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JISTEM Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol. 12, No.1, Jan/Apr. 2015, pp. 01-02 ISSN online: 1807-1775

Volume 12: Number 1 / Volume 12: Número 1

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Content / Índice

01-02

1

ROLE OF GIS, RFID AND HANDHELD COMPUTERS IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY ANALYSIS Ashir Ahmed, Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria, Australia

03-28

2

ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPORT FOR ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS. AN INNOVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY APPROACH

29-44

Jose Melchor Medina-Quintero, Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, México Alberto Mora, Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, México Demian Abrego, Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, México 3

INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY: A LITERATURE REVIEW Victor F. A. Barros, Centre Algoritmi, Minho University, Guimarães,

45-64

Portugal Isabel Ramos, Centre Algoritmi, Minho University, Guimarães, Portugal Gilberto Perez, Presbiteriana Mackenzie University, São Paulo/SP, Brazil 4

SOFTWARE SELECTION THROUGH DECISION ANALYSIS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

65-80

SELEÇÃO DE SOFTWARE UTILIZANDO ANÁLISE DE DECISÕES E GERENCIAMENTO DE TECNOLOGIA E SISTEMAS DE INFORMAÇÃO

Danilo Augusto Sarti, University of São Paulo – USP, São Paulo, Brazil 5

ANALISYS OF IT OUTSOURCING CONTRACTS AT THE TCU (FEDERAL COURT OF ACCOUNTS) AND OF THE LEGISLATION THAT GOVERNS THESE CONTRACTS IN THE BRAZILIAN FEDERAL PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

81-106

ANÁLISE DOS CONTRATOS DE TERCEIRIZAÇÃO DE SERVIÇOS DE TI NO TCU E DA LEGISLAÇÃO QUE REGE ESTAS CONTRATAÇÕES NA ADMINISTRAÇÃO PÚBLICA FEDERAL

Graziela Ferreira Guarda, University of Brasília – UnB, Federal District Federal, Brazil Edgard Costa Oliveira, University of Brasília – UnB, Federal District Federal, Brazil Rafael Timóteo de Sousa Junior, University of Brasília – UnB, Federal District Federal, Brazil 6

NEW TIMES, NEW STRATEGIES: PROPOSAL FOR AN ADDITIONAL DIMENSION TO THE 4 P'S FOR E-COMMERCE DOTCOM

Maximiliano Gonetecki Oliveira, FAE Centro Universitário, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil Ana Maria Machado Toaldo, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil Vol. 12, No.1, Jan/Apr. 2015, pp. 01-02

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107-124

208 Content / Indice

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CONVERSATIONAL COMPETENCES MODEL FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT Luís Kalb Roses, Catholic University of Brasília, Brasília/DF, Brazil Jean Carlos Borges Brito, Faculdade Projeção, Brasília/DF, Brazil Gentil José de Lucena Filho, LabCon - Laboratório de Conversas, Brasília/DF, Brazil

125-144

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CRITICAL FACTORS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS OF INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS Ademir Antonio Ferreira, FEA/USP University of São Paulo São Paulo – SP, Brasil Márcio Shoiti Kuniyoshi, University of São Paulo São Paulo – SP, Brasil

145-164

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A PESQUISA DESIGN SCIENCE NO BRASIL SEGUNDO AS PUBLICAÇÕES EM ADMINISTRAÇÃO DA INFORMAÇÃO

165-186

DESIGN SCIENCE RESEARCH IN BRAZIL ACCORDING TO INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PUBLISHING

José Osvaldo De Sordi, Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas (FMU), São Paulo/SP, Brazil.

Marcia Carvalho de Azevedo, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), Osasco/SP, Brazil Manuel Meireles, Faculdade Campo Limpo Paulista (FACCAMP), Araçariguama/SP, Brazil

Events / Eventos

187

Contributions / Submissão de Artigos

Vol. 12, No.1, Jan/Apr. 2015, pp. 01-02

188-189

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JISTEM - Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 03-28 ISSN online: 1807-1775 DOI: 10.4301/S1807-17752015000100001

ROLE OF GIS, RFID AND HANDHELD COMPUTERS IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY ANALYSIS Ashir Ahmed Swinburne University of Technology, Australia ______________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT This paper underlines the task characteristics of the emergency management life cycle.

Moreover, the characteristics of three ubiquitous technologies including RFID, handheld computers and GIS are discussed and further used as a criterion to evaluate their potential for emergency management tasks. Built on a rather loose interpretation of Task-technology Fit model, a conceptual model presented in this paper advocates that a technology that offers better features for task characteristics is more likely to be adopted in emergency management. Empirical findings presented in this paper reveal the significance of task characteristics and their role in evaluating the suitability of three ubiquitous technologies before their actual adoption in emergency management.

Keywords: Emergency management; RFID; Task-technology Fit Model; Ubiquitous Technologies

1.

INTRODUCTION

Mark Weiser (1991, p. 94) introduced the concept of ubiquitous technologies in 1991 by stating as: “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it”.

Since then, the world has witnessed rapid growth and eminent success in the adoption and diffusion of ubiquitous technologies in various disciplines including education, science, defence and public service (Chainey and Ratcliffe, 2005; Loebbecke and Palmer, 2006; Sara, 2003; Shannon, and Feied, and Smith, and Handler, and Gillam, 2006). Moreover, it is important to note that the use of emerging technologies that have unique characteristics is still not well understood (Sharma, and Citurs, and Konsynski, 2007). Therefore, to evaluate the performance of technologies before their actual adoption is still believed to be quite intricate (Davies and Gellersen, 2002). ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Manuscript first received/Recebido em: 02/05/2014 Manuscript accepted/Aprovado em: 11/02/2015 Address for correspondence / Endereço para correspondência Ashir Ahmed, PhD Lecturer, Department of Information Systems, Entrepreneurship and Logistics Faculty of Business & Law EN Building, Room 610a Swinburne University of Technology PO Box 218 John Street Hawthorn 3122 Victoria, Australia Phone:+61 3 9214 5641 E-mail: azahmed@swin.edu.au Published by/ Publicado por: TECSI FEA USP – 2015 All rights reserved.

4 Ahmed, A. This paper is built on the key concept of Task-technology Fit (TTF) model presented by Goodhue and Thomson. In their paper presented in MISQ in 1995, Goodhue and Thompson (1995, p. 216) described Task-Technology Fit as: “[The] degree to which a technology assists [its users] in performing his or her portfolio of tasks. More specifically, TTF is the correspondence between task requirements, [users’] abilities, and functionality of a technology”.

It is further argued that the better ‘fit’ between task and technology characteristics increases the likelihood of adoption of a technology in a particular domain (Goodhue and Thompson, 1995, p.216). Aligned with the above argument, this paper suggests that a better ‘fit’ between task characteristics of emergency management and technology characteristics of ubiquitous technologies increase the likelihood of successful adoption of these technologies in this domain. However, before examining the ‘fit’, it is commendable to address the task and technology characteristics.

Therefore, the objectives of this paper are as follows: a.

Identify task characteristics of emergency management, and b.

Identify technology characteristics of RFID, handheld computers and GIS. Overall, this paper is structured as follows: firstly, the paper addresses the task characteristics of emergency management and technology characteristics of RFID, Handheld computers and GIS. Next, the paper presents a conceptual model and then outlines the research methodology. Later on, the paper presents the research findings.

The paper includes the justification of unplanned results generated from multiple case studies, and it ends with a discussion and conclusion.

2. TASK CHARACTERISTICS OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Emergency management life cycle is generally described as a series of various phases or stages such as preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery (Kimberly, 2003). Literature relevant to emergency management reported several models that describe various numbers of phases such as three phases (ADPC., 2000; Atmanand, 2003; Tuscaloosa., 2003), four (Kimberly, 2003; Turner, 1976), six (Toft and Reynolds, 1994), seven (Shaluf, Ahmadun, and Mustafa, 2003) or even eight (Kelly, 1999) phases which collectively form the emergency management life cycle. In depth analysis of these emergency management models reveals that they comprise of various individual tasks. For instance, a task such as ‘information sharing’ is performed in different phases of emergency management including preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery.

Similarly, an individual phase may include more than one task. For instance, response phase may include such tasks as ‘information sharing’ and ‘resource management’. In general, this paper agrees with the description of emergency management in terms of phases or stages. However, this paper advocates that the concept of phases does not facilitate the process of technological adoption. Furthermore, aligned with the recommendation of Goodhue and Thompson (1995, p. 216), this paper argues that the objective of adoption of a technological process is to facilitate a particular task and not a phase.

In order to identify the task characteristics of emergency management, this paper built on two streams of literature, including:

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1Emergency management models – theoretical models suggesting various phases of the emergency management life cycle. The following section reports various tasks mentioned in these emergency management models.

2Emergency management studies – case studies discussing several tasks performed in real emergencies situations. Section below lists various tasks reported in various emergency management case studies.

2.1

Emergency Management Models

The following tasks are mentioned in various emergency management models:  People/victim management (ADPC. (2000); Kelly, 1999; B. Richardson, 1994)  Planning (Manitoba-Health-Disaster-Management., 2002; B. Richardson, 1994; I.M. Shaluf, and F.R. Ahmadun, and S. Mustapha, 2003)  Information sharing (Manitoba-Health-Disaster-Management., 2002; B. Richardson, 1994)  Immediate response to disaster (B. Richardson, 1994)  Training (ADPC., 2000; Kimberly, 2003; Tuscaloosa., 2003)  Communication (ADPC., 2000; Kimberly, 2003; Manitoba-HealthDisaster-Management., 2002)  People and object management (ADPC., 2000; Kelly, 1999; Kimberly, 2003)  Maintenance of inventories (ADPC., 2000; Atmanand, 2003)  Conducting drills (ADPC., 2000; Atmanand, 2003; Tuscaloosa., 2003)  Resource management (ADPC., 2000; Atmanand, 2003; Kelly, 1999; Tuscaloosa., 2003)  Authentication (Toft and S. Reynolds, 1994; Turner, 1976)  Detecting emergency signals (B. Richardson, 1994; I.M. Shaluf et al., 2003)  Tagging/tracking (Kelly, 1999) 2.2

Emergency Management Studies

The following tasks are mentioned in various emergency management case studies:  Resource management (Haddow, and Bullock, and Coppola, 2008; José, and Pérez, and Ukkusuri, and Wachtendorf, and Brown, 2007; E.L. Quarantelli, 1997; Tran, and Yousaf , and Wietfeld, 2010)  Information management (Celik and Corbacioglu, 2010; José et al., 2007; E.L. Quarantelli, 1997; Tomasinia and Wassenhoveb, 2009; Tran et al., 2010; S. Zlatanova, and P. Oosterom, and E. Verbree, 2004a)  Training (José et al., 2007; Wilks and Page, 2003)  Automation (Carver and Turoff, 2007; Zlatanova et al., 2004a)  Coordination and collaboration (Carver and Turoff, 2007; Celik and Corbacioglu, 2010)  Authentication (Haddow et al., 2008; Tran et al., 2010)  Tagging and Tracking (Carver and Turoff, 2007; Tomasinia and Wassenhoveb, 2009; Zlatanova et al., 2004a) The above discussion presents a number of tasks that are performed in the emergency management life cycle. However the careful analysis of such tasks suggests JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 03-28

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6 Ahmed, A. that some tasks such as ‘communication’, ‘resource management’ and ‘information management’ are reported more than once across various phases of the emergency management life cycle. Similarly there are few tasks that are identical in nature such as ‘resource management’, ‘people and object management’. It is also important to note that a number of tasks mentioned above are not relevant to the context of this research that is about the role of ubiquitous technologies in emergency management. In order to clearly understand the eminent tasks involved in the emergency management life cycle, it is wise to group similar tasks and form the key groups of tasks which can be used as ‘task characteristics’ of emergency management.

The relevant literature suggests that tasks have been categorized across three dimensions: (a) difficulty, (b) variety and (c) interdependence (W. Louis Fry and Slocum, 1984). However, the research related to technological adoption asks whether a significant difference exists between variety and difficulty (L. Dale Goodhue, 1995; Wells, and Sarker, and Urbaczewski, and Sarker, 2003). Nevertheless, the overall process of task analysis involves a hierarchical decomposition of autonomous tasks into lower-level sub-tasks (Hackos and Redish, 1998). The nature of an autonomous task dictates the degree of variety, difficulty and interdependence of a particular task (Wells et al., 2003). In contrast to decomposing tasks into sub-tasks based on the variety, difficulty and interdependence, sub-tasks can be grouped together to form major tasks based on their common attributes. Aligned with the above line of argument, this research agrees that emergency management tasks can be grouped into major tasks based on their common attributes. In addition, this research also carefully considers the recommendations of Wells et al. (2003) who argues that the overall classification of tasks is primarily based on the domain characteristics and context of that classification.

Therefore, in context of technological adoption, this paper combines the emergency management tasks based on their commonalities and form the key task characteristics of emergency management.

Task – A: Authentication In order to protect a system from an emergency or disaster - especially a manmade disaster - it is critical to protect that system from an unauthorized or illicit use.

Toft and Reynolds (1994), Haddow et al (2008) and José et al.(2007) suggest that the following tasks should be performed for the safe, secure and authorized use of a system. 

Implementing authentication protocol



Assigning privileges to the users



Verification of access requests

Aligned with the above recommendations, this paper argues that the above mentioned tasks are critical for system security, and thus a technology that offers better support for these tasks is more likely to be adopted in emergency management.

