1,721,054 research outputs found
Factors influencing the identification of it indirect costs: A case study
No full textOrganizations expenditure on Information technology (IT) related investments continue to rise in the
face of the fierce competition in the various marketplaces. Nevertheless, the problem of evaluating
such investments remains a challenge to managers due to the inability of the evaluation techniques to
accommodate the indirect costs associated with IT investments. This negatively affects the accuracy of
the justification process and the investment decision. According to literature, indirect cost factors are
not easily identified or quantified because they human and organizational dimensions. Indirect costs,
proven to be problematic to accommodate within traditional appraisal techniques, make IT managers
choose to ignore them and neglect to include them in IT investment budgets. The research suggests an
alternative solution to the problem of quantifying such indirect costs by calling for a more accurate
identification of those costs which would enable a more robust management and finally control of
such costs. Using a case study the paper highlights the investment decision making process in an
international resource company and confirms the call for a more robust identification process. In
addition the paper maps each indirect costs factor to the lifecycle stage(s) in which it occurs and
presents the factors that influence the quality of the identification process
Enhancing IT investments productivity: Integrating network QOS and it indirect costs
No full textIncreasing productivity is considered one of the major driving factors for a successful business. From an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure perspective, obtaining an optimised performance of resources is expected to improve productivity. From a technical viewpoint, the introduction of Quality of Service (QoS) models have been perceived to optimise the performance of the organisation network backbone. These models aim to provide an acceptable level of service assurance to the newly introduced applications and services such as voice and video. From a management viewpoint, the proper management of IT investments indirect costs can lead to a reduction of the overall cost portfolio. Consequently, both benefits and productivity increase are likely to be realised. This paper introduces network QoS strategy within the hierarchy of business infrastructure. In addition, it aims to identify the relationship between network QoS and IT indirect costs. Such integration demonstrates how network QoS strategy can be used to control IT indirect costs as well as enhancing network performance
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
A comprehensive analysis of it/is indirect costs: Enhancing the evaluation of information systems investments
No full textThe level of Information Technology (IT) expenditure within organizations continues to
increase over the years in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage in their respective
industries. Nonetheless, IT projects still experience budget overruns taking into account the
continual fall of hardware costs. This phenomenon presents a dilemma to managers who
struggle to evaluate their investments in IT. Adding to the difficulty is the peculiar nature of
such investments having Human and Organizational dimensions. Such dimensions are later
translated into indirect costs that are both difficult to identify and quantify hence are ignored
by managers which hinders the evaluation process. The lack of knowledge of managers about
IT/IS indirect costs affect their ability to determine the true costs of deploying IT. It is closing
the gap that this paper strives to explore a new method for identifying, managing and
controlling IT indirect costs through a case study enquiry of a leading gold producing
company. The research establishes a rational that goes beyond the traditional quantification
appraisal of costs which is inadequate in the case of indirect costs. It proposes a solution that
helps to thoroughly identify the indirect costs, mitigate their effect and achieve the desired
control while enhancing the evaluation process through their inclusion
Investigating the factors affecting information systems evaluation within sustainable environments
Get PDFCopyright @ 2013 EMCIS.Currently, organizations and stakeholders are more concerned with environmental issues, thus the role of information systems (IS) and information technologies (IT) within organizations towards ecological being sustainability has changed. Environmental or Green initiatives is realized as having credibly to assist in shifting to a sustainable society. Furthermore, the elements within IS/IT evaluation including costs, benefits and risks within organizations associated with IS evaluation and sustainability are taken into account in terms of the challenges concerning green practices (Green IS/IT) leading the organizations to attempt to diminish the impact of their IS/IT operations towards the environments socially and ethically, which indirectly assist them in achieving competitive advantages competitors through adopting and implementing environmental sustainability practices. In addition, government sectors are taking a step closer in order to create awareness and incorporate green into all components of the business functions. Practitioners and scholars are motivating to use the existing frameworks and models to evaluate IS/IT initiatives with sustainability taken into perspectives. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to critically review the normative literature associated with IS evaluation within sustainable environments and to develop a conceptual framework or model for IS evaluation within sustainable organizations that measures the impact of environmental sustainability factors and highlight a number of research gaps that need to be addressed in future research
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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