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Liturature review of Nine Articles, production & productivity
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I INTRODUCTION - This paper contains three parts. The paper contains an introduction to a nine article literature review, a body containing a 2-page outline for each article (including the research problem/question, theory being researched, methodology used including research design, variable operationalization, hypotheses, and data analysis, findings, implications and future research direction) and a Summary and Conclusion to the entire set of literature as part of this work. The nine article review is required course work for CSA 6080, - Professional Studies Workshop (Information Technology Management). The instructions have been provided have been include for reference in Appendix A. CSA 6080 Sylabus on page #25. The topic of interest is a desire to contrast the current cost world Vs the world of considering constraints management. The two worlds can be applied to any systems thinking (Goldratt and Cox 1992) scenario and is directly applicable to information systems and information technology (IS/IT) management theory. The current process of instituting IT/IS into organizations makes the topic of extreme importance as the cost world struggles with the issues of local optimas and IT/IS performance. Nine articles were chosen to investigate the current literature on the basis of IT/IS investments and the organizational performance or ‘bang for the buck’ return on those investments. The articles are summarized below for initial exposure: ARTICLE Bharadwaj, A. S. (2000). "A resource-based perspective on information technology capability and firm performance: An empirical investigation." MIS Quarterly 24(1): 169-196. Gooijer, J. d. (2000). "Designing a knowledge management performance framework." Journal of Knowledge Management 4(4): 303-310. Hu, Q. and R. Plant (2001). "An empirical study of the casual relationship between IT investment and firm performance." Information Resources Management Journal 14(3): 15-26. Kumar, A., W. M. P. Van Der Aalst, et al. (2001/2002). "Dynamic work distribution in workflow management systems: How to balance quality and performance." Journal of Management Information Systems 18(3): 157-193. Mahmood, M. A. and G. J. Mann (2000). "Special issue: Impacts of information technology investment on organizational performance." Journal of Management Information Systems 16(4): 3-12. Rigby, C., M. Day, et al. (2000). "Agile supply: rethinking systems thinking, systems practice." Journal of Agile Management Systems 2(3): 178-186. Sambamurthy, V. and R. W. Zmud (1999). "Arrangements for information technology governance: A theory of multiple contingencies." MIS Quarterly 23(2): 261-290. Sircar, S., J. L. Turnbow, et al. (2000). "A framework for assessing the relationship between information technolgy investments and firm performance." Journal of Management Information Systems 16(4): 69-97. Thatcher, M. E. and J. R. Oliver (2001). "The impact of technology investments on a firm's production efficiency, product quality, and productivity." Journal of Management Information Systems 18(2): 17-45. Table 1 Summary of Literature Review Articles II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE - 1.0 Article Number One: The initial article in this literature review was titled, A resource-based perspective on information technology capability and firm performance: An empirical investigation. The article was published in the MIS Quarterly by Anandhi S Bharadwaj. The research problem or question addressed by this article is that there is a a widely held belief that development if an IS/IT infrastructure is mandatory for future business performance. Does high levels of Information Technology (IT) ability correlate to high business performance measures? The theory being researched is the Theory of "productivity paradox," and the controversy over the business value of computer investments continues to rage even in the face of more encouraging evidence about payoffs from IT (Brynjolfsson 1993; Brynjolfsson and Hitt 1993, 1996; Hitt and Brynjolfsson 1996). The methodology in the research design in this article investigated the "matched sample comparison group methodology” to assess the strength of relationally between utilizing IT capability and a firms performance. This is a popular methodology that has been used in several research studies in the accounting, finance; and marketing literatures (c.f. Balakrishanan et al.1996). The article utilizes a research design that is quantitative and longitudinal in nature. The data was collected from practitioner journals and was scaled to level the playing field for attributes such as industry, size and cross sectional variations. The variable operationalization utilized dependent variables that were derived from Compustat. The testing for financial performance involved the identification and use of five measures or ratios. Two were measures of how profitable a company is and are, return on assets (ROA) and return on sales (ROS), have been widely used in the IT business value literature as measures of firm profitability (Cron and Sobol 1983; Hitt and Brynjolfsson 1996; Strassman 1990; Weill 1992). The ROA measure, calculated as the ratio of net income to assets, indicates how profitably a firm employs its assets since it reflects how much profit a firm is able to generate for each dollar of asset invested. It is a broad measure that is correlated with several other profitability measures (Grinyer and Norburn 1975). The article also identified the ROS measure as a ratio of net income to sales generated. There were additional ratios that are related to the cost side, cost of goods sold to sales (COGS/S) and selling and general administrative expenses to sales (SG&AIS). Bharadwaj’s hypothesis are two fold and are stated below: H1: Superior IT capability will be associated with significantly higher profit ratios H2: Superior IT capability will be associated with significantly lower cost ratios. The fundamental article acquired samples then matched-sample to a comparison group methodology. The next step was to utilize ratings (available publicly) and used to compare a candidates IT abilities versus the companies performance levels. The data analysis was the comparison of the mean levels utilizing a t-test was the method of choice but was discarded due to non-parameterics. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was utilized to reject the hypothesis that the dependent variables (profit and cost performance ratios) exhibit a gaussian distribution. Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test was used to test the difference levels in the data evaluated (Conover 1980). 2.0 Article Number Two: The second article in this literature review was titled, Designing a knowledge management performance framework.. The article was published in the Journal of Knowledge Management by Gooijer, J. d. (2000). The fundamental research question or problem attempting to be answered was not evident. Even though the second article is a peer reviewed journal and is a complete full text version it is a practitioners view of Knowledge Management (KM) and its effect on the business performance model utilized for management of public sector organizations.
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