Moreover, this paper places the above mentioned tasks under a broader category of related tasks and calls it as ‘authentication’. This task (authentication) assures that only valid users can interact with the system, which will eventually minimize the risks of various man-made disasters such as technological disasters and terrorist attacks. Use of technology for authentication refers to the process through which a pertinent technology is used to verify the identity of a user who wishes to access a system.

Task – b: Automation Literature related to emergency management suggests that during emergencies, data is available from many sources and in huge quantities, but the actual problem arises JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 03-28

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in the processing of this data (Zlatanova et al., 2004a). During emergencies, unfavourable working conditions further complicate the required working performance from human operators. During hostile working environment of emergencies, a technology that can automate various procedures and ensure consistency is likely to be adopted successfully (M. Ibrahim Shaluf, and R. Fakharul Ahmadun, and Sa’Ari. Mustapha, 2003; S. Zlatanova, and P. Van. Oosterom, and E. Verbree, 2004b).

Furthermore, the relevant literature has identified the following tasks which could be better performed with the help of a suitable technology (Carver and Turoff, 2007; B. Richardson, 1994; I.M. Shaluf et al., 2003; Zlatanova et al., 2004a). These tasks are: 

Identification of tasks which can be performed by control systems



Automatic detection of inputs using sensors

 Automatic decision making based on received data- using artificial intelligence Built on common attributes of the above mentioned tasks, this paper groups them into a broader category and calls it as ‘automation’. In general, automation also refers to a process of using a control system, such as computers, to control machinery and processes and replacing human operators (2002).

Task – C: Tagging and Tracking One of the most important and urgent problems at the emergency scene is the overwhelming number of victims that must be monitored, tracked and managed by each of the first responders or individuals (Barbara, 2008; Killeen, and Chan, and Buono, and Griswold, and Lenert, 2006; Bill Richardson, 1994; Tuscaloosa., 2003). In addition, the equipment deployed at the emergency scene needs to be managed appropriately. It is suggested that the whole process of managing humans and other objects during emergencies is composed of following tasks (ADPC., 2000; Kelly, 1999; Kimberly, 2003; B. Richardson, 1994): 

Marking or tagging of humans and objects



Use these tags to track humans/objects

 Use these tags for objects management before, during, and after emergencies.

Aligned with the existing literature, this paper agrees that a technology that offers better features to conduct these tasks would be well accepted in emergency management. Based on the common attributes of the above tasks, this paper groups them into a broader category of ‘tagging and tracking’. By definition, the purpose of tagging and tracking is to identify the target object in a group of similar objects, as well as to keep real-time information about its position. In the context of emergency management, people and object management are the main objectives of this task (Schulz, and Burgard, and Fox, and Cremers, 2001) and this paper identifies it as one of the key task characteristics of emergency management.

Task – d: Information Management Wybo and Kowalski (1998) argue that the lack of inadequate and incomplete information is considered to be the main operational problem during emergency management. A study of recent emergencies shows that, at one or another level, information was available that could have prevented the emergency from happening (Chan, and Killeen, and Griswold, and Lenert, 2004; Kelly, 1999; Lee and Bui, 2000; JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 03-28

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8 Ahmed, A. Mansouriana, and Rajabifardb, and Zoeja, and Williamson, 2006; Enrico L. Quarantelli, 1988; M. Ibrahim Shaluf et al., 2003; B. Toft and S. Reynolds, 1994).

Further to the importance of ‘information’ in emergency management, the following are some of the tasks that are reported in the literature (Celik and Corbacioglu, 2010; José et al., 2007; Manitoba-Health-Disaster-Management., 2002; B. Richardson, 1994; Tran et al., 2010): 

Collection of information from various sources



Broadcast warnings/alerts



Building and maintaining information pools



Communication with other agencies

Based on the common attributes in the above tasks, this paper segregates the above mentioned tasks into a broader category of ‘information management’. This task refers to the collection and management of information from one or more sources, and its distribution to one or more audiences who have a stake in that information or a right to that information. In context of technological adoption, this paper advocates that, information management and communication play a vital role (Enrico and Quarantelli (1988)) and act as an important task characteristics of emergency management.

Four tasks characteristics including authentication, automation, tagging / tracking and information management are collectively referred as AATI in this paper.

3. UBIQUITOUS TECHNOLOGIES According to Kumar and Chatterjee (Kumar and Chatterjee, 2005) ubiquitous technology is the trend towards increasingly ubiquitous, connected computing devices in the environment, a trend being brought about by a convergence of advanced electronic - and particularly, wireless-technologies and the Internet. Ubiquitous technology is pervasive in nature and unobtrusively embedded in the environment, completely connected, intuitive, effortlessly portable, and constantly available.

Although there are several ubiquitous technologies available such as RFID, handheld computers, GIS, GPRS, wearable computers, smart homes and smart building, this paper focuses only on three technologies including RFID, handheld computers and GIS. 3.1

Radio Frequency Identification

RFID is a term coined for the use of short to medium range radio technology for the communication between two objects without any physical contact (Wang, and Chen, and Ong, and Liu, and Chuang, 2006). Objects on the two sides of the RFID link can be either stationary or moveable. A typical RFID system consists of (a) tag, (b) reader/interrogator, and (c) an antenna. When the reader sends out the electromagnetic signals to couple with the tag antenna, the tag gets electromagnetic energy from waves to power its circuits in the microchip. The microchip located inside the tag then sends back electromagnetic waves to the reader, and the reader receives and returns the waves and converts them into digital data. The data transmitted by the tag actually provides the data and information for the object, and the information can be processed in any information system or network connected to the reader (Xinping, and Yuk, and Sheung, 2007). Contactless and no line of sight communication are the key features of RFID. Literary volumes of research are available on the application of RFID in various domains. Most significantly, this technology has been used in supply chain JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 03-28

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management, inventory control, asset management, retail, manufacturing, warehouse automation, security, defence, aerospace, road pricing, fashion, libraries, hospitals, telemedicine and farm management.

Further to the use of RFID in the above mentioned domains, Fry and Lenert (2005) proposed the use of RFID in hospitals during a disaster, such as a mass causality situation. An integrated RFID-equipped hardware-software system (MASCAL) was designed to enhance a hospital’s resource management capabilities. The RFID-equipped system (MASCAL) was targeted at conducting the tasks related to patient management during an emergency with improved efficiency and better performance. The MASCAL system created an end-to-end environment for the management of casualties from a battlefield or catastrophic civilian event. The system utilizes positional information from wireless asset tags to reduce dependencies on manual processes, and it improves situational awareness during inherently chaotic events. Its potential value lies in providing visibility into the supply and demand workflows, augmented with select data that is considered helpful in making appropriate management decisions.

3.2

Handheld Computers

Handheld computer also referred to as personal digital assistants (PDAs). These are lightweight, compact computers that are literally held in one’s hand or stored in a pocket (Lu, and Xiao, and Sears, and Jacko, 2005). These gadgets have developed increasing functionality, with decreasing size and weight. In addition to mobility and ubiquity, they offer high resolution colour displays and provide sufficient memory to store a large amount of data (Kho, and Henderson, and Dressler, and Kripalani, 2006).

Latest handheld computers have larger screens, the ability to run multiple programs simultaneously, and natural handwriting recognition software. These devices allow users to access electronic mail and the internet remotely, creating virtually limitless access to the information.

During emergencies, the use of the Internet on these devices can provide useful information about emergencies and disasters to the public and first responders (Alfonso and Suzanne, 2008). Furthermore, such devices have the ability to enable responders to work well with others due to their ability to communicate quickly and share resources (Pine, 2007).Wireless technology ranges from doing simple tasks, such as communicating with first responders remotely, to more complex tasks such as collecting digital data efficiently and accurately (Troy, and Carson, and Vanderbeek, and Hutton, 2008).

3.3

Geographic Information System

GIS integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analysing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. It is a powerful tool for various organizations because it has the ability to capture the data by digitizing, scanning, digital imagery, or aerial photography. Databases associated with GIS applications can be used (a) to store the data, (b) to manipulate the data, (c) to form data queries and (d) to visualize the data (Gunes and Kovel, 2000).

GIS technology can play an important role in emergency management because it has the ability to enhance emergency management information systems by digitally capturing, storing, analysing and manipulating data (Senior and Copley, 2008). Because of its ability to gather, manipulate, query and display geographic information quickly and present it in an understandable format, GIS could be decisive for emergency

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10 Ahmed, A. management (Cutter, and Emrich, and Adams, and Huyck, and Eguchi, 2007). Table 1 summarizes some of the key characteristics of RFID, handheld computers and GIS. Table 1: Characteristics of Ubiquitous Technologies RFID

Handheld computers

GIS

Tracking, scanning, information management, automation (Michael and McCathie, 2005)

Data storage, transformation and transmission (Lu et al., 2005)

Digitally captures, stores, analyses and manipulates data (Senior and Copley, 2008)

Automatic non-line of sight scanning, labour reduction, enhanced visibility, item level tracking, robustness (2005)

Real-time data gathering, concurrent data transformation and instant data transmission (Kho et al., 2006)

Ability to gather, manipulate, query and display geographic information (Cutter et al., 2007).

Automation, object tracking, asset management, object management. (Xiao, and Shen, and Sun, and Cai, 2006)

Communication and information management (Pine, 2007)

Analytical modelling (2000)

4. CONCEPTUAL MODEL The rationale for building a conceptual model on the theory of TTF is an argument that claims that ‘there must be a good fit between the technology and the tasks it supports’ (Goodhue and Thompson, 1995). It also claims that ‘good fit’ between task and technology features brings performance improvements to its users. Built on the notion of ‘task-technology fit’, a conceptual model is presented that highlights the task characteristics of emergency management and technology characteristics of radio frequency identification, handheld computers and geographic information system and the ‘fit’ between task and technology characteristics.

Task Characteristics Authentication

Automation

Tagging/ tracking

Information Managment

Task Technology Fit

Performance Impacts

Technology Characteristics Authentication

Automation

Tagging/ tracking

Information Managment

Figure 1: Conceptual Model based on TTF

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Task Characteristics refer to the key tasks performed in the emergency management life cycle, such as authentication, automation, tagging/tracking, and information management (AATI). These tasks are derived from the relevant literature and then contextualized for this study. As discussed above, AATI are the key emergency management tasks which need to be performed by the use of any pertinent technology.

Technology Characteristics refer to the features of ubiquitous technologies that perform the task requirements of authentication, automation, tagging / tracking and information management. Once the task characteristics of emergency management are identified (as AATI in this study), the potential technology needs to be evaluated against such tasks.

Task-technology Fit refers to the degree by which task characteristics match with the technology characteristics. It also addresses the factors that influence the ‘fit’ between task and the characteristics of ubiquitous technologies.

Performance Impacts refer to the perceived impacts of technological adoption on the performance of emergency management operations.

This paper only examines the task and technology characteristics whereas discussion on TTF (factors) and performance impacts (mentioned in the conceptual model) is not under the scope of this paper.

5. RESARCH METHODOLY By employing a conceptual study, four major tasks of emergency management are identified (as reported in the Section above). Moreover, multiple case study method is adopted to empirically validate the significance of those tasks. Five emergency management organizations are selected to participate in this research. Out of the total five cases, three are located in Australia, one in New Zealand and one in Switzerland.

Although, five cases are too few to allow statistical validity, they do allow a large enough range to result in an acceptable theoretical replication. Moreover, many wellknown case studies have used this number or fewer cases (Dick, 2002; Eisenhardt, 1989; Markus, 1983; Orlikowski, 1983). The cases selected for this research cover the variations in the evaluation process within the context of technological adoption in emergency management. The criteria for selecting the participating organizations were based on the fact that those organizations have already used or are willing to use any ubiquitous technology in emergency management. The selection criteria are imposed to achieve analytical generalization whereas statistical generalization is not targeted in this study. In relation to the triangulation of data, data was collected from multiple sources, including formal interviews, organizations’ websites, email communication, telephone conversations, and other relevant documents (see Table 2 for more details). However, the case studies mainly rely on the formal in-depth interviews with the eight key participants from the selected cases (each case represented by a unique alphabet such as A, B, C, D and E). Primary data was collected from eight respondents including Director disaster operations (DDO), Executive Manager Disaster Operations (EMDO), Coordinator Emergency Management (CEM), Team Lead Spatial Systems (TLSS), Regional Director Emergency Management (RDEM), Director Emergency Management and Communication (DEMC), Senior Logistics Officer (SLO) and Logistic Officer (LO) representing five case organizations. Data collected from the other sources assists in further understanding and explaining the data from the formal interviews, providing a JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 03-28

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12 Ahmed, A. contextual richness to the collected data. With the consent of the participants of the case studies, all conversation held during an interview was recorded on a digital voice recorder. The recorded interviews were further transcribed in total and analysed by a pattern matching technique. The qualitative analysis tool called NViVo 8.0 was used for such a purpose.

Table 2: Overview of Supporting Documents Case

Document Name

Critical Infrastructure Emergency Management Assurance Handbook

Disaster Management Planning Guidelines

A

Emergency Risk Management

Disaster Management Plan

The Overview of Disaster Management Arrangements

B

Abbreviation

CIEMAH

DMPG

ERM

DMP

DMA

Accessibility

Overview

Public

This handbook provides information for senior emergency risk managers dealing with critical infrastructure. The handbook complements and supports AS/NZS 4360: 1999 Risk Management and Emergency Management Australia’s Emergency Risk Management Application Guide.

Public

The aim of these guidelines is to provide a process for local governments to develop a local disaster management plan, and to understand the need for a consistent local government approach to disaster management planning.

