Sixth
Annual
GLOBAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT (GITM)
WORLD CONFERENCE
June 5, 6, & 7, 2005, Anchorage, Alaska
Conference Tracks and Track Chairs
Please submit your paper directly to the track chair
via email. The submission deadline is November 15, 2004.
Track Descriptions
This track is concerned with IT in Africa both as an influence on business and society as well as how local conditions dictate the use and development of IT. We are interested in finding out about how IT influences social and economic development, but equally interested in hearing about novel techniques for overcoming obstacles to IT implementation in African countries. While the track focuses on IT in a specific region of the world, a paper that compared IT in Africa with IT elsewhere would be welcomed. In addition, equally as valuable would be a survey paper that compared several countries in Africa or within a region.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:
Role of IT in national (social and economic) development in Africa
Indigenous IT approaches in Africa
Obstacles to IT implementation in Africa
Unique development and implementation methods in Africa
The role of culture in IT acceptance and use in Africa
Comparison of IT use within Africa
Comparison of IT use (and implementation) between Africa and other regions
E-commerce in Africa
The role of IT in African business culture
IT and government in Africa
The role of expatriates in IT implementation in Africa
The role of the NGO (NPO) sector in IT implementation in Africa
Uniquely African IT products
IT has played a major role in the rapid development of the Asian "tiger economies" and this fact has not been lost on Asia's newly emerging economies. Yet while a number of Asian governments are now building their national development plans around IT, others have only just obtained a connection to the Internet. While the region's major industrial and financial institutions are deploying IT in their bids to brace themselves for a global competitive stance and have proved that leapfrogging exists in IT development, the vast majority of Asians have yet to make a phone call, much less use a computer. The track on IT in Asia seeks to showcase IT/IS research and implementations that address these and other issues relating to the use of IT in Asia.
RECOMMENDED TOPICS
Papers (completed or in-progress: about 20 double spaced pages), extended abstracts (completed or in-progress research: about 4-6 pages), and panel and workshop proposals (2-4 pages) dealing with (but not limited to) the following topics are invited. Please mention the name of this track on the cover page.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
Cultural aspects of Asian IT
Multi-nationals and IT in Asia
National planning for IT
IT in Asian education
IT and Asian governance
Asian languages and IT
Asian Silicon Valleys
IT for islands and remote communities
E-commerce in Asia
Asian Internet issues
Acceptance and use of IT in Asian markets
Decision making and group collectivist societies
Papers related
to research, work in progress, IT and IS related case studies are invited in
the track “IT in Australian Region”. In this track, we welcome papers that
address a wide range of topics in information technology and systems.
Possible topics include:
Network computing
IT application technologies
Systems design and development
E-business and M-business
Web content and services
User behaviour
Interface Design
Organisational issues
Cross-cultural issues
Global issues
Culture in the Diffusion, Acceptance and Use of IT
In an increasingly global business environment, there is a growing need to utilize information technology (IT) to achieve efficiencies, coordination, and communication. Additionally, technology has been one of the driving forces behind the internationalization of commerce and service. However, the concept of culture has been has been little studied by information systems (IS) researchers. This track focuses on cultural issues and their impact on the diffusion, acceptance, and use of information technologies. The beliefs and values, regarding IT, that permeate societal groups can be examined from a variety of perspectives such as national, ethnic, organizational, and professional culture.
RECOMMENDED TOPICS
Papers (completed or in-progress: about 20 double spaced pages), extended abstracts (completed or in-progress research: about 4-6 pages), and panel and workshop proposals (2-4 pages) dealing with (but not limited to) the following topics are invited. Please mention the name of this track on the cover page.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
Theory development in the areas of adoption, diffusion, and use particularly focusing on cultural issues
Empirical studies of culture focusing on adoption, diffusion, and/or use
Cross-cultural comparisons of IT adoption, diffusion, and/or use
Cultural issues in multinational corporations
Further development of dimensions of culture salient to adoption, diffusion, and/or use
Refining instruments to measure the adoption, diffusion, and/or use of ITs across cultures
Adoption, diffusion, and/or use issues in corporations, cities, regions, nations, and continents
Pedagogical issues relating to this topic
This is 10 year anniversary of the
Internet in China. Information technology has been rapidly adopted in aprocess
the Chinese call informatization. China has
built a world class information infrastructure, but many businesses have been
slow to transform their business processes. As the manufacturing end of global
supply chains, many Chinese manufacturers are now under pressure to adopt more
advanced information technologies. This is particularly true of Wall-Mart's
suppliers who are being pushed to adopt RFID and ERP technologies. Research is
needed to define the appropriate information technology for Chinese
organizations.
Sub tracks:
Information Technoloogy Adoption
RFID Adoption in China
ERP adoption in China
The role of Chinese companies in global supply chains.
