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A study of 100 managers at Information Technology and e‐commerce companies in three districts of Dar‐es‐Salaam, Tanzania's largest city, identifies the principal factors impeding the spread of e‐commerce in that area. These include budget constraints, poor Internet penetration, a low level of computer literacy, and a lack of skills and training. By addressing these issues, along with users’ security and privacy concerns, organizational leaders can help foster the adoption of e‐commerce technologies that can lead to increased efficiency, profits, and market reach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acquisition and development of talent are crucial to enhancing organizational capabilities and competitiveness. At MindTree, a fast‐growing multinational information technology company based in India, senior managers have leveraged the organization's culture to promote workforce diversity in its recruitment and promotion initiatives. Taking an integrated approach to talent management, the company has also taken several training, performance appraisal, compensation, and development initiatives to secure an efficient pipeline of high‐potential leaders. In the process, they have reduced the rate of employee turnover while reinforcing the core values that are fundamental to the company's success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can democratic oversight of deregulated public services be provided without running the risk of reintroducing the layers of bureaucracy that deregulation was to remove? A study of the deregulation of water services provided by Eau Méditerranée in the south of France shows how a reworking of an 18th-century concept for increasing visibility in a prison environment, updated to take account of the capabilities of today's information technology, can help. By adopting a new approach to management transparency-making the wealth of data it holds freely available to its clients-Eau Méditerranée found a novel way to provide a clear and credible form of accountability for local authorities without further increasing its bureaucratic workload. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a variety of reasons, strategic innovation in a microfirm's business model can be particularly challenging. One French company that specializes in the distribution of legal announcements and local economic news managed to use IT to not only reinvent its business model but also transform the rules of competition in its sector. Its experiences highlight the particular difficulties that small firms encounter when introducing new technology and the importance of training and creative alliances to ease both internal and external resistance to change. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasingly aging population and spiraling health care costs have made the search for financially viable health care models an imperative of this century. The careful and creative application of information technology (IT) can play a significant role in meeting that challenge. Valuable lessons can be learned from an analysis of ten innovative telemedicine and e-health initiatives. Having proven their effectiveness in addressing a variety of medical needs, they have progressed beyond small-scale implementations to become an established part of health care delivery systems around the world. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformation is critical for any organization to succeed, and technology-enabled change has become a widespread means of improving responsiveness to competition and customer satisfaction. In the current climate of economic uncertainty, the imperatives that are instrumental in pushing organizations to consider transformation include innovation, business agility to adapt to external changes efficiently and effectively, the alignment of information technology (IT) and business strategy, and global demand and support for new ideas and new opportunities. The critical success factor for such initiatives lies in effective leadership to manage the changes associated with both people and processes. A review of the various aspects of leadership and change management and an analysis of five case studies in technology transformation identify the common leadership parameters that can lead to the effective and efficient adoption of change. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely accepted that information technology (IT) plays a central role in creating and maintaining a firm's competitive advantage. When discussions turn to strategic breakthroughs-innovations that are so fundamental that they disrupt the way an existing market operates-however, the role played by IT appears less clear-cut. The experiences of three well-known companies-Amazon, Dell, and eBay-show that the way that IT was used to gain a more intimate knowledge of the customer formed a common component of each of their business models. Those companies' experiences also indicate that the task of creating the type of radically different business model needed to create a strategic breakthrough might be easier to achieve in a new organization, unencumbered by the baggage of the past, than it is in an established organization with a preexisting business culture and an established way of doing things. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most articles on strategic breakthroughs tend to concentrate on large, high-tech organizations. Yet the French firm 1001 Listes, which creates and manages wedding lists, has shown that it is possible for even a relatively small organization to generate strategic breakthroughs with standard off-the-shelf information technology. Its experience highlights two points that previous studies have overlooked: Breakthrough strategies are based on innovations in business models as well as innovations in technology, and breakthrough strategies may actually reduce a company's reliance on high-tech solutions as a means of maintaining its competitive advantage. Using Henderson and Venkatraman's (1993) model of strategic alignment, this article also outlines the nature of breakthrough strategies. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]