Public

The aim of emergency risk management (ERM) is to present a systematic process that produces a range of risk treatments that reduces the likelihood or consequences of disastrous events.

Public

Disaster management plan outlines the potential hazards and risks that are evident in an area; steps to mitigate these potential risks; and an implementation strategy to enact should a hazard impact and cause a disaster.

Public

It is intended for this book to provide a high-level overview for anyone interested in disaster management arrangements in the State, including disaster managers, stakeholders and communities.

B None

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Role of GIS, RFID And Handheld Computers in Emergency Management: An Exploratory Case Study Analysis

Emergency Management Planning Guide

C

C Response Plan for Victoria

Emergency Management Discussion Paper

Disaster Response and Contingency Planning Guide

EMPG

RPV

EMDP

DRCPG

Public

The aim of the emergency management planning guide is to assist local councils and communities to better assess and manage emergencies such as flood, storms and earthquakes, in order to reduce the consequences of disastrous events and to create safe and resilient communities.

Public

The purpose of this plan is to provide strategic guidance for effective emergency response to flood events.

The plan also describes the roles and responsibilities of agencies and organizations that have a role in the floodplain management, forecasting of meteorological events, dissemination of information to the community and the role of minimizing the threat and impact to people, property and the environment.

Public

The emergency management discussion paper provides a range of suggested recommendations on how to address the challenges arising from changing demographics, community expectations and regulatory environments for emergency management.

Public

Disaster response and contingency planning is a management tool that helps to ensure organizational readiness and that adequate arrangements are made in anticipation of an emergency.

Thoughtful execution of planning can help to ensure that the resource needs for any type or size of disaster, no matter where or when it strikes, are met quickly and effectively.

Public

The objective of the disaster management operational strategy is to strengthen disaster management tools and systems, analysis, planning, funding tools and cross-divisional integration practices to ensure most effective stewardship of donations so the organization can provide more disaster management services to more vulnerable people.

D D

Disaster Management Operational Strategy

DMOS

13

ENone E

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14 Ahmed, A.

6. EMPIRICAL EVIDENCES In context of tasks involved in emergency management, the following discussion covers the empirical evidence collected from the participating case organizations. In response to an open-ended question about the task characteristics of emergency management, the interviewees from the participating case organizations identified several tasks in their discussions. Such tasks are identified by using NViVo 8.0 and are given below:  DDO–Case A suggests (i) Train, teach and practice with individuals (ii) Facilitate communication and information flow (iii) Collect, collate, analyse and distribute information (iv) Maintain distribution lists and systems (v) Maintain information accuracy.  EMDO–Case A suggests (i) Keep track of volunteers and equipment going out in emergencies (ii) Automated and quick distribution of information to the target audience (iii) Information dissemination; (iv) Training (v) Coordinate a statelevel response to all hazards and recovery from any disaster (vi) Maintain and enhance equipment.  CEM–Case B suggests (i) Drills; (ii) Asset management system (iii) Authentication (iv) Communication and sharing of information with other emergency management organizations (v) Resourcing and resource allocation.  TLSS–Case B suggests (i) Keep records of things deploying to emergencies (ii) Keep up to date information about emergencies (iii) Incident management system (iv) Information sharing and dissemination.  RDEM–Case C suggests (i) Respond to floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and rescues the victims (ii) Training (iii) Communication (iv) Access the system according to privileges granted.  DEMC–Case C suggests (i) Managing incoming emergency related calls (ii) Issue emergency warnings (iii) Situational awareness (iv)Information dissemination (v) Resource management.  SLO–Case D suggests (i) Development of global infrastructure and response capacities (ii) Field support (assessment and set-up of operations) (iii) Disaster response (iv) Disaster preparedness (v) Tagging and tracking of goods (vi) Management of emergency related information.  LD–Case E suggests (i) Planning for emergency management (ii) Communication (iii) Authentication (iv) Use of an automated system that can replace humans or at least assists them during the emergencies (v) Track the goods through the system (vi) Inventory management.

In addition to the tasks identified by key informants, the participants of the case study were also invited to record their feedback on the significance of four tasks (such as AATI) suggested in this paper. Following discussion reports the feedback recorded from case study interviews along with the empirical findings on the significance of authentication, automation, tagging/tracking and information management.

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Role of GIS, RFID And Handheld Computers in Emergency Management: An Exploratory Case Study Analysis

6.1

Authentication: Empirical Findings

Empirical evidence related to authentication reveals that the interviewees from four out of five of the case study organizations supported this task as one of the key tasks in the emergency management life cycle. Only one case (that is, Case D) rated the significance of this task as ‘moderate’ in the emergency management life cycle. By analysing all the important facts related to this task, it was found that authentication is more critical during pre – (before) disaster or the planning phase than during or post – (after) the emergency. Table 3 depicts the significance of authentication in various stages of the emergency management life cycle.

Table 3: Significance of Authentication Case

Before

During

After

DDO

X

-

-

EMDO

X

X

X

CEM

X

X

X

TLSS

X

X

X

RDEM

X

-

-

DEMC

-

-

X

D

SLO

-

-

-

E

LD

X

-

-

A B C

Key Informant

Although, the findings given in Table 3 reflect the importance of authentication in various stages of emergency management, this research further processed the qualitative data gathered at the end of data collection phase and convert into quantitative results. This paper also supports the argument of Katharina and Sabine (2007), which states that the qualitative data can be converted into quantitative results for better understanding and for rigor empirical findings. Furthermore, Bazeley (2002) and Christina et al. (2002) also claimed that the mixed-method research has gained acceptability and becomes increasingly popular in empirical research.

Based on the above arguments, this paper calculated the relevance of the proposed tasks in emergency management. In order to do so, weighted average of such tasks is calculated based on the following formula (called, R1).

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16 Ahmed, A.

R1 = Relevance = Where: a1 = Supported = 2 a2 = Neutral = 1 a3 = Not supported = 0 xi = Number of case study participants for a particular response j = Total number of case study participants k = Maximum possible score for any response = 2

Figure 2: Relevance of Authentication As depicted in Figure 2, authentication remains critical throughout the emergency management life cycle. In short, ensuring a rigorous authentication system could certainly minimize the likelihood of a potential emergency situation, such as terrorist attack.

In Figure 2 to 6, “S” represents the number of participants who supported an argument, “N” represents Neutral and “NS” represents Not Supported.

6.2

Automation: Empirical Findings

A key argument in support of this task is the fact that during emergencies, human performance does not remain consistent. Extreme climatic conditions and an unfavourable working environment are considered as major factors in creating this inconsistency. Therefore, control systems are highly desirable in emergency JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 03-28

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17

management, as they can perform consistently even in unfavourable working conditions. The empirical evidence shows that automation is more important during an emergency than it is before or after an emergency situation. Table 4 highlights the importance of automation at various stages of the emergency management.

Table 4: Significance of Automation Case

Key Informant

Before

During

After

DDO

-

X

-

EMDO

-

X

-

CEM

-

X

-

TLSS

X

X

X

RDEM

X

X

X

DEMC

X

X

X

D

SLO

-

X

-

E

LD

-

X

-

A B C

It is important to note that all participants of this case study supported this task especially during emergencies. Key argument in favour of this task is the fact that humans are unable to work consistently and efficiently during unfavourable working conditions of emergencies. Thus, a technology that could assist humans during emergencies is very well supported.

Figure 3: Relevance of Automation

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18 Ahmed, A. 6.3

Tagging/Tracking: Empirical Findings

It is interesting to note that, through the data collected from the key informants, this task remains critical throughout the emergency management life cycle. Table 5 and Figure 4 summarize the significance of this task and its relevance during various stages of emergency management.

Table 5: Significance of Tagging/Tracking Case

Before

During

After

DDO

X

X

X

EMDO

X

X

X

CEM

X

X

X

TLSS

X

X

X

RDEM

-

X

X

DEMC

X

X

X

D

SLO

X

X

-

E

LD

X

X

X

A B C

Key Informant

Figure 4 summarizes the number of case study participants that supported the significance of tagging/tracking and the overall relevance of this task is also presented in Figure 4 below:

Figure 4: Relevance of tagging/tracking Overall, this task consists of two sub-tasks: first, tagging of humans or other objects, and second, use of tags or marks for tracking them. During the case study interviews, tagging/tracking is reported as a very important task in emergency management with a special emphasize during an emergency and it was related to the better management of humans and objects in the emergency management life cycle.

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Role of GIS, RFID And Handheld Computers in Emergency Management: An Exploratory Case Study Analysis

6.4

19

Information Management: Empirical Findings

Information management is considered as the backbone of, and remains critical throughout the emergency management life cycle. It is a task that connects all the other tasks and operations together. Furthermore, the empirical evidence collected from the participating case organizations reveals that information management plays an important role throughout the emergency management life cycle. Table 6 highlights the significance of this task in various stages of the emergency management life cycle.

Table 6: Significance of Information Management Case

Before

During

After

DDO

X

X

X

EMDO

X

X

X

CEM

X

X

X

TLSS

X

X

X

RDEM

X

X

X

DEMC

X

X

X

D

SLO

X

X

-

E

LD

X

X

X

A B C

Key Informant

In addition to the key informants, Figure 5 depicts the number of case study participants that supported information management as a key activity, along with its relevance in various stages of the emergency management life cycle.

Figure 5: Relevance of Information Management Data shown in figure 5 corroborates the initial claim made by this research. It is evident that information management is one of the most important tasks in emergency management and use of technology that can assist in conducting this task are more likely to be welcomed by the emergency management organizations.

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20 Ahmed, A.

7. RELEVANCE OF AATI The above sections reported the empirical evidence collected from the participating case organizations and are further analysed and used to portray the significance of AATI before, during and after an emergency situation. Based on the number of participants who supported AATI, the overall relevance of each of the four tasks is calculated across the entire emergency management life cycle and is shown in Figure 6 below:

Figure 6: Relevance of AATI The empirical findings reported in Figure 6 reveals that in the context of technological adoption, information management is the most important task requirement. After this, tagging/tracking is considered as the next most important task; automation is considered as of moderate importance and authentication as the least important task in emergency management.

8. JUSTIFICATION OF OTHER TASKS In addition to the support of AATI as key characteristics of emergency management, representative from first three cases (that is, case A, B and C) suggested that ‘training’ is another important task of the emergency management process (see Table 7 below). In order to understand the importance of training in emergency management, it is worthy to understand what ‘training’ actually means.

According to the definition at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/training.html, training can be described as: “Organized activity aimed at imparting information and/or instructions to improve the recipient's performance or to help him/her attain a required level of knowledge or skill”.

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Role of GIS, RFID And Handheld Computers in Emergency Management: An Exploratory Case Study Analysis

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In addition to the definition of training, Perry and Lindell (2003) described the role of training in the emergency management process. According to them, education and drills are key components of pre-emergency phase. Education in emergency management covers the preparation of emergency plans and involves communication amongst several emergency management personnel and organizations. On the other hand, drills can be viewed as the settings where problems are expected and conflicts can be resolved. These are the exercises that are performed in settings similar to actual emergency situations. Thus, the training process represents two aspects: (a) the transfer of information; and (b) drills/exercises/ simulations. During the interviews, it was perceived that the word ‘training’ was used to refer to both aspects (transfer of information and drills). During the interviews, it was perceived that the word ‘training’ was used to refer to both aspects (‘transfer of information’ and ‘drills’).

The following is a discussion of the two aspects of training and their associations with AATI in the perspective of technological use in emergency management.

Training as Transfer of Information: Training can be conducted in order to transfer information (knowledge). It also involves the management of information by the trainer as well as by the recipient. This aspect of training is generally used for emergency planning (Perry and Lindell, 2003). It ensures that the required information is available at the time of emergency. Furthermore, this aspect of training bridges the communication gap between several emergency management individuals and agencies that are working during emergencies. The role of technology in this aspect of training is to facilitate the process of the proper distribution and management of information. Thus, this aspect has already been covered under the broad category of information management and, then, this aspect of training did not satisfy the requirements to be considered an independent activity of emergency management.

Training as ‘Drill’ / ‘Exercise’ / ‘Simulation’: The other aspect of training covers the activities (‘drills’ / ‘exercises’ / ‘simulations’) that are performed in settings similar to a real emergency situation. This includes the simultaneous and comprehensive test of emergency plans, staffing levels, procedures, facilities, equipment and materials (Perry and Lindell, 2003).

According to Simpson (2002), there are a few differences between emergency management drill and the real emergency, such as:  unexpected;

Drills/exercises are planned whereas most of the emergencies are

 Drill/exercises are performed on a smaller scale as compared to real emergencies; Unlike real emergencies, drills/exercises are performed under a controlled environment.

Other than the above-mentioned differences, comprehensive drills / exercises are the same as real emergencies; therefore, they go through all the phases and conduct all the activities (regardless of the scale) of the emergency management life cycle.

Based on the above discussion, it is evident that this aspect (drills / exercises) of training does not need to be declared an independent activity as all its requirements can be placed under the existing emergency management activities of authentication, automation, tagging/tracking and information management.

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22 Ahmed, A. Although this research agrees that training is an important activity of emergency management, from the perspective of technological adoption in emergency management, all the underlying functions of the training process are covered under the broader categories of AATI. 9. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The early sections of this paper provided a comprehensive discussion on important emergency management studies. In addition to the discussion presented above, this paper agrees with the existing body of literature on the description of emergency management in terms of several phases or stages.

