative to the same good without IT. Compared to the price without IT, statistical analysis of the supplier’s pricing history demonstrates that the application of IT to commercial fuel yielded price premiums of between five and 12 percent of the retail fuel price.

Organizations in both developed and developing countries use information technology to support their operational, tactical, and strategic processes (cf., Bogod, 1979; Cooper and Zmud, 1990). Any strategic competitive advantage of information technology, however, is contingent on acquisition and assimilation of information technology products and applications into organizational processes. Using a value expectancy approach, this study proposes an expanded model to examine the variables that correlate with information technology investment decisions. The theory of alienation from social psychology is used as a basis to systematically define and measure decision makers1 attitudes and internal beliefs toward information technology in an investment context. Detailed discussion of the development of a computer alienation measurement scale is presented. The scale was used to collect data from 97 decision makers in the United States, a developed country, and Saudi Arabia, a developing country. Results provide empirical evidence on the appropriateness of applying the computer alienation construct to computer purchase decisions. Computer-alienated decision makers were found to be more inclined to resist information technology adoption by refraining from buying computers. This resistance was evident in both the U.S. and the Saudi samples. The study findings also indicate that decision-maker computer knowledge, computer experience, and education level are closely associated with alienated beliefs and attitudes toward information technology. Alienated decision makers reported paying less attention to information technology information sources. Assuming technologies can provide advantages, these findings point to the need for change agents to minimize alienating beliefs and attitudes.

This paper provides an overview report of the first joint curriculum development effort for undergraduate programs in information systems. The curriculum recommendations are a collaborative effort of the following organizations: ACM, AIS, DPMA, and ICIS. After a summary of the objectives and rationale for the curriculum, the curriculum model is described. Input and output attributes of graduates are delineated. Resource requirements for effective IS programs are then identified. Lastly, there is a proposal for maintaining currency of the curriculum through electronic media.