Internet Diffusion in China
The Software industry in China
Customer Relationship Management
According to the Computer Dictionary "CRM is an acronym for
"Customer Relationship Management", and entails all aspects of interaction
between a company and its customer. Computerization has changed consumer
buying behavior so more of the relationship is being managed electronically
through tools such as help-desk software, e-mail organizers and Web
development apps." (http://www.computerdictionary.info/computer-term-details)
This track seeks to explore issues related to this recent phenomenon of
computer mediated customer relationship management. Studies of interest in
this track may include but are not limited to:
Industry studies
Consumer behaviour
Consumer studies
Customer service relationships
Management issues
Technologies
Software Artefacts
Strategies
Critical Assessments
Country-based CRM studies
Global CRM studies
Decision Support and Knowledge Management
ICT can contribute to provide useful means for the coordination and the management of both intra and inter organizational networks at the global scale, nevertheless it is proven that ICT alone represent nothing but a high potential platform. Actually, it emerges more and more the necessity to implement on such platforms advanced tools acting as decision support systems able to manage and elaborate large quantity of information, mainly deriving from computer and network transactions in geographically dispersed areas, and able to support decision making at a global level.
The huge amount of available data collected through network transactions, the possible geographic dispersion of such information, the necessity of interfacing and coordinating different networks systems belonging to different companies of a network, create new management problems usually not solvable through traditional tools and methodologies. Furthermore, and probably even more important, information is not only quantitatively rich but also its content becomes more and more complex; thus, in many cases, it’s the semantic aspect of information that has to be managed, as it happens with language-based information and interaction on the world wide web. Information management becomes more and more difficult because it involves the management of both syntactic and semantic aspects and it requires an approach more oriented to Knowledge management and Decision Support Systems than to traditional Information Systems one.
By keeping into account the remarkable progresses obtained in the field of advanced computation and Artificial Intelligence in the recent years, one may asks if the development of intelligent technologies based on the integration of ICT and computational techniques can provide interesting and promising solutions for the management of organizational networks in a global environment.
The focus of this track is to collect interesting contributions in this direction involving the development and the design of innovative Knowledge Management methodologies and Decision Support Systems for the resolution of problems related to the coordination, knowledge and information management, operations management in complex networked organizations.
RECOMMENDED TOPICS
Papers (completed or in-progress: about 20 double spaced pages), extended abstracts (completed or in-progress research: about 4-6 pages), panel and workshop proposals (2-4 pages) dealing with (but not limited to) the following topics are invited. Please mention the name of this track on the cover page.
Topics in this track include, but are not limited to:
Design and implementation of decision support systems for global management
Application of intelligent computation techniques to knowledge management and decision support systems (e.g. fuzzy systems, neural networks, genetic algorithms, agent-based technologies, etc.)
Intelligent systems for e-business and e-commerce
Qualitative methodologies for Knowledge Management
Tools for managing intellectual capital
Decision support tools for virtual team and extended enterprise management
Design of IT Tools for Knowledge Management in a global environment
Knowledge management platforms
Organizational models for knowledge management
Organizational impact of ICT-based decision support and Knowledge management tools
Doctoral Students are encouraged to apply to this International Doctoral Consortium. The conference organizers have graciously lowered the conference registration fee to $125 per student, which includes a copy of the conference proceedings. The Doctoral Consortium is based on the following requirements and rules:
1. The GITMA Doctoral Consortium is open only to Doctoral Students who have identified or started on their dissertation topic or research
2. Each applicant must submit a 2-3 page short paper/abstract on their primary research topic to the track chair by November 15, 2004.
Track chair e-mail: basuc@uww.edu Choton Basu at University of Wisconsin Whitewater.
3. If the paper is accepted for the International Doctoral Consortium you must register for the 2004 GITM World conference. However note highly reduced rates at $125 per student.
4. The chair for the doctoral consortium has arranged for an extra incentive of $200/student for the FIRST three students who qualify and are accepted to the GITMA doctoral consortium. Papers will be judged on significance and originality.
5. Please apply or contact the track chair immediately since only 10 spots are available for the GITMA International Doctoral Consortium.
Other requirements:
a) You will be required to make a 15 minute presentation at the conference during the doctoral consortium.
b) Each presentation will be followed by a discussion
c) The accepted short paper will be published in the conference proceedings.
d) Submit all papers in MS-Word or in PDF format. Possible outline may include Abstract, Research Objective, Research Design, Research Questions, Research Model (*strongly recommended), Expected Contribution
Please note that you are not expected to have your research completed. The goal of this doctoral consortium is to assist you and provide valuable feedback with your research. Also this is a perfect conference for you to network with international researchers and doctoral students who can provide assistance in data collection, contacts, collaboration and even translation and testing of your work in other languages.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the GITM Doctoral Consortium Chair, Dr. Choton Basu at University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. His e-mail is basuc@uww.edu or Work: 262-472-5005.