However, in the context of technological adoption, this research also highlights the following shortcomings in the existing literature (see Section 2 for more details):  Existing emergency management models lack in uniformity in a number of the phases used to represent the emergency management life cycle.  The concept of ‘phases’ or ‘stages’ of the emergency management process does not assist in evaluating the feasibility of technology for emergency management.  Technology is used to perform a particular task, such as tracking of objects, information dissemination and authentication, not to perform a particular phase.

Thus, in order to overcome the above shortcomings, this paper identified the task characteristics of the emergency management process. Overall, these tasks are not only supported in the relevant literature (see Section 1) but their significance is also verified by the participants of multiple case studies (see Section 5). These tasks are further used as task characteristics in the conceptual model that has its roots in TTF (see Section 4).

It is anticipated that the conceptual model presented in this paper could be used as a criterion to evaluate the potential of ubiquitous technologies before their actual deployment in emergency management. As a result of the above discussion, this paper concludes that: (i) from the perspective of technological adoption authentication, automation, tagging / tracking and information are the key tasks of the emergency management life cycle (ii) from the perspective of the adoption of ubiquitous technologies, information management and tagging / tracking are the most important tasks. Authentication is next in terms of importance and automation is the least important task (iii) the potential of a technology should be evaluated against its ability to perform the task characteristics (AATI) of emergency management and (iv) a technology that better supports the task characteristics could serve well in emergency management.

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Role of GIS, RFID And Handheld Computers in Emergency Management: An Exploratory Case Study Analysis

Table 7: Empirical Findings on the Significance of AATI Task Characteristics of Emergency Management Case Authentication

S A



B



C



NS

S

N

   

D E

N

Automation



 

NS

N

S

S

Information

Tagging /tracking

S

Management

AATI as Key tasks in Emergency Management

NS

N

NS

N

Other tasks in Emergency Managemen t

NS







Training







Drills/ training







Training







None







None

Legend: S: Supported, N: Neutral, NS: Not Supported

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JISTEM - Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 29-44 ISSN online: 1807-1775 DOI: 10.4301/S1807-17752015000100002

ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPORT FOR ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS. AN INNOVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY APPROACH Jose Melchor Medina-Quintero Alberto Mora Demian Abrego Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, Tamaulipas, México ___________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT Technology and the accounting information systems are implemented in an organization with the aim of improving their efficiency. Companies spend large amounts of money on these tools every year in order to improve their organizational performance. The aim of this research is to determine the influence of SMEs’ technological alignment, information management and technological infrastructure on the performance of an institution (innovation and productivity) in which accounting information systems are used. An empirical study is conducted in enterprises belonging to the service, commercial and industrial sectors in Ciudad Victoria, México, with the help of the SmartPLS statistical tool. The results mainly show that technology has helped raise productivity (improvement in administrative activities, in decision-making and in the use of generated information).

Keywords: technological alignment, information management, innovation, AIS, productivity

1. INTRODUCTION Accounting is the engine that moves an enterprise forward, and helps it face its competitors’ efforts, trade agreements, fiscal issues, etc. The accounting’s aim is to mirror an enterprise’s state, financial statements, and outcomes. Decision makers in a company benefit from this information when they receive it. For example, they can decide what direction they can give to the company or what policies they can develop. Similarly, information related to accounting is also beneficial for enterprise’s partners as a good performance of the company can determine the benefits they will obtain from it. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in the United States of America has made a call for the need to incorporate the concepts of information technology (IT) into the accounting professionals’ knowledge, skills, and abilities (Dillon and Kruck, 2004). They claim that such competencies should be applied _________________________________________________________________________________________ Manuscript first received/Recebido em: 08/04/2014 Manuscript accepted/Aprovado em: 14/12/2014 Address for correspondence / Endereço para correspondência Dr. José-Melchor Medina, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas. Centro Médico y Educativo “Adolfo López Mateos” Cd. Victoria, Tamaulipas. México. Phone: (+52) 834 3181756 ext. 139. E-mail jmedinaq@uat.edu.mx Dr. Alberto Mora, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Tamaulipas. México. E-mail amora@uat.edu.mx Dr. Demian Abrego, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Tamaulipas. México. E-mail dabrego@uat.edu.mx Published by/ Publicado por: TECSI FEA USP – 2015 All rights reserved.

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to the organizational performance improvement efforts. To do so, it is fundamental for organizations to be aware of the importance of the accounting function, otherwise, all the financial information may become an underused resource. However, entrepreneurs often raise questions regarding the IT return on investment, specifically, in Accounting Information Systems (AIS), even though there is evidence of their positive impact on various aspects such as productivity and organizational performance, as they help increase sales levels and have access to more customers and improve the relationship with them, raise efficiency levels in the business processes, and decrease cost, among others.

Scholars have been trying to explain the strategic value of IT capabilities for a long time (Fink, 2011). There is ample evidence of the ways in which IT has been applied in the achievement of enterprises’ productivity and in helping them become more competitive globally. This enables them to put their human and economic efforts into the development of new products.

The spread of technology is central to an organization’s development and change.

According to Gordon and Tarafdar (2007), IT entails information, project management, collaboration, communication, and their involvement helps enterprises improve their ability to innovate, as the technological developments are the result of innovative processes. However, Hevner et al. (2004) sustain that there are insufficient constructs, models, methods and tools to represent accurately the link between business and technology. In this context, many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have aligned technological applications with their business operations, but few have been able to successfully integrate IT into their business units (Chen and Wu, 2011). A concrete example of this is the case of AIS, which has not been exploited for the benefit of an organization’s harmonious development.

SMEs play an important role in most countries’ economies. However, when compared to large enterprises, SMEs have a more simple structure, fewer specialized tasks, and fewer resources than those of human, financial and material (Feller et al., 2011). Regarding IT, they do not normally have an IT department; they lack project leaders; and formal IT staff training programs do not exist. In other words, they have scarce resources, and according to the resources and capabilities theory, they need different competencies to be able to face the challenges that the scarcity of resources represents.

In addition to the aforementioned, the knowledge age has had an effect on SMEs. For example, IT has an impact on the accounting based performance, which is determined mainly by their knowledge management capacity (Tanriverdi, 2005), as knowledge is considered a strategic resource within the resource based theory. In other words, SMEs should try to make the most of technology which has become more and more accessible thanks to the constant reduction in costs, which in turn facilitates the justification of the acquisition of IT and AIS. Nevertheless, it is important to mention that most studies that address this topic have been focused on the context of developed countries (Sabherwal et al., 2006; Petter et al., 2008; Ferreira and Cherobim, 2012). Therefore, there is an urgent need to undertake research that is not only limited to those countries. Scholars such as Mahmood and Mannm (2000) have also suggested the need for other scholars to include the experience of other countries as well.

IT and AIS are undoubtedly of paramount importance nowadays. In the Mexican context, little research into the impact of information systems (IS) and their benefits at the organizational level has been conducted; and this study is an attempt to fill that gap in the literature. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to determine the impact of technological alignment, information management and technological infrastructure on the performance of an institution in terms of innovation and productivity with the daily use of an AIS in the JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 29-44

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SMEs. To achieve this aim, a research model is tested and examined in SMEs belonging to the service, commercial and manufacturing sectors in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico. Data is collected directly from the participating economic units. Such data is in turn analyzed statistically through the use of SmartPLS, developed by Ringle et al. (2005). The research is based on the review of the literature related to the dependent and independent variables studied. After that, the empirical part of the research is carried out (administration of the questionnaire, its analysis and discussion of the main findings). The conclusions are then drawn and the main contributions to knowledge are outlined.

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1. INNOVATION Innovation affects firms’ ability to compete successfully in an increasingly global market (Madrid-Guijarro et al., 2009), as innovation is central to organizations’ modernization and transformation (Feller et al., 2011). In this sense, organizations not only need to pay attention to efficiency and productivity, but also they need to promote innovation and their mechanisms to develop it which support knowledge generation, sharing and integration (Albers and Brewer, 2003). These two researchers define innovation as the use of knowledge that offers a new product or service needed by customers. However, the concept of innovation is complex; and from the technological and administrative point of view, it requires time, devotion and investment (Toledo and Zilber, 2012). For Sala-I-Martin et al.

(2013), innovation can come through the technological aspect or non-technological knowledge. Basically, the innovation process is connected with the search, experimentation, development and implementation of new products, services, processes, ideas and new organizational approaches. Hsu (2010) summarizes innovation as one new technology idea, application of the existing technology for a new invent and improvement of the existing technology or products. For this paper, innovation occurs when an idea, process, service or product is established in the firm, and it faces competition efficiently.

The impact of innovation on performance (both profitability and growth) is primarily indirect and is instead fueled by IT (Dibrell et al., 2008). During the decade of the 1990´s, IT proved to be a particularly powerful innovation tool as it enabled the development of new products and helped improve business processes; but the learning of new creative techniques is an ongoing process within an organization and will result in an improvement of processes, products and methods. This raises the following questions: How to innovate with information technology and AIS in an enterprise? How to gain competitive advantages through AIS? Therefore, those organizations wishing to innovate should cultivate the identification of IT competences (Gordon and Tarafdar, 2007). These same scholars warn that IT and the IS could suffocate creativity and innovation by standardizing, automating and institutionalizing the existing processes and work flows. In the same vein, according to Fink (2011), in order for an enterprise to sustain its competitive advantage, it is essential not to open its resources to imitation or substitution. Similarly, an industry’s ability to innovate and gain competitive advantage depends on factors such as R&D stock, human capital, engagement (of products and people) in international business, and market regulations, among others (Apergis et al., 2008).

Innovation is a variable that needs to be promoted within the institutions, regardless of the benefits already gained through such innovation, of the construction of infrastructure, of the reduction of the macroeconomic instability, or of the improvement of the human resources of the population, especially because all these factors seem to run into diminishing returns (Sala-I-Martin et al., 2013). In this context, Mexico is ranked in the 49th position, which has JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 29-44

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started to become difficult to sustain due to the deceleration of many world economies. In addition to that, there is also the lack of knowledge about the creativity potential to increase the organization’s innovative capability; therefore, it is imperative for organizations to incorporate into their hierarchical culture the idea that innovation is important for the institution and stakeholders (Toledo and Zilber, 2012).

Undoubtedly, innovation is a factor that any type of enterprise needs to consider if they are to survive in these changing times. The SMEs are not an exception. This is especially true when there are large amounts of information available generated by AIS which have not been used for the common good in the SMEs. In other words, the SMEs are also required to use the data generated within them, not only to compete, but also to survive. The role that IT and AIS play in helping organizations become innovative is not clear. However, because of the importance of innovation, many scholars have analyzed its roots with the hope of determining what an enterprise should do to become more innovative. No doubt more investment in research and development is needed in order to understand and assess new technology and innovation trends. .

2.2. PRODUCTIVITY Sala-I-Martin et al. (2008) stated that enterprises will depend to a great extent on their ability to adapt themselves to the existing technologies in order to increase their productivity.

For this research, productivity enables enterprises to develop better decision-making processes, more effective information and technology usage and more efficient ways to align the organizational strategies with IT. In addition, as IT has become more important for enterprises, their executives demand more accountability, which requires the measurement of their productivity. In this context, the brief history of the IT shows that they joined the organizations precisely because they promised the automation of monotonous processes and a reduction of staff costs. In other words, they promised an increase in productivity. Nowadays, managers call into question the little benefit they obtain from the financial, human, time and effort investments they make, including all their risks involved in this process. Badescu and Garcés-Ayerbe (2009) found that while organizations have experienced improvements in the work productivity in a reasonable time, but such improvements do not result from the investment made in IT; even, Robert M. Solow, the Nobel Prize winner in 1987, mentioned that “we see the computer era everywhere except in the productivity statistics”. This is so because according to Mahmood et al. (2000) investments in computers will be profitable only if they entail an increase in productivity. Nonetheless, the emergence of the IT productivity paradox came to exacerbate this situation due to the huge investments made, which most of the time are not reflected in the organizational productivity. This situation leads to the conclusion that despite the investments in IT, it fails mainly because there is a lack of acceptance of it on the part of its users, an absence of a systematic planning as well as a lack of managers’ participation in it.

With respect to the impact of investments in IT, at organizational productivity levels, positive and significant relationships have been observed and recognized lately, especially with the IS and AIS in particular. This situation is even present in those organizations which have been successful in adopting IS; they are normally looking for ways of improving their business processes, considering the IS as a means of increasing productivity (Feller et al., 2011). In another study, Farrell (2003) also recognizes this co-relation, but framed and justified in highly competitive environments, and therefore, with a high demand for innovations; in such environments, innovation and technology transfer have been found to be statistically significant for productivity gains (Apergis et al., 2008).

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Some researchers wonder whether it is possible to maximize IT performance if this is not done simultaneously with the restructuring of organizations; what is not debatable is the fact that investments made in IT may facilitate the complimenting innovations in the economy such as the business processes and the work practices, which leads to an increase in productivity through a cost reduction and quality improvement (Han et al., 2011).

As can be seen, the Productivity variable is very important for small and mediumsized enterprises. AIS may be a source of progress and a generator of organizational productivity if used efficiently. This can be achieved by utilizing all data created through its continuous usage.

2.3. TECHNOLOGICAL ALIGNMENT The alignment between businesses and IT has been defined by Venkatranman (1989) as the relationship between strategy and performance at the information technology service level, as well as at the business level. Based on this concept, IT professionals and business leaders are constantly in pursuit of their best administrative practices so as to be able to align their business strategies with those of technology (Hammett, 2008). Similarly, Henderson and Venkatraman (1993) suggest that the alignment between IT human skills and IT infrastructure capacity has a positive strategic effect; that is why technology has an important role to play in the strategic planning process for the achievement of objectives and mission (Lewis III, 2009). For his part, Davenport (2000) argues that a combination of strategy, technology, data (relevant), organization, culture, skills and knowledge helps develop the organization’s capabilities for the data analysis process. The benefits can be even greater if the focus is on the data obtained from an AIS, as this can be an important measure for the development of the strategies aimed at such technological alignment.

The sharing of knowledge between managers and IS professionals is an important factor for the achievement of alignment between business objectives and those of IT. This is especially the case when the management of an organization’s technology has been assigned to the IT department; therefore, there needs to be a strategic alignment between business strategies, IT strategies, IS infrastructure and organizational infrastructure (Henderson and Venkatraman, 1993). To do so, there are certain aspects that need to be taken into consideration for the alignment of business with IT (Onita and Dhaliwal, 2011): scope, governance, availability of resources, competences and process. With the current tendencies of evaluation and fiscal audits, accounting cannot be left out in this context. Unfortunately, organizations have not been able to succeed in maintaining a harmonious relationship between business and IT (Hammett, 2008).

While there is a general agreement among practitioners that the alignment of IT and the businesses is necessary, the pathway to achieve it is not completely clear. This is because business strategies are firstly defined and then operations and support strategies, including the technologies are aligned with them (Feurer et al., 2000). For example, Dibrell et al. (2008) argue that IT initiatives should be aligned with innovation. That is to say, in order to obtain a real integration between IT and business strategy, it is necessary that the very process of establishing the strategy incorporates ingredients of IT just as it does with other functions (commercial, sales, production, and others), and according to Peak et al. (2005), this alignment involves the good use of the decisions of the IT resources for the achievement of strategic objectives of the businesses (anticipation to the future requirements), tactics (location of resources) and operational (efficiency and effectiveness achievement) of the organization; because any change in the strategy and technology potentially results in a change in the value system, in the culture and in the structure of the organization teams (Feurer et al., 2000).

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In today’s business environment, the alignment of IT with business processes, such as the stakeholders’ abilities, constant technological changes, new standards, strategies with competitors, among others is more and more difficult. The integration of IT and IS (which includes AIS) with the enterprise’s operations has been widely recognized as a requirement for improving various aspects of an organization.

We need to understand that the alignment of the conduct of the strategic business units within the corporation and the alignment of the organization with IT and then with these units have been a top priority for many managers. Therefore, enterprises need to integrate it into their business plans in order to ensure that they are aligned with their strategy (Galleta and Lederer, 1989) also highlight its important role in the support of management decision making processes. They go on to suggest that SMEs should consider how they can apply IT to other strategic initiatives, such as customer responsiveness, in order to enhance the overall effectiveness of the strategy.

Overall, there are different key factors that contribute to the alignment of organizational strategies with technology in an enterprise. These include their leaders’ communication, participation and support in IT, the sharing of knowledge, the clear definition of processes, the technological infrastructure and the integral planning.

After having reviewed the literature on technological alignment, we now proceed to present the hypotheses of our work for this construct. A description of their operationalization is provided in the Method section: H1. The technological alignment generated through the use of AIS is a means to innovate in an SME. H2. The technological alignment generated through the use of AIS allows SMEs to increase their productivity levels.

2.4. INFORMATION MANAGEMENT The organizational information processing theory is based on the idea that an organizational adjustment is adequate when the business strategies’ information processing requirements are in concordance with the organizational structure’s information processing capacity (Jarvenpaa and Ives, 1993). Unfortunately, few SMEs have formally designed their information policies and management (Feller et al., 2011) even though globalization requires the performance of structured and unstructured transactions, and the sharing of information beyond their boundaries.

All enterprises depend on information technology for the accurate and timely management of information. However, many enterprises tend to collect large amounts of data from the entire organization. This raises the following question: Now what do we do with them? According to Oppenheim et al. (2004) information may contribute to the organizational effectiveness. They warn that its impact remains hidden until it is removed or lost. In other words, information makes sense only if someone uses it for something.

Davenport and Prusak (1997) have argued that information plays a role in the facilitation of the exchange process with the value chain as part of its business strategy as its users need it to understand the meaning of the data and virtually, all the stakeholders in the enterprise (operators, executives, etc.) use information to produce more information.

Moreover, for enterprises, knowledge management is an essential managerial activity for sustaining competitive advantage in today’s information economy (Lin et al., 2012).

Nevertheless, knowledge, including information, is also an organizational capability which is a source of a sustainable competitive advantage. As Ray et al. (2005) have stated, those

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enterprises with a high level of knowledge and information sharing achieve good results in offering services to their customers. In this respect, Davenport (2000) introduces the data oriented culture and calls for the need for data analysis, data integrity, data synthesis, complete data and prompt extraction of data. For this reason, AIS are a useful tool for the generation of tangible information which can help create competitive advantages and if treated adequately, they can become a knowledge creation source.

Undoubtedly, information is an intrinsic component in almost all the information activities in every organization to the degree of becoming transparent. This is so because it is the means through which people express, represent, communicate and share their knowledge.

Marchand et al. (2002) highlight that it is the use of information which has an influence on the creation of business value through four strategic priorities: i) Minimizing financial, commercial and operational risks, ii) reducing costs of transactions and processes, iii) adding value to customers and markets, and iv) creating new realities through innovation.

As can be seen, information management is an information technology trend that is having, or will have, a short-term impact on all types of businesses. Therefore, organizations should implement strategies related to information management technologies if they are to increase their effectiveness, competitiveness and their ability to address competition (Lin et al., 2012).

We now proceed to present the hypotheses of our work for this construct. A description of their operationalization is provided in the Method section: H3. The information management generated through the use of AIS is a means to innovate in an SME. H4. The information management generated through the use of AIS allows SMEs to increase their productivity levels.

2.5. TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE Technological infrastructure allows organizations to develop key applications, and to share information related to division and products (Han et al., 2011). It is defined as the group of interrelated capital resources which provide the foundation on which IT applications are built. It is made up of hardware, software and orgware, which support the AIS that record all the commercial activities of an organization. However, standardizing all the IT infrastructure aspects is not recommended since the business units need autonomy to meet their specific technological needs (Tanriverdi, 2005). The sharing of joint objectives, principles, values and language among the talented IT people in the business units is needed.

The majority of the enterprises view the new technologies as instruments to gain certain advantages and many of the times as tools to bring about a change in the business strategies and the institutional corporate processes. In addition, IT infrastructure is positively associated with the duration of the sustainability of the competitive advantage, although it is not eternal. A constant renewal in IT infrastructure is needed as this has become more and more inexpensive and accessible to all organizations.

It has also been noticed that the promises of IT have not been fulfilled, and the socalled productivity paradox has been called into question, especially due to the big investments made by organizations in computers and technology hoping to obtain a substantial profit (Hitt and Brynjolfsson, 1996), to improve performance, best decision making gains competitive advantage and because of the influence it has on the strategy (Davenport, 2000), for the impact it has on the enterprises and for the changes in the businesses’ environment. What is surprising about the paradox is that just when the JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 29-44

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technology adds amazing quantities, it has not been able to respond to the fundamental needs of the enterprise. Imposing a uniform IT strategy and infrastructure through all the business units and centralizing the management of the IT resources may be useful for the central objectives; nevertheless, this can also limit the degree of autonomy and performance of the business (Tanriverdi, 2005).

Similarly, Dibrell et al. (2008) contend that an appropriate use of IT infrastructure may impact positively on innovation, productivity and competitiveness. Yet, some organizations have failed in their attempts, and those enterprises with a high degree of success in the adoption and use of IS were constantly searching for new IT techniques and ways to incorporate them into the organization’s business processes (Feller et al., 2011). However, some researchers such as Heo and Han (2003) contradict this claim arguing that IT may lead to an increase in costs and affect management. This study intends to contribute to the debate about these issues.

We now proceed to present the hypotheses of our work for this construct. A description of their operationalization is provided in the Method section: H5. Technological infrastructure in the way of AIS is a means to innovate in an SME. H6. Technological infrastructure in the way for AIS to allow SMEs to increase their productivity levels.

3. METHOD Information technology plays a central role in the harmonious development of organizations. Nowadays, it is difficult to conceive an institution without the use of any technology as a means to achieve a certain competitive advantage. In this research in particular, technology is of paramount importance as the literature review carried out in the main research centers and universities in Mexico reveals that there is little, if any, research conducted in this discipline.

The process used to achieve the main objective of the literature review started with a review of the state of the art of the independent variables related to the technological alignment, information management and technological infrastructure. This was followed by a review of the state of the art of the dependent variables related to an organization’s performance from an innovation and productivity point of view. The constructs of the independent and dependent variables have been operationalized as follows: 

Independent variables (with the use of the AIS and the information generated through it): Technological Alignment (aims and achievement of objectives, perception of improvement in the performance of activities, definition of strategies in cooperation with organizations and IT), Information Management (strategic use of information, participation of key staff members in information management, continuous acknowledgement of information processes) and Technological Infrastructure (efficiency in operations, relating processes and persons, forecasting market trends, defending the market position).



Dependent variables (with the use of AIS and the information generated through it): Innovation (select the most promising innovations, making the most of the market opportunities, higher level of products and services innovation), and Productivity

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(perception of activity improvement, information for decision-making, the AIS information is considered as an asset to the organization).

After that, a tentative questionnaire was designed and reviewed by professionals in the field. The instrument was validated by academicians and experts; the next step involved the pre-testing of the instrument, which helped in establishing the validity of the items and their contents. In other words, the administration of pre-tests of the instrument served for improvement purposes, as it requested feedback from the 12 participating enterprises. The results of the pilot test allowed the detection of a few items which did not meet the minimum recommended statistical load. The final version of the instrument was made up of 4 items for the technological alignment section, 3 for information management, 5 for technological infrastructure, 4 for innovation, and 3 for the productivity, in addition to the demographic data section. All of them were assessed in a 5 point Likert scale (Totally Disagree ... Totally Agree), which has more than three values for its measurement as a lower or larger scale will not provide the respondents’ discriminating power. The 5 point Likert scale was considered an ideal option since the establishment of acceptable levels of the constructs is critical for any research project. The empirical work was carried out in the central region of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

The most recent census conducted by the Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI, 2011) shows that there are 5782 SMEs in the state of Tamaulipas (in Mexico, small enterprises are those which have between 11 and 50 employees and mediumsized enterprises are those with a range of 51 and 250 employees). The region under study (Ciudad Victoria) has 636 SMEs. The final version of the instrument was applied to 63 enterprises (10% of the total population). Unfortunately, the participation of entrepreneurs and managers in this kind of studies in this region is still low. Two questionnaires were applied to each of the enterprises, generating 126 completed questionnaires for their analysis. The respondents were those people who make use of AIS such as the finance manager, the top manager, the main accountant, and the accounting staff. All responses would be kept anonymous and confidential. The criterion for the selection of units of analysis was that the organization had a recognized accounting management function through an AIS. The data analysis was carried out through descriptive and inferential statistics, with the help of the multivariate SmartPLS (it is PLS variation: Partial Least Squares) software package. This along with a re-sampling of 500 sub-samples allowed us to obtain the crossing of variables, correlation matrices, factorial loadings, average variance extracted (AVE), tstatistics, explained variance and standardized coefficient paths. This was done with the purpose of obtaining an answer to the proposed hypotheses. Conclusions are then drawn from the analysis conducted as well as their implications for practice and policy making.

The use of PLS has generated interest among information systems researchers due to the possibility that it offers to model latent constructs under abnormal conditions and with small or medium sized samples (Chin et al., 2003). It is used in a wide variety of disciplines, including economics, political sciences, educational psychology, chemistry and marketing (Fornell and Bookstein, 1982). The aim of the PLS modeling is to predict both latent and manifest dependent variables. Such aim is translated into an attempt to maximize the explained variance (R2) of the independent variables. This in turn leads to the fact that the estimations of the parameters are based on the capacity to minimize the residual of the endogenous variables (Cepeda and Roldán, 2004).

SmartPLS will serve as a means to validate the model in an integral form. That is to say, the results of this statistical tool will help determine whether the research model has sufficient reliability. Overall, PLS is an adequate means for research in information systems (Roldán JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 29-44

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38 Medina, J., Mora, A., Abrego D.

and Sánchez-Franco, 2012). To do so, the measurement and structural parameters are estimated simultaneously (analyzed and interpreted in two stages): PLS enabled researchers to assess the measurement model (psychometric properties of the scale used to measure a variable), and the estimation of the structural model (the strength and direction of the relationships between variables). In addition to that, PLS has few restrictions regarding measurement scales, sample size and residual distributions. Therefore, it is more appropriate to explain complex causal relationships (Chen and Wu, 2011), especially when there is little theoretical information available (Roldán and Sánchez-Franco, 2012).

A. MEASUREMENT MODEL 

Reliability: For the purposes of this research, it is assessed by examining the loadings () or simple correlations. In order for an indicator to be accepted, it needs to possess an equal or greater loading than 0.707 (2, 50% of the explained variance).



Internal Consistency (Constructs Reliability), it is assessed by a Cronbach’s alpha of (0.7). In this case, the statistic proposed by Fornell and Larcker (1981) is used. Based on their research, these authors claim that their 0.707 measure is greater than that of Cronbach’s.



Discriminant Validation: For this assessment, the square root of the AVE is used (Fornell and Larcker, 1981), which should be greater than the shared variance between the construct and the other constructs in the model. The corresponding matrix provides these values.



