Knowledge that Transforms

This response addresses the data analysis issues raised by Wierenga and van Bruggen (1998) concerning Massetti (1996). Their analysis suggestions were performed and resulted in no significant differences between the treatment conditions. However, these analyses are misleading because of normality and variance problems present in Massetti’s dataset. Specifically, not controlling for individual performance differences in ideational fluency ability during experimentation created the need for the complex, but appropriate, analysis approach used in Massetti. This response further suggests that ideational fluency be included as an independent factor in future research on individual creativity support systems.

Creativity support systems (CSS) aim at enhancing the creativity of users. There is an emerging stream of research in which the effects of CSS on the creative output of respondents are measured. In this research, it is important to make a clear distinction between the dependent variable, creative output, and the independent variable use of CSS. Furthermore, the research design should take the potential effect of other factors on creative output into account, most notably, creative ability as a trait of the respondents. An experimental study on the value of creativity support systems was recently reported in MIS Quarterly (Massetti 1996). That study yielded interesting insights with respect to the value of CSS. However, because of the methodology applied in analyzing the data, the study underestimated the effects of CSS on the creative output of decision makers. In this note, Massetti's experiment is positioned in the broader perspective of current research in the area of CSS, and an alternative framework for analyzing the data is proposed.

This study addresses the broad research issue of how software firms can manage their software development efforts in order to compete effectively under intensified competition. Based on recent research in manufacturing strategy and software process engineering, a research model and six hypotheses were derived. Reusability and customizability were expected to positively affect process flexibility and predictability. In turn, these perceived process performance dimensions were expected to positively influence perceived competitive performance, assessed in terms of market responsiveness and product cost efficiency. Using a survey design, responses were obtained from a random sample of 100 software firms. Two kinds of respondents were used: the senior manager in charge of software development (58% response rate) and the marketing manager (36% response rate). The model and hypotheses were assessed using EQS, a structural equations modeling package that can be used for path analysis. The results from both the marketing manager and development manager responses suggested that process flexibility was an important determinant of perceived competitive performance. However, process predictability was an important determinant of perceived competitive performance in the development manager, but not the marketing manager, responses. Finally, while customizability had a significant positive effect on the perceived process performance dimensions, reusability did not. The research model is a potentially useful contribution to an important new area of MIS research concerning the performance of software firms, which draws from manufacturing strategy and software process engineering.

This research focuses on group decision making from both an outcome and a process-based perspective. This study draws from the well-established literature of group polarization, as well as the growing body of GSS literature, to develop a model to study group polarization in a contemporary communication context. The proposed model focuses on communication medium, task characteristics, group composition, and their interaction as explanations for the outcome of group polarization and the process that precedes it. An experimental research method is used to test the relationships suggested by the model. In this study, group polarization is recorded by comparing decisions at the individual level, face-to-face group settings, and GSS mediated settings. The initial agreement index indicates the diversity of individual stances within the group. This index is used as a covariate to enhance understanding of the extent of group polarization. The group process is documented by protocol analyzing transcriptions of the FTF and GSS group sessions for persuasive content. A 2x2x2 factorial design was used to analyze the results. The analysis indicates that, for both process and outcomes, the medium of communication and task characteristics interact with one another to provide the dominant explanation. Surprisingly, group composition had no impact on either polarization or persuasive arguments. The findings reported in this study are of importance to organizations that increasingly rely on groups as units of decision making. The results also provide insight to researchers of group decision making and to future developers and users of group support systems.

This first decade of business process reengineering (BPR) is blemished by sporadic success, pathological performance, and inefficiency. Reengineering inefficiency is driven in part by cost and cycle time for process redesign, a process itself that requires deep reengineering knowledge and specialized expertise. However, such knowledge and expertise are not addressed by extant, first-generation redesign tools, so these intellectual activities must be performed manually at present, or provided through expensive BPR consulting services. Knowledge-based systems (KBS) address the requirements for knowledge and expertise directly, and they can augment firstgeneration tools to reduce redesign cost and cycle time, and hence increase reengineering efficiency. This study employs the methods and tools of reengineering recursively, to redesign the process of process redesign itself. Using measurement-driven inference, a second-generation KBS redesign tool called KOPeR is developed to automate three key intellectual activities required for process redesign—process measurement, pathology diagnosis, and transformation matching. This KBS tool is used in the laboratory to redesign a commercial process from the reengineering literature and then employed in the field to redesign operational procurement processes in the context of an “industrial strength” reengineering project. The study finds that KOPeR-supported redesign enables new reengineering efficiencies in terms of direct automation effects and indirect knowledge effects. Results of this investigation highlight new opportunities available to the IS manager—such as improving the return on investment from BPR, enhancing the capability for knowledge management and organizational memory, and achieving competitive advantage through knowledge integration—opportunities that do not necessarily require KBS automation to seize. This investigation also lays a research cornerstone and foundation for development of process redesign theory and investigation of reengineering effectiveness.

Due to the popularity of survey research in information systems we have launched a compilation of survey instruments and related information. This work started in 1988, as the disk-based Calgary Surveys Query System, and has now been extended to the world wide web via a contribution of “living scholarship” to MISQ Discovery. This work includes actual IS survey instruments—either in full text or via links to the appropriate citations—as well as introductory information to help get researchers started with the survey methodology.

This longitudinal case study examines the use of desktop videoconferencing in one organization. Three theoretical perspectives, communication media choice, systems analysis and design, and privacy, help to inform the findings. The paper concludes by drawing implications for future research and practice.

This paper investigates the impact of IT investments and worker composition on the productivity of life insurance companies. The majority of previous IT productivity studies follow a technological imperative, hypothesizing a direct relationship between higher IT investments and increased productivity. This paper shifts the focus toward the organizational imperative, which views returns on IT investments as a result of the alignment between technology and other critical management choices. Specifically, the study focuses on the alignment between IT investments and worker composition, measured in terms of relative numbers of clerical, managerial, and professional positions to the total number of employees. Hypotheses are tested using a data set compiled over a 10-year period for 52 life insurance companies. With respect to prior research, the study is novel in its adoption of a model of productivity that accounts for both separate and combined effects of IT investments and worker composition. Premium income per employee and total operating expense to premium income are used as indicators of productivity. Study findings show that increases in IT expenses are associated with productivity benefits when accompanied by changes in worker composition. Life insurance companies that have decreased their proportion of clericals and professionals while at the same time investing in IT have experienced productivity improvements. On the other hand, companies decreasing their proportion of managers while investing in IT are found to have reduced productivity.