Global IT Education and Training
The Global IT Education and Training track
seeks original, innovative papers that explore new approaches and solutions
to the challenges posed by the use of information technology for education
and training in a global context.
Suggested topics:
Role of IT in relation to Education and Training in a Globalized world
Online education- best practices, issues and challenges
Online education - Designing the artifact for teaching and learning across borders
Online training - Designing the artifact for teaching and learning across borders
Models for online education and training
Innovative approaches
Trans-national education
Applications in public and private global enterprises
Evaluation
Case studies
Authors are encouraged to submit full research papers as well as conceptual papers, in compliance with the conference's submission guidelines.
E-governance or
electronic governance may be defined as delivery of government services and
information to the public using electronic means. Use of IT in government
facilitates an efficient, speedy and transparent process for disseminating
information to the public and other agencies, and for performing government
administration activities. e-Governance is improving the lives of billions
of people worldwide and is integrating government services in a way never
seen before. The purpose of E-governance is to explore how the internet and
other information technologies (IT) have and will continue to impact on the
productivity and performance of the public sector and how e-government
fosters new and deeper citizen involvement within the governing process.
The Purpose of e-Governance track in GITMA 2005 is not only to provide a
forum of discussing research findings, strategies, policies, and
technologies supplemented by the learning from the innovative experiments of
e-governance but also aims to resolve agenda for future research/activities
and give impetus to this. This conference is scheduled to provide an
opportunity of sharing the research findings and learning from successful
implementation and the current experiments of e-governance. Participants are
expected from every parts of the world including: Faculty/ Scientists,
University students, Private sector executive (solution providers),
Government officers, policy makers and NGO/ community volunteers.
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning Systems) and SCM systems address the need to integrate the dispersed business units of an organization. While the implementation of ERP and SCM systems, within a local organization, present considerable challenges, those spanning regional and national boundaries introduce even greater technical, organizational and human challenges. This track addresses these complexities.
Topics include:
Europe is unique as a region because many nations in the region have a long history of industrialization, plus, there is the ever-growing trend of regional cooperation. The European region has managed to handle diversity well on several fronts (diversity of language, legal systems, etc.) On the other hand, there are nations struggling in the early stages of industrialization and industrialized nations that are struggling to become sophisticated in an information and communications technology sense.
Therefore, this track is intended to explore
Descriptions of developmental and cooperative initiatives and analysis of their ‘fit’ and effectiveness.
Regional or national lessons learned or best practices with applicability to other regions
Comparative analyses across nations or sub-regions within Europe
Literature reviews of research on Europe and ICT
Literature reviews of global theory and then specific analysis of how the global theory might be used to in European research or to analyze European region issues.
Special attention should be given to the need for each nation to operate in one or more of the following ways: 1) as an integrated entity in Europe, 2) as a regional player in the European Community and 3) the Global environment as a whole.
IT in Former Communist Countries
The Information Technology in former
Communist Countries focuses on IT in the countries that were once part of
the Soviet Union or Eastern Europe.
Russia in particular has a very talented well educated pool of engineers and
scientists. Many in this pool have immigrated to the West where they are
involved in the computer industry. Others are still located in Russia, but
are involved in outsourcing arrangements with the West. A shadow side of
computer expertise in the former communist countries is the
development and deployment of computer viruses.
As many of the Eastern European nations prepare to join the European Union
they are attracting significant investment in their telecommunications
infrastructure and are rapidly upgrading their facilities. Some speculate
that they may be able to "leap frog" the West.
We invite submissions that discuss innovation in IT in the former communist
countries (FCC)or in a particular FCC. Sub topics include:
Internet Diffusion in FCC
Telecommunications Infrastructure in FCC
Software outsourcing in FCC
Viruses and Hacking in FCC
Technology innovation in FCC
Technology adoption in FCC
Over a decade ago, Davenport defined business process as "a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome" and process as "a structured, measured set of activities designed to produce a specified output for a particular customer or market. It implies a strong emphasis on how work is done within an organization."
After a decade of streamlining processes
for efficiency, organizations are adopting a more proactive stance toward
the
future.
Post-modern approaches challenge internal and industry rules and norms; make
use of technology and have a global perspective; are customer-oriented; and
must be based on systems thinking. The GITM track on Global Business Process
Management invites contributions that examine how one or more global
business processes intrinsic to organizational efficiency and effectiveness
are integrated and managed for competitive success. Although business
processes are fundamental predictors of organizational success, there
remain considerable gaps in understanding how to drive efficiency through a
process approach, especially in the context of global organizations. The
track seeks insights into the theory and practice of successful
IT-facilitated global business processes. It invites leading edge
theoretical advances in the field, illustrations of best practices, case
studies and other theoretical and applied examples.