Convergent Validity: This assessment was conducted through the AVE; its values should be greater than 0.50, which implies that more than 50% of the construct variance is due to its indicators (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). It can only be applied to reflective indicators (Chin, 1998a).

B. STRUCTURAL MODEL The structural model assesses the weight and magnitude of the relationships (hypotheses) among the different variables. For this assessment, two basic indexes are used: the explained variance (R2) and the standardized path coefficients (). R2 indicates the explained variance by the construct within the model; it should be equal or greater than 0.1, as lower values, even if they are significant, provide little information, and represent the measure of the predictive power (Roldán and Sánchez-Franco, 2012). The R2 provides an indication of the predictive ability of the independent variables, as well as the standardized path.  represents the path coefficients, which has been identified in the monogram (SmartPLS figure) with the arrows that link the constructs in the internal model. This coefficient is obtained in the traditional way (as multiple regression). Chin (1998a) suggests that in order for the standardized path coefficients to be considered significant, they should achieve at least a value of 0.2, and ideally be greater than 0.3; in addition to that, Chin (1998b) considers R2 values of 0.67, 0.33, and 0.19 as substantial, moderate, and weak respectively.

3.1. RESULTS From the 126 valid questionnaires, the gender distribution was 78% woman and 22% men. The Age rank was classified into four levels: Up to 20 years old (9%), 21-30 years old (83%), 31-40 years old (4%), 41-50 years old (3%) and 51 or more years old (1%). Use of the system (weekly), five groups came from the sample: 0-10 hours (22%), 11-20 hours (31%), 21-30 hours (21%), 31-40 hours (18%), and 41 or more hours (8%). Regarding educational level: high school (7%), undergraduate (83%), graduate (10%). And finally, the sector to

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which the participating enterprises belong: service (85%), commercial (12%) and industry (3%).

A. MEASUREMENT MODEL 

Reliability: The indicators present acceptable values, including the 19 reflective indicators (Table 1); the loading factor varies between 0.7079 and 0.9073, surpassing the minimum requirements of 0.707.



Internal Consistency (Constructs Reliability): Table 1 shows that the internal (composite) reliability is given in this research, surpassing the minimum requirements in the Fornell statistical of 0.707.



Discriminant Validity: In order to value the discriminant validity (Table 2), the AVE square root was used (the numbers in bold on the diagonal line are the square root of the variance shared between the constructs and their measures). The variables satisfy the necessary condition; thus adequate discriminant validity was achieved.



Convergent Validity: The convergent validity of the survey measurement was right (Table 1), AVE exceeds in everything the 0.50 (the values are valuating from 0.6071 until 0.8019). Re-sampling was coming out (500) for getting the T-statistic values; the results showed that almost everyone was significant (Table 3).

Table 1. Individual reliability of the reflective indicators’ loading and coefficients’ convergent validity Construct

Item Item Loading Information Management IM_1 0.7962 IM_2 0.8842 IM_3 0.9034 Technological Alignment Alig_1 0.7651 Alig_2 0.8130 Alig_3 0.8308 Alig_4 0.8275 Technological Infrastructure TI_1 0.7956 TI_2 0.8074 TI_3 0.7077 TI_4 0.8662 TI_5 0.7079 Innovation Inno_1 0.8917 Inno_2 0.9073 Inno_3 0.8998 Inno_4 0.8829 Productivity Prod_1 0.7895 Prod_2 0.8641 Prod_3 0.8823

Composite Reliability 0.8968

Cronbach’s Alpha 0.8276

AVE

R2

0.744

NA

0.8837

0.8248

0.6553

NA

0.8848

0.8392

0.6071

NA

0.9418

0.9177

0.8019

0.345

0.8831

0.8003

0.7161

0.522

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40 Medina, J., Mora, A., Abrego D.

Table 2. Correlation of variables (discriminant validity) IM Alig TI Innov Prod IM 0.8626 Alig 0.6316 0.8095 TI 0.5172 0.5700 0.7791 Innov 0.5568 0.4973 0.3380 0.8955 Prod 0.5940 0.6327 0.6060 0.4941 0.8462 Note: elements on the diagonal line are the result of the square root of AVE. For the discriminant validity, these values should exceed the inter-construct correlations. IM (Information Management), Alig (Technological Alignment), TI (technological infrastructure), Innov (Innovation) and Prod (Productivity).

B. STRUCTURAL MODEL Table 3 shows every planning hypothesis; in Figure 1, they are detailed in a graphic form, showing the research model evaluated empirically; they also show that the values obtained are within the ranks of the previous parameters.

Table 3. Summary of SmartPLS results Hypothesis

Coefficient T-statistic Path

Remarks

Technological Alignment  Innovation

0.246

2.000 *

Supported

Technological Alignment  Productivity

0.353

3.039 **

Supported

Information Management  Innovation

0.358

2.919 **

Supported

Information Management  Productivity

0.250

2.176 *

Supported

Technological Infrastructure  Innovation

0.014

0.532

Technological Infrastructure  Productivity

0.365

3.343 ***

Figure 1. Research Model

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Not Supported Supported

Enterprise technology in support for accounting information systems. An innovation and productivity approach

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The data analysis suggests that all investments in AIS made by the managers has influenced the employees’ perception that there has been an increase in productivity.

Employees perceive a substantial improvement in the development of activities and processes; this means that the information generated is being used to make more and better decisions.

Such information is represented as an additional asset in organizations, which can become a means to information management in the short or medium term. Similarly, it has helped make planning based on organizational needs and IT, in which staff members of both parties participate actively in their best interest and their enterprises´. A close monitoring of market trends is also performed.

With respect to innovation, the results indicate that the SME’s attempt to improve their activities and the few innovations (administrative, processes and products/services) they have.

However, they make a conservative use of their information. Unfortunately, the technological base in place is not the most adequate or it is not used efficiently for their own benefit.

4. CONCLUSIONS AIS have become an essential tool in today’s businesses. Therefore, organizations continue to invest in these technologies as a measure to improve their performance. The aim of this research is to determine the influence that enterprises’ technological infrastructure has on their organizational performance from an innovation and productivity point of view through the daily use of an AIS. Productivity is one of the main demands from the managers; nevertheless, they may be satisfied as such productivity has been achieved through the daily use of AIS, both to be able to provide information requested by government entities and to generate data to be able to face competition. This is especially true when it comes to the employees’ perceptions of the improvement in the activities they perform, information to be able to make more and better decisions and, above all, to create the culture of the importance of an appropriate use of information which can lay the foundations for the discussion about knowledge management.

For that reason, the investment made in IT is justified, calling into questioning the productivity paradox, at least for these enterprises under study. However, as has been said, IT and productivity are not everlasting; a constant innovation is needed, which involves further investments in hardware, software and, above all, in people.

Similarly, it is important to point out that, just as productivity, there has been a significant progress in innovation. Nevertheless, such innovation is not necessarily technology related; but the SMEs intend to improve their administrative processes through AIS (their generated data), which in turn is reflected mainly on the products quality/services they commercialize or sell.

Finally, the results show that SME’s have inadequate technological infrastructure.

However, it is important to make clear that no evidence is available from our research that can explain whether such inadequate technological infrastructure has to do with obsolete technology, inappropriate use, lack of it, little training, among other factors that can account for this users’ perception. Likewise, overall, technological infrastructure which includes alignment, information management and technological infrastructure itself do not seem to be of any help for enterprises to be able to efficiently face competition. Therefore, this issue requires special attention on the part of the participating enterprises. It can be argued that these enterprises are facing competition through efficiency in administrative processes, quality service and higher levels of productivity; unfortunately, they appear to be merely

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42 Medina, J., Mora, A., Abrego D.

responding to market needs, rather than doing it in a systematic way which may result in greater and better benefits for the organization.

5. LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH This study has some limitations, which must be acknowledged. First, given that research data represents one snapshot in time, the validity of a model can not be established on the basis of a single study. Second, the study was carried out in a specific geographical context of the northeastern region in Mexico, and was focused on one single type of information systems (accounting). Therefore, care needs to be taken when making generalizations of the results. Furthermore, critiques of the cause and effect relationships among the constructs in the model need to be made with caution. For this reason, other researchers should add other IS and IT success factors that can assist in the development of more specific theories in this respect. Such theories might help managers make more informed decisions regarding investment in AIS. This in turn can increase the likeliness of securing a positive impact of investments made in technology.

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Dillon, T.W., and S.E. Kruck, 2004. The emergence of accounting information systems programs. Management Accounting Quarterly, 5(3), pp. 29-36 Farrell, D., 2003. The real new economy. Harvard Business Review, 81(10), pp. 104-112 Ferreira, R., and A. Cherobim, 2012. Impacts of investments in it on the organizational performance of baking companies of minas gerais state: a multicase study. Revista de Administração e Contabilidade da Unisinos, 9(2), pp. 147-161 Feller, J., P. Finnegan, and O. Nilsson, 2011. Open innovation and public administration: transformational typologies and business model impacts. European Journal of Information Systems, 20, pp. 358-374 Feurer, R., K. Chaharbaghi, M. Weber, and J. Wargin, 2000. Aligning strategies, processes, and IT: A case study. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 17(1), pp. 23-34 Fink, L., 2011. How do IT capabilities create strategic value? Toward greater integration of insights from reductionistic and holistic approaches. European Journal of Information Systems, 20, pp. 16-33 Fornell, C., and D.F. Larcker, 1981. Evaluating Structural Equation Models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), pp. 3950 Fornell, C., and F. Bookstein, F., 1982. Two Structural Equation Models: LISREL and PLS Applied to Consumer Exit-Voice Theory. Journal of Marketing Research, 19(4), pp. 440-445 Galleta, D., and A.L. Lederer, 1989. Some cautions on the measurement of user information satisfaction. Decision Sciences, 20(3), 419-438 Gordon, S.R., and M. Tarafdar, 2007. How do a company’s information technology competences influence its ability to innovate? Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 20(3), pp. 271-290 Hammett, B.M., 2008. Corporate startegy and technology alignment factors that contribute to strategy and technology aligment. Doctoral dissertaion. Capella, University Han, Ch., Ch. Hsieh, F. Lai, and X. Li, 2011. Information technology investment and manufacturing worker productivity. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 52(2), pp. 5160 Henderson, J., and N. Venkatraman, 1993. Strategic alignment: Leveraging information technology for transforming organizations. IBM Systems Journal, 32(1), p. 4-16 Hevner, A.R., S.T. March, and J. Park, 2004. Design science in information systems research.

MIS Quarterly, 28(1), pp. 75-104 Heo, J., and I. Han, 2003. Performance measure of Information Systems (IS) in evolving computing environments: An empirical Investigation. Information & Management, 40(4), pp.

243-256 Hitt, L.M., and E. Brynjolfsson, 1996. Productivity, business profitability, and consumer surplus: Three different measures of information technology value. MIS Quarterly, 20(2), pp.

121-142 Hsu, J., 2010. Effectiveness of technology transfer measures in improving SME productivity: An empirical study of Taiwan. The Journal of American Academy of Business, 15(2), pp. 206211 Inegi, 2011. Directorio Estadístico Nacional de Unidades Económicas (DENUE). http://gaia.inegi.org.mx/denue/viewer.html. Consulted: Nov 3, 2013 Jarvenpaa, S.L., and B. Ives, 1993. Organizing for global competition: The fit of information technology. Decision Science, 24(3), pp. 547-580 JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 29-44

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Lewis III, N., 2009. Identifying critical dimensions that shape the business and information technology alignment process: A case study of a university. Doctoral Dissertation, Capella University Lin, Ch., J. Wu, and D.C. Yen, 2012. Exploring barriers to knowledge flow at different knowledge management maturity stages. Information & Management, 49, pp. 10-23 Madrid-GUIJARRO, A., D. Garcia, and H. Van Auken, 2009. Barriers to innovation among Spanish manufacturing SMEs. Journal of Small Business Management, 47(4), pp. 665-487 Mahmood, M.A., J.M. Burn, L.A. Gemoets, and C. Jacquez, 2000. Variables Affecting Information Technology End-User Satisfaction: A Meta-analysis of the Empirical Literature.

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JISTEM - Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 45-64 ISSN online: 1807-1775 DOI: 10.4301/S1807-17752015000100003

INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY: A LITERATURE REVIEW Victor Freitas de Azeredo Barros Centre ALGORITMI, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal Isabel Ramos Centre ALGORITMI, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal Gilberto Perez Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo/SP, Brazil ___________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT The advancement of technologies and Information Systems (IS) associated with the search for success in the competitive market leads organizations to seek strategies that assist in acquisition, retention, storage, and dissemination of knowledge in the organization in order to be reused in time, preserving its Organizational Memory (OM). Organizational Memory Information Systems (OMIS) emerge as an enhancer of the OM, providing effective support and resources for the organization, assisting in decision making, in the solution of problems, as well as in quality and development of products and services. This article is an analysis of some OMIS selected from a literature review about its features and functionality in order to understand how these information systems are seen by the organizations. With this research, we realized that the relationship between OM and IS is still inexpressive, even with the existence of some cases of success in the use of OMIS in the literature. The literature reveals that an individuals' knowledge is not integrated in information systems management process in most organizations; much of this knowledge is generated in the organization retained in an individual himself/herself. It is easy to see that there is a need for strategies and mechanisms in the organization to stimulate and provide better knowledge sharing between individuals which, when associated to IS, allows greater control and effective use of Organizational Memory.

Keywords: Strategy, Knowledge management, Competitiveness, Decision-making.

___________________________________________________________________________________________ Manuscript first received/Recebido em: 20/03/2014 Manuscript accepted/Aprovado em: 17/02/2015 Address for correspondence / Endereço para correspondência

Victor F. A. Barros, Researcher at Centre ALGORITMI, University of Minho, Campus de Azurém, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal, E-mail: vfbarros@dsi.uminho.pt Isabel Ramos, PhD in Information Systems and Technology, Assistant Professor with Aggregation at the Department of Information Systems, University of Minho, Campus de Azurém, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal, E-mail: iramos@dsi.uminho.pt Gilberto Perez, Doutor em Administração pela Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Professor do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Administração (PPGA) da Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. Rua da Consolação, 930 - 01302907 - São Paulo, SP - Brasil, E-mail: gperez@mackenzie.br Published by/ Publicado por: TECSI FEA USP – 2015 All rights reserved.

46 Barros, V. F. de A., Ramos, I., Perez, G.

1. INTRODUCTION In an increasingly competitive and globalized world, organizations are constantly changing in order to stay in the market. This constant competitiveness leads organizations to seek more and more quality not only in the products and services offered but also in their strategies, decisions and structures. However, these changes in the organization, whether strategic or structural, may result in a loss of the accumulated knowledge retained in an individual. “[...] factors such as global competition, changing organizational structures, massive layoffs of middle managers, and the emergence of ‘virtual organizations’ are causing organizations to lose valuable experiential knowledge that exists only in the memories of individual workers.”

(Morrison, 1997, p. 300).

Once the knowledge generated in the organization over time is one of the primary factors to remain competitive in the market, it is important that organizations are aware of and seek mechanisms and strategies that enable to keep this accumulated knowledge in the organization. This set of accumulated knowledge accumulated being preserved through time is called organizational memory (OM).

“OM may be thought of as comprising stocks of data, information, and knowledge (the memories) that have been accumulated by an organization over its history. When an individual accesses OM, he performs an act of interpretation on the memory(ies) that is(are) accessed and may or may not act on it (them).” (Cegarra-Navarro & Sánchez-Polo, 2011, p. 1).

OM provides support both to the development of the individual and the organization. For the individual by aggregating knowledge and learning from the experiences, strategies and actions taken by the organization over time, and for the organization by using this range of accumulated knowledge that, when associated with the current knowledge of this individual, aids in actions and decisions to be taken in the organization as well as in the generation of new solutions, products and services.

In order for OM to be useful and effective for the organization, it is necessary that the organization guides its strategy to the creation of a favorable environment that fosters and encourages collaboration and the sharing of knowledge, ideas, experiences and relevant information among its members, in order to feed this OM consistently. It is also important to ensure that the Information System (IS) supporting its processes facilitates both acquisition and retention and the dissemination of this knowledge in the organization.

“Since the Organizational Memory shows up as a fertile field of research while challenging, the purpose of this essay was to better understand its mechanisms of operation, associating them with the Information Systems, given the complexity and scope of such systems, which has as one of its main purposes, the preservation of organizational memory.” (Perez & Ramos, 2013, p. 543)

Also known as organizational memory information systems (OMIS), these systems should be flexible to adapt to the changes as well as to support the demand of the information and knowledge submitted them over time, increasing the capacity and the speed of response of the organization. “[...] the impact of OMIS on knowledge receipt from the recipient side can be intervened by the firm’s potential absorptive capacity. The internal systems of the recipient affect the extent to which a firm recognizes and evaluates the usefulness of knowledge transferred by the focal firm and the JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 45-64

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Information Systems and organizational memory: A literature review

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extent to which a firm can internalize the knowledge.� (Yu, Dong, Zuo, & Xu, 2012, p. 7).

The purpose of this article is to explore how information systems, more specifically OMIS, enhance and support the creation, storage, and dissemination of knowledge in the organization over time in order to ensure an effective management of OM. To support this research, section 2 discusses the methodology adopted, followed by section 3 with a synthesis of some of the main theoretical concepts and definitions of organizational memory (OM) and organizational memory information systems (OMIS) addressed in this investigation. From this, section 4 shows an analysis of some selected OMIS in the literature regarding its structure, features and advantages for organizations. Finally, sections 5 and 6 are, respectively, a discussion of the results obtained and some final thoughts about this study.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS This research is characterized as exploratory, since it seeks to understand through content analysis (Bardin, 2000) the context in which this study is fitted and to provide greater familiarity with the subject of study (Cervo, Bervian, & Silva, 2007).

For its accomplishment, a systematic review of the literature was carried out, making it possible to identify, evaluate and interpret relevant studies addressing the topics of the research, in particular, organizational memory (OM) and organizational memory information systems (OMIS). To achieve this, the following steps were followed: (i) planning the review; (ii) identification of the main sources of literature; (iii) selection of literature based on keywords, followed by criteria for inclusion and exclusion.

In the review planning step, the research was directed according to the purpose of the article, namely, to explore the approaches to OM and OMIS existing in the literature, with the aim of analyzing the described concepts, models, application, features and functionalities. The selected scientific sources of the research work were the Scopus, Web of Science, IEEEXplore and AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) because they are commonly considered the most representative scientific bases around the information systems (IS) area.

To find relevant articles, it was carried out a systematic search in the selected scientific bases articles including, either in the title, abstract or keywords, the two central themes of this study: information systems and organizational memory. Table 1 describes the number of publications over the last 20 years (1994-2013).

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48 Barros, V. F. de A., Ramos, I., Perez, G.

Table 1. Number of publications over the last 20 years (1994-2013) on scientific bases Scopus, Web of Science, IEE Xplore and AISeL and search code on information systems and organizational memory.

SCIENTIFIC BASIS YEAR Scopus

Web of Science

IEEEXplore

AISeL

[137]

[60]

[09]

[09]

1994 [01]

-

-

-

1

1995 [08]

5

3

-

-

1996 [02]

2

-

-

-

1997 [12]

8

2

2

-

1998 [16]

11

4

1

-

1999 [22]

13

7

1

1

2000 [20]

12

8

-

-

2001 [09]

4

4

1

-

2002 [13]

7

6

-

-

2003[11]

6

4

1

-

2004 [13]

9

3

-

1

2005 [20]

13

5

1

1

2006 [15]

9

5

-

1

2007 [16]

14

1

1

-

2008 [12]

9

2

1

-

2009 [09]

5

3

-

1

2010 [05]

3

1

-

1

2011 [05]

4

1

-

-

2012 [02]

1

-

-

1

2013 [04]

2

1

-

1

[1994-2013]

From this search, it was obtained a set of 215 scientific articles that were read and analyzed, and are discussed in the remaining sections of this article. For the analysis of the gathered articles, a set of keywords related to the central themes of this research was selected to a further selection of articles for this literature review (Section 3) without compromising the quality of the obtained results; for the selection of the main OMIS described and discussed in this article (Section 4), a subset of the latter group of articles was chosen. Table 2 shows the related keywords that were used to refine the set of articles to analyze within the central topics of this study (OM and OMIS).

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Table 2. List of the keywords related to OM and OMIS found in the literature review.

CENTRAL SUBJECTS

KEYWORDS

Organizational Memory (OM)

Organizational Memory; Corporate Memory; Cooperative Memory; Social Memory; Collective Mind; Group Memory; Corporate knowledge management; Knowledge Memory.

Organizational Memory Information Systems (OMIS)

Organizational Memory Systems; Organization Memory Information System; Knowledge Management System; Corporate Repository; Knowledge Repositories; Process Memory Systems; Shared knowledge Base.

Following the execution of these delimiters emphasizing the articles clearly related and relevant to the aims of the study being, 20 scientific articles were selected because they are clearly related to OMIS and quote one or more cases relevant to this study. Based on this set of scientific articles, 7 OMIS were selected. Table 3 shows the main OMIS found from this literature review, the description of the author and the year of publication, as well as the research method used by the author (s).

Table 3. Relation of Organizational Memory Information Systems (OMIS).

OMIS

AUTHOR(S)

RESEARCH APPROACH

YEAR

Mark S. Ackerman

(1994a)

Field Research

Mark S. Ackerman

(1994b)

Field Research

Kenneth Moore

(1995)

-

Thomas H. Davenport

(1998)

Case Study

Joline Morrison

(1997)

Literature Review

Mark Weiser and Joline Morrison

(1998)

Laboratory Experimentation (Prototype)

Andreas Abecker, Ansgar Bernardi, Knut Hinkelmann, Otto K端hn and Michael Sintek

(1998)

Laboratory Experimentation (Prototype)

Andreas Abecker, Ansgar Bernardi, Knut Hinkelmann, Otto K端hn and Michael Sintek

(2000)

Laboratory Experimentation (Prototype)

Handbook

Thomas W. Malone, Kevin Crowston, Jintae Lee, Brian Pentland, Chrysanthos Dellarocas, George Wyner, John Quimby, Charles S. Osborn, Abraham Bernstein, George Herman, Mark Klein and Elissa O'Donnell

(1999)

Case Study

Thoughtflow

P. Balasubramanian, Kumar Nochur, John C. Henderson and M. Millie Kwan

(1999)

Case Study

KnowledgeScope

M. Millie Kwan and P. Balasubramanian

(2003)

Actual Experimentation (Implantation)

Answer Gardner

Lotus Note

Project System

Memory

KnowMore System

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50 Barros, V. F. de A., Ramos, I., Perez, G.

From this selection of OMIS existing in the literature, it was performed an analysis based on concepts, features and classifications, which allowed the classification of OMIS, considering as criteria the types of knowledge supported by these systems and the process of acquisition, retention, storage and dissemination of these knowledge through individuals.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW 3.1 Organizational Memory (OM) Day after day, most organizations lose a great volume of their generated knowledge due to the lack of mechanisms that allow its retention for the organization, keeping great part of this knowledge retained only in an individual.

According to Walsh & Ungson (1991, p. 57), “to the extent that organizations exhibit characteristics of information processing, they should incorporate some sort of memory”. In this sense, when the organization can obtain, retain and store the knowledge over time and make it available as necessary, it could be said that this organization can assure and feed consistently organizational memory (OM). “[...] with updated hard memories, individuals will have the advanced tools to increase efficiency through automated workflow features or enhance individual achievements through application of explicit knowledge.

Therefore, providing the appropriate Hard-OM is critical in the future success of today’s companies [...] is the streamlined, interconnected backbone of an entire company, into which all individuals will be able to connect and share information.” (Cegarra-Navarro & Sánchez-Polo, 2011, p. 13).

In this scenario, Walsh & Ungson (1991) created a model of OM (Figure 1) providing a possible explanation for how an organization obtains, retains and retrieves the generated information, enabling this information to be used in actions and decisions that are taken by individuals in the organization and emphasizing that “the structure of organizational memory is composed of a number of storage bins: individuals, culture, transformations, structures, ecology, and external archives.”

(Walsh & Ungson, 1991, p. 81).

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Figure 1. The structure of Organizational Memory (OM) proposed by Walsh & Ungson (1991, p. 64).

For the authors, maintaining a rich and functional OM, it is necessary to interlink all information repositories in the organization and, in particular, individuals who compose it. “The most important keys to understanding acquisition, retention, and retrieval processes is to understand the nature of the individuals that compose the organization.” (Walsh & Ungson, 1991, p. 77).

As individual influences directly the OM, everything that involves an individual in the organization, i.e., the organizational setting in which this individual is, also influences the behavior of the individual. “[...] the acquisition, retention, and retrieval of knowledge and experience from retention repositories (i.e., memory) influence individual behavior by the company.” (Walsh & Ungson, 1991, p. 58).

Therefore, all this accumulated knowledge, whether retained in the individual or in the environment, in both physical and organic structure, the transformations and changes in the organization, as well as the culture and policies adopted by the organization, are the main factors that feed the Walsh & Ungson model so that the organization may have an effective OM. “This knowledge integrates and coordinates all organizational activities even the transmission of new knowledge throughout the system. This facility, of course, is an organization's memory.” (Walsh & Ungson, 1991, p. 72).

In addition to all this internal knowledge management for an effective OM, the authors also consider as part of OM the knowledge that can be acquired from the organization’s social context, whether obtained from associations, partner companies, customers, suppliers, working groups, public institutions, among others. “Just as when an individual's memory fails, he or she can turn to others to help recall the particular event, an organization is surrounded by others who follow its actions.” (Walsh & Ungson, 1991, p. 66).

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For authors like Morrison (1997), Cegarra-Navarro & Sánchez-Polo (2011) and others, the organization's knowledge can be acquired and stored in OM both in the form of explicit knowledge (also called hard, concrete knowledge or “Hard-OM”) and of tacit knowledge (also called abstract, episodic knowledge or “Soft-OM”).

Tacit knowledge is that which cannot be expressed, such as the individual’s experience, structures, myths, culture, contexts and actions; whereas explicit knowledge refers to any information that can be expressed in documents, numbers, processes and transactions (Cegarra-Navarro & Sánchez-Polo, 2011).

Table 4 summarises the “types of knowledge” that could compose the OM that were found in the selection of literature classified by levels of abstraction of knowledge, with the description of their origins and importance to the organization.

Table 4. Classification of types of knowledge that could compose the organizational memory according to the level of abstraction of knowledge, with the description of their origins and importance in the organization.

Abstration/Level

Type

Description

Record transactions data bank

of and

Concret/ Hard/ Explicit

Abstract/ Episodic/ Tacit/

Documents of transactions in the organization from reports, data regarding to database archiving.

Documentary record

Items of information dissemination such as summaries web pages, articles, news, among others; formal documents such as reports and versions; manuals, reports, digitalized documents.

