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Although organizations have applied a variety of practices and tools to address information systems development (ISD) performance problems, most of these approaches have focused on controlling and improving predictability of the development process. There is growing recognition that ISD is a knowledge-intensive process that requires the integration of specialized stakeholder knowledge. We develop the perspective that integration of this specialized knowledge across knowledge boundaries in the ISD process drives ISD performance. We theorize that formal and informal organizational integrative practices influence ISD performance, because they facilitate the development of boundary objects that effectively span knowledge boundaries. Results from a field study of 110 firms provide considerable support for the proposed model. This paper makes three novel contributions to the technology management literature. First, it demonstrates that knowledge integration across knowledge boundaries through boundary objects improves ISD performance. Second, it shows how formal and informal organizational integrative practices enhance the integration of specialized knowledge within and across organizational subunits. Third, it shows that the positive influence of formal and informal organizational integrative practices on ISD performance is partially mediated by knowledge integration. For engineering and technology managers, the results highlight the centrality of knowledge integration for the management of technology development. Collectively, these findings offer a novel knowledge integration-based perspective that complements prior research on systems development and new product development. Index Terms--Boundary objects, information systems development, knowledge boundaries, knowledge integration, knowledge management, process improvement, project management, software development.

Despite substantial discussion of the Internet's impact on individual activities, there is an absence of a theoretically grounded measure of Internet usage for the provisioning of information required by decision-makers. Our research addresses this void in the literature. We conceptualize Internet Usage for Information Provisioning !IUIP) as the degree to which the Internet is used to meet information requirements of individual decision-makers engaged in diagnostic decision-making tasks. Drawing on the information processing theoretical framework, three dimensions (usage for breadth of content, usage for depth of content, and usage for interaction dynamism) of IUIP are identified. The construct was validated through a two-phase empirical study conducted in the physician clinical decision-making context. The first phase involved interviewing physicians to establish face validity of the dimensions and to generate multi-item measures for each dimension. The second phase consisted of surveying physicians to evaluate measurement properties and nomological validity. Principal components analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and partial least squares analysis were the primary statistical techniques used to analyze the data and evaluate construct validity. Our results suggest that decision-makers operating in uncertain and equivocal decision contexts use the Internet to a greater degree for their content needs and selective attention requirements. Our results also suggest that a fit between the user's information processing requirements and technology, and selected social norms, lead to higher levels of IUIP. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. Index Terms--Information processing, information systems (IS) success, IS usage, Internet, partial least squares.

Improving the capability of the development process has emerged as an important strategy for addressing recurring problems in software development, such as poor quality, high development costs, and long delivery lead times. While a number of normative software process models have been proposed, limited theory development has occurred. This study adopts a knowledge management perspective to examine the antecedents of software process capability. Synthesizing prior research in total quality management (TQM), software engineering and knowledge management, it is posited that creation of process knowledge and embedding the knowledge in the process are important antecedents of software process capability. Two models that relate these antecedents to software process capability are tested using data collected from information systems (IS) units in Fortune 1000 firms. The first model is a direct-impact model, which posits that both knowledge creation and knowledge embedding have a direct and positive impact on software process capability. The second model is a mediated-impact model, which posits that knowledge embedding completely mediates the relationships between knowledge creation and software process capability. The results provide strong support to the mediated-impact model suggesting that the extent to which knowledge is embedded in the process has a significant positive effect on software process capability. The results also suggest that the stock of knowledge embedded in the process is influenced by the extent to which knowledge is created in the context of the development process. Implications of these findings for IS research, theory, and practice are discussed. Index Terms--Knowledge management, process maturity, software process management, systems development.

Previous research has documented that software projects are frequently prone to escalation. While the escalation literature acknowledges that project-related (as well as psychological, social, and organizational) factors can promote escalation behavior, there has been no investigation regarding the role that project management factors may have in discriminating between projects that escalate and those that do not. The objective of this study was to explore whether project management constructs could be used to distinguish between projects that escalated and those that did not. Based on a survey administered to IS audit and control professionals, data were gathered on projects that did not escalate as well as those that did escalate. We then applied logistic regression to model the relationship between various project management constructs and project escalation. The model was then evaluated for its ability to correctly classify the projects. The results of our research suggest that a logistic regression model based on project management constructs is capable of discriminating between projects that escalate and those that do not. Moreover, the model compares favorably to a previously published logistic regression model based on constructs derived from escalation theory. The implications of these findings are discussed. Index Terms--Escalation, information technology, project management, software.

We adopt a structural embeddedness perspective to explore how network structure shapes the type of value-creation opportunities that digital intermediaries can exploit and to understand the capabilities that they require to be successful in the context of different network structures. Through two comparative case studies, we find that different tie architectures and exchange structures form the push forces to shape the opportunities for digital intermediaries. Based on the type of network position they intend to occupy, digital intermediaries can increase their chance of success by developing distinct capabilities for bridging and/or bonding. The two cases also show that bridging benefits may be easier to obtain but harder to defend and scale, while bonding benefits are harder to obtain but easier to defend and scale. The findings are used to develop theoretical propositions related to successful digital intermediation in different network structures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous research has documented that software projects are frequently prone to escalation. While the escalation literature acknowledges that project-related (as well as psychological, social, and organizational) factors can promote escalation behavior, there has been no investigation regarding the role that project management factors may have in discriminating between projects that escalate and those that do not. The objective of this study was to explore whether project management constructs could be used to distinguish between projects that escalated and those that did not. Based on a survey administered to IS audit and control professionals, data were gathered on projects that did not escalate as well as those that did escalate. We then applied logistic regression to model the relationship between various project management constructs and project escalation. The model was then evaluated for its ability to correctly classify the projects. The results of our research suggest that a logistic regression model based on project management constructs is capable of discriminating between projects that escalate and those that do not. Moreover, the model compares favorably to a previously published logistic regression model based on constructs derived from escalation theory. The implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]