RECOMMENDED TOPICS
Papers (completed or in-progress: about 20 double spaced pages),extended
abstracts (completed or in-progress research: about 4-6 pages), panel and
workshop proposals (2-4 pages) dealing with (but not limited to) the
following topics are invited. Please mention the name of this track on the
cover page.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
Global BPM in eBusiness, eCommerce and eGovernment.
Web-based enterprise application integration.
eBPM, ERP, CRM, ASP & SCM with a global perspective.
Cross-cultural issues in global BPM.
Knowledge management and global learning organizations.
Methodologies, techniques and tools of global business process modeling, analysis and design.
Global "Six Sigma" implementations.
Global value chains, global supply chains.
Techniques for continuous improvement in the global context.
Performance management in the global context.
Tools and techniques of change management.
Organization Development and IT.
Global BPM case studies.
In today’s ever-evolving world, everything imaginable is available on the web. The Internet is growing as more and more people and businesses connect to it on a daily basis. With Internet usage on the rise, firms are beginning to realize the importance of adopting E-commerce. Forrester Research report forecasts that online retail sales will grow from $45 billion in 2000 to 269 billion dollars in 2005. This track intends to collect contributions on this issue. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to
E -Consumer Behavior
E -Commerce Adoption
E -Commerce Strategic Management
E -Commerce Management and Leadership
E -Commerce and Organizational Behavior
E -Commerce and Organizational Development
E -Commerce and Organizational Learning
E -Commerce Technologies and the Workplace
E -Commerce and Employee Ethical issues
E -Commerce Stress and Strain Impacts
E -Commerce and Human Resource Management
E -Commerce and Cultural Issues
E -Commerce and Customer Relationships
E -Commerce and Political Issues
B2B Markets and Exchanges
IT for Government and National Development
Tremendous global flux in terms of security, economics, and politics is forcing governments to rethink how technology is being used and how it should be used. However, issues such as terrorism, economic degradation, and geo-political redefinition contribute to global instability, which makes IT planning a very difficult endeavor. Governments are working together like never before to combat terrorism. Although use of IT to facility such activity is definitely on the rise, much more must be done to better coordinate international databases and IT platforms. Shifts in geo-political affiliations also impact such coordination. For instance, NATO allegiances are as fragile as they have ever been, but such allegiances are paramount to battling terrorism. The US and its normal allies seem to be embroiled in a political quandary. What seems to be lost in the turmoil is use of IT to enhance economic and human prosperity. This shouldn’t be a surprise in that there is an unusual shift in resources and priorities to battle terrorism.
This track focuses on the potential of IT to battle terrorism and enhance economic development. Topics for this track may include (but are not limited to):
IT to enhance coordination of databases (battling terrorism)
IT to enhance coordination of system platforms (battling terrorism)
e -Government initiatives
B-G and G-B electronic commerce
IT to foster transparency and democracy in government
Government intervention and standards for national IT
Intergovernmental and Intra-governmental IT
Socio-political development and IT
The international digital divide
Effects of IT on economic well-being and income distribution
National IT policies
Trans-border data flow
Global IT Research Issues and Challenges
1. Have we established a theory or theories, which have a clear set of definitions and methods that define this area?
2. Do we have a consensus on what we are trying to measure while we conduct research in this area?
3. What are the common threads of research in the global IT area and is there continuity in the research being conducted?
4. What are the future implications for researchers in this area and are there any concepts that need to be integrated with existing frameworks that would help define this area of research?
5. Is global IT research addressing the needs of practitioners?
In an attempt to address one, some or all of the above questions papers ranging from conceptual frameworks, models, theoretical reasoning and empirical evidence are invited. We would like to encourage author(s) to extend their work beyond examining artifacts in global IT. Please note that we are looking for articles that present radical ways to address the area of global IT or sub-areas within this domain of research. Manuscripts raising new research questions and assumptions (challenging existing ones), presenting innovative ways of investigating global IT and finally resulting in articles that can stand the test of time. We are not interested in articles that stop at examining current issues in global IT. Author(s) need to dedicate a major effort in extending the current models, frameworks and assumptions in global IT and emerge as visionaries. Author(s) are encouraged to support their efforts with anecdotal evidence (where appropriate).
RECOMMENDED TOPICS
Papers (completed or in-progress: about 20 double spaced pages), extended abstracts (completed or in-progress research: about 4-6 pages), panel and workshop proposals (2-4 pages) dealing with (but not limited to) the following topics are invited. Please mention the name of this track on the cover page.
Topics include, but are not limited to: