Readings

Madnick, Stuart, and Y. Richard Wang. A Framework of Composite Information Systems for Strategic Advantage. Proceedings of the 1988 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, January 1988, pp. 35-43.

One important category of strategic applications involves inter-corporate linkage or intra-corporate integration. Applications in this category require multiple systems to work together. This category of Information Systems is referred to as Composite Information Systems (CIS). This paper presents the research issues and directions that may lead to a comprehensive foundation of CIS. This paper also investigates the strategic, technical, and organizational issues involved in CIS and the corresponding research directions.

Evans, Philip, and Thomas Wurster. Getting Real About Virtual Commerce. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, November-December 1999, pp. 85-94.

This paper discusses the notions of reach, richness, affiliation, and the role of navigators. Reach is the degree of access and connections, sources and receivers. Richness is the depth and detail of information system gives and collects. Affiliation is the degree to which the user's interests are represented. There is a major focus on "navigators" which will have enormous power and market value and "meta" navigators which can help compare multiple e-retailers.

Porter, Michael, and Victor Millar. How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, July-August 1985, pp. 149-160.

Presents a summary of the key ideas from Porter's widely-cited books Competitive Strategy and Competitive Advantage. It identifies five forces that determine industry profitability:

1. the entry of new competitors
2. the threat of substitutes
3. the power of buyers
4. the power of suppliers, and
5. rivalry among the existing competitors.

It also proposes three generic strategies for success:

1. cost leadership
2. differentiation, and
3. focus.

Another important concept is the value chain. The five major components of the value chain are:

 

1. inbound logistics
2. operations
3. outbound logistics
4. marketing & sales, and
5. service.

There are three infrastructure activities that support the value chain:

1. human resource management
2. technology development, and
3. procurement.

The value chain provides a systematic way to examine all the activities of a firm. Linkages, or "connectivity", between value chains is an important way to exploit strategic advantages. Furthermore, this article identifies three ways that technology affects competition:

1. it alters industry structure
2. it supports cost and differentiation strategies, and
3. it spawns new businesses.

Porter, Michael E. Strategy and the Internet. Harvard Business Review, March 2001, pp. 63-78.

Also uses the five forces model and value chain model, but in the context of the Internet. He argues that the Internet does not change the "old rules". He dispels many Internet myths, which have become more obvious in recent years, and illustrates that the "old rules" are also the "new rules." He also suggests six principles for Strategic Positioning:

1. right goal
2. value proposition
3. distinctive value chain
4. trade-offs
5. fit, and
6. continuity of direction.

Short, James, and N. Venkatramen. Beyond Business Process Redesign: Redefining Baxter's Business Network. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 1992, pp. 7-21.

This reading describes the evolution of the American Hospital Supply - Baxter information systems. There are many parallels to the McKesson case that we will discuss in class. There are no readings on the McKesson case.

Venkatraman, N. IT-Enabled Business Transformation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan Management Review, Winter 1994, pp. 73-87.

This reading highlights the different ways that IT can impact and transform a business. Many of these different ways will be seen in the McKesson discussion.

Vargo, John, and Ray Hunt. Local Area Networks - Principles and Components. Chap. 5 in Telecommunications in Business: Strategy and Application. Richard Irwin, 1996, pp. 167-223.

This paper presents an overview of the various Local Area Network (LAN) architectures. The focus is on media (e.g., twisted pair, coax, optical fiber), topology (e.g., bus, tree, ring) and access control (e.g., CSMA/CD, token ring).

Stallings, William. The OSI Reference Model. Chap. 2 in Networking Standards: A Guide to OSI, LAN, and MAN Standards. Addison-Wesley, 1993, pp. 17-56.

Presents a good overview of communication network concepts based upon the ISO Reference Model of Open System Interconnection (OSI). The OSI model consists of seven layers of protocols:

1. physical
2. data link
3. network
4. transport
5. session
6. presentation, and
7. application.

Morgan, Cynthia. Wired for Speed. Windows Magazine, December 1997.

Batini, C., M. Lenzerin, and S. B. Navathe. A Comparative Analysis of Methodologies for Database Schema Integration. ACM Computing Surveys 18, No. 4, December 1986, pp. 323-364.

A "schema" is a representation of all the data to be managed by an organization. In the context of distributed database systems and inter-organizational systems, it may be necessary to use data that spans two or more organizations. This paper addresses the issue of integrating the individual database schemas. It discusses various causes of schema differences and various approaches to solving these problems.

Madnick, Stuart. Metadata Jones and the Tower of Babel: The Challenge of Large-Scale Semantic Heterogeneity. Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE Meta-Data Conference, April 6-7, 1999, pp. 1-13.

Also at: http://hdfeos.org/forums/archive/index.php?t-196.html

Describes the problem of semantic heterogeneity - where the same "word" may have multiple interpretations. For example, does "price" include tax or not, is it in Dollars or Pounds, etc.

Berners-Lee, Tim, James Hendler, and Ora Lassila. The Semantic Web. Scientific American, May 2001.

Bressan, S., C. Goh, N. Levina, S. Madnick, A. Shah, and M. Siegel. Context Knowledge Representation and Reasoning in the Context Interchange System. Journal of Applied Intelligence 13, 2000, [also MIT Sloan School of Management Working Paper 4133], pp. 165-180.

Williamson, Oliver. The Organizational Failures Framework. Chap. 2 in Markets and Hierarchies. 1975, pp. 20-40.

Presents key issues of bounded rationality, uncertainty, complexity, and opportunism.

Williamson, Oliver, and William Ouchi. The Markets and Hierarchies Program of Research: Origins, Implications, Prospects. Chap. 8 in Perspectives on Organizing Design and Behavior. A. H. Van de Ven and W. F. Joyce, eds. New York: 1981, pp. 347-370. [Reprinted in Power, Efficiency and Institutions: A Critical Appraisal of the "Markets and Hierarchies" Paradigm, J. Turk and P. Willman, eds. London: 1983, pp. 13-34, and in Theories of Organization, Henry Tosi, ed. New York: 1984, pp. 11.]

Focus on transaction cost economics. Discusses reasons for vertical integration and multi-divisions. Issues of "bureaucracy" vs. "clan" raised. Asset specificity discussed.

Kotter, John. Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, March-April 1995, pp. 59-67.

Osborn, Charley, Stuart Madnick, and Y. Richard Wang. Motivating Strategic Alliances for Composite Information Systems: The Case of a Major Regional Hospital. Journal of Management Information Science 6, No. 3, Winter 1989-90, pp. 99-117.

This paper explores the nature of strategic goals underlying composite information systems, also referred to as inter-organizational systems, and ways to increase the likelihood of success through three techniques: (1) bi-directional benefits, (2) co-operative pay-out, and (3) asymmetric control.