Individual record

Informal documents related to creation of artifacts (e-mail, memos, letters, etc.)

Process e Rules

Interpretative, systematic and observable components; production process, work process, concepts.

Experiences and Transformations

Mind of the specialists, decisionmakers, Project developers (individuals), practices, observations, organizational decisions. New projects, budgets, market, planning, procedures, among others

Structure, Policies Culture

Acquisition, retention and knowledge share in the organizational structure; symbols, stories repeated in the set of information transmitted among the individuals in their organizational environment, physical structure and organizational policy

“Hard-OM”

“Soft-OM” Myths, and

Importance

Contains trends, historical contexts and varying interpretations.

Knowledge, experiences, events and standardized artifacts, remembrance, single interpretations and diagnosis of multiple point of views determining improvements in actions and decisions in the organization.

Source: adapted from Blue, Andoh-Baidoo, & Osatuyi (2011); Cegarra-Navarro & Sánchez-Polo (2011); Morrison (1997); Walsh & Ungson (1991).

As a way to enhance this organizational memory (OM), information systems (IS) came to support the process of acquisition, retention, storage, and dissemination of knowledge in the organization, thus enabling new strategies for the sharing of knowledge, ideas, experiences and information thus making more effective the decision making, troubleshooting, innovation and quality of products and services.

These systems are referred to in this study as organizational memory information systems (OMIS).

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3.2. Organizational memory information systems (OMIS) As a way to enhance, “feed” and support the organizational memory (OM) in organizations, information systems (IS) should make possible the acquisition and retention of knowledge, whether explicit or tacit, the storage and dissemination of this knowledge when needed. The supporting of an effective knowledge management process is the challenge of organizational memory information systems (OMIS).

Nevo et al., (2008) argue that the model by Walsh & Ungson (1991) is appropriate to support the research efforts in the field of information systems and technologies. The basic assumption is that information technology can be used to create a uniform, complete, consistent, updated and integrated set of knowledge that can be made available for the decision-making processes at all levels of the organization.

OMIS can be defined as any IS used in the organization that allows to enhance the process of acquisition, retention, storage, and distribution of knowledge over time, even involving those individuals who are not part of the organization, promoting (i) an effective knowledge management process and organizational memory; and (ii) optimizing the processes of decision-making, problem-solving, quality assurance and development of products and services in the Organization (Kwan & Balasubramanian, 2003; Stein & Zwass, 1995).

“Broadening the repertoire of the information-systems support for organizational memory helps human actors cope with a possible information overload and supports their roles as information processors. [...] With its response repertoire constantly replenished from the arising cases, the system is a part of the company's organizational memory.” (Stein & Zwass, 1995, p. 90).

Knowledge-based systems, document management systems, semantic networks, object-oriented and relational databases, decision support systems (DSS), expert systems, collaborative systems, social networks, intranets, simulation tools, distributed systems; document management; geographic information systems (GIS); contextual indexes; metadata; navigator; e-mail; search/retrieval of tools; information repositories; web server; agents/filters; external services server; videoconferencing; knowledge-based systems (KBS); data mining; information and communication technologies (ICTs); artificial intelligence (AI); database technology; modeling; among others are examples of systems and tools that support organizational memory (Alavi & Leidner, 2001; Dorasamy, Raman, & Kaliannan, 2013).

To support this concept, Stein & Zwass (1995) created a framework to represent OMIS based on theoretical criteria of organizational memory. This framework can be viewed in Figure 2.

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54 Barros, V. F. de A., Ramos, I., Perez, G.

Figure 2. Framework for an organizational memory information systems (OMIS) proposed by Stein & Zwass (1995, p. 98).

According to Stein & Zwass (1995), OMIS consist of two layers; the first layer is subdivided into four sub-processes: (i) the integrative, that supports the organizational knowledge sharing through time at all levels of the organization; (ii) the adaptive, which recognizes, captures, organizes and distributes knowledge in the organizational environment adapting it to the changes of environment over time; (iii) the attainment, which seeks to achieve the performance goals of the organization not only the storage of knowledge goals; and (iv) the maintenance, which preserves the knowledge development in the organization throughout the time through attitudes, values, standards, routines and self-knowledge, contributing to the cohesion and morale of the organization.

The second layer corresponds to the process explored in the previous section (section 3.1) with regard to acquisition, retention and availability of knowledge. The authors have added the maintenance process and research that are directly linked to the process of acquisition, retention and availability of knowledge, respectively. The maintenance process represents the capacity of the system to assimilate the new knowledge that is being retained with the existing knowledge, and the search process refers to agility and reliability in the pursuit of that knowledge already stored in the system for their reliable recovery.

All this focus on what ensures the consistency of this model in order to perceive how knowledge can be acquired by the organization, the way it will be stored and maintained over time, as well as the agility and reliability of providing the representation of knowledge in information systems.

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Some systems such as: Answer Garden, Project Memory System, Knowledge Scope, among others, are some examples of systems that present characteristics of an organizational memory information system (OMIS). These systems were chosen to be described in section 4.

4. ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON OF ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY INFORMATION SYSTEMS As already discussed in the previous sections, the effective management of the organizational memory (OM) supported by information systems (IS) improves the organization’s capability to acquire, retain, store and disseminate the knowledge generated over time, not only the explicit, which is commonly stored and made available in organizations, but also the tacit, which is retained in the minds of individuals and that most often is not shared among the members of the organization.

In the literature, it was found some conceptual models and applications that have characteristics of an organizational memory information system (OMIS). In this section, some of these systems found in the literature will be described and related to the characteristics of the OMIS reference model proposed by Stein & Zwass (1995) and the type of organizational knowledge described in Table 3.

4.1. Answer Gardner The Answer Garden provides an environment for questions and answers categorized by subject. It is composed not only of an extensive database, but also of a panel of experts who, if the user does not find the solution to her/his problem, the system itself selects a specialist according to the specific nature of the problem. These experts, in turn, provide such a solution if it had not been found before and update the database.

According to Ackerman (1994b), who examined six organizations which used the Answer Garden, only one organization actually makes constant use of this system.

One of the problems is that it does not provide contextual information of the problems, which complicates the resolution of new problems and, in many cases, does not answer the questions of the users. Another difficulty is that individuals feel its use is very complex, reducing the motivation to access the system and to update the database.

For organizations that use information extensively, this system is very useful, since it is always changing, emerging from new questions and answers being fed into the system.

However, feeding the database and answering the questions of the users demand a lot of time and work, requiring that this system be integrated into the workflow of the individuals in the organization so that it does not cause a lack of interest both for the users and the experts.

4.2. Lotus Note Companies like Price Waterhouse, HP and others used the Lotus Notes system arguing that this system played an integrating role in the organization (Davenport, 1998). At Price WaterHouse, for example, this system was used to integrate all the knowledge of its members located throughout the world; this extensive sharing of knowledge reduced costs and time to perform particular processes, in addition to JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 45-64

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56 Barros, V. F. de A., Ramos, I., Perez, G.

optimizing decision making (Kawell Jr., Beckhardt, Halvorsen, Raymond, & Greif, 1988).

Another company that included that system in the organization was HP, which used the Lotus Note as a mechanism to assist the sharing of ideas, collaboration and learning between individuals in the organization, recognizing that this strategy was one of the factors of success and growth of the company (Davenport, 1998).

Lotus Notes is a software used by several organizations in the world and is based on a platform of mail flow. It has as tools the electronic mail integrated with discussion groups and allows individuals to create, index, alter and update various documents whenever necessary (Kawell Jr. et al., 1988). Thus, every individual can perform the necessary changes, making its use and supplementation more flexible, given that the Lotus Notes “empowers individuals and organizations to collaborate and share information.� (Moore, 1995, p. 427).

Considering the concept of organizational memory information system, it might be said that the Lotus Notes fits perfectly in it, because it supports the storing of all the information of an organization and makes that information available so that all parts are connected.

4.3. Project Memory System The system, Project Memory, uses approaches for managing data projects that can capture the processes, contexts, fundamentals, or artifacts in a way that allows members of new projects to familiarize themselves quickly with all the history of the project (Weiser & Morrison, 1998).

This system basically breaks down the information on a particular project into five distinct classes: projects, users, events, meetings and documents. In addition, the model describes the people, temporal events (such as meetings or items of an individual scheduling in a meeting) and archival documents that are created within a project or support some of its aspects (Morrison, 1997).

A positive point of this system is that information retrieval is based on any contextual information, such as the date on which the project was created or last revised, the keywords of the project, the one who created this project or even the relation of this project with others projects in the organization. A disadvantage of this system often mentioned in literature is that all individuals are represented as members of the project and do not take into account their roles, relationships and affiliations.

4.4. KnowMore System The KnowMore system aims to provide a support for a large amount of tasks performed in an organization from a system able to retain knowledge and make it available taking into account the context (Abecker et al., 1998).

According to Abecker et al. (2000) the KnowMore Project has as its main feature the possibility of integrating the workflow of the organization so that the system becomes an assistant able to provide information as necessary. This is, in a particular task to be performed or in a particular process running in the organization, a query to the system’s knowledge bases and the actions taken within a certain workflow performed automatically and presented to the individual during the performance of this activity/task/execution.

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The advantage of this system functionality is that it assists the individual in performing various business activities and tasks by providing relevant information recovered from the organization's knowledge base.

From a technical point of view, the process and modeling are based on ontological knowledge, metadata and heuristics, thus ensuring the reliability of its execution. It provides a framework for easy handling, with boxes of tools that help create applications to support the user (Abecker et al., 2000). Thus, at any given time when the individual performs a certain task, the system leads him/her to relevant information providing suggestions and aiding in decision making.

The structure of the system is able to provide some support information, if the user has some difficulty handling or understanding the information provided. In addition, the system can direct the user to other individuals in the organization who hold relevant knowledge to achieve a successful decision.

As points for improvement for KnowMore Project, it is highlighted the way it deals with the data acquisition and retention from the ongoing activity. In the KnowMore system, all kinds of information are treated in a similar manner, whether they are formal and/or informal data. In addition, it is entirely focused on resources only for recovery of knowledge, not processing the knowledge of activity/task/thing in question.

4.5. Knowledge Scope The KnowledgeScope is a system capable of capturing representations of knowledge generated in the organizational setting supporting the integration of processes and information in a workflow, organizing all acquired knowledge acquired to be used whenever necessary.

The Knowledge Scope, the process of acquisition and retention of knowledge is performed through the capture of documents, processes and strategies of the organization and the system provides a version control of these documents. What distinguishes it from the traditional systems is that this system supports an integrated workflow management, making available user strategies, projects, ideas, among other forms of knowledge already in use, which can be retrieved at any moment.

KnowledgeScope organizes knowledge around the organizational processes in which the knowledge is created, captured, and used. [...]

KnowledgeScope to (1) reduce the documentation burden by automatically capturing knowledge and its context as it is created, and (2) provide knowledge with contextual information to the right person at the right time in the right place.� (Kwan & Balasubramanian, 2003, p. 483)

In addition, the system has a discussion forum and may have different standpoints on certain actions of the project. It also provides a guide of notes so that the user can make notes of any ideas that, then, are stored in the system. The system also provides a search system for an individual to find specific items of interest such as projects, customers and any other individual with characteristics necessary for executing her/his project.

4.6. Other OMIS The PRISM system, described by Palvia, Perkins, & Zeltmann (1992), is one of the most extensive human resources information system, deployed to the Federal

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58 Barros, V. F. de A., Ramos, I., Perez, G.

Express Corporation. This system maintains the history of training, safety, benefits and structural changes of the entire organization.

The HandBook is a system that captures the knowledge of the process (Malone et al., 1999). As the processes contain descriptions of different types of processes from different organizations, the system classify them by using an approach that incorporates the concepts of guidelines to objects of inheritance and abstraction.

The gIBIS organizes the logic of a design process using a knowledge structure based on an argument that defines the interchange of knowledge in a discussion in three categories: issues, positions and arguments. The gIBIS captures only the contents, but not the context in which the discussion takes place, such as the roles of the participants and the tasks from which problems arise (Conklin & Begeman, 1988).

Other systems use this logic of structure and integrate all information of the documentation processes. One such system is Thoughtflow that organizes the logic of a process in a form of an audit trail of goals and decisions picking up the context of decisions, decision roles, resources, schedules, and so on (Balasubramanian et al., 1999).

4.7. OMIS Comparison With the description of some of the existing organizational memory information systems (OMIS), it is possible to highlight that organizations are seeking effective ways of knowledge management and memorization because there is a prevalent notion that they are crucial for improving the organization's performance.

Table 5 provides an overview of the systems presented in the previous section showing to which process of knowledge memorization they provide support.

The memorization processes that we used to create the table are knowledge acquisition, retention, storage, and dissemination as proposed by Morrison (1997). As for the process of acquisition and retention, it is considered the recovery and storing of information in databases (AR1); the user requests of information, namely: searches and information recovery performed by individuals (AR2); periodic queries to individuals in the form of satisfaction surveys and reports about usage (AR3); and information (external and/or internal) directed to the individual as memos, lists, forums, among others (AR4). For the dissemination process, two possibilities are considered: the active (ACT), for willful and conscious recovery; and the passive (PAS), for information retrieved in informal personal contacts or internal communications.

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Table 5. Overview of types of knowledge supported by systems and strategies for acquisition, retention, and dissemination of this knowledge.

Type of Knowledge OMIS

TDBR

DR

IR

AnswerGardner LotusNote

PR

ET

X X

X

X

X

X

X

X

KnowMore System

X

X

X

KnowledgeScope

X

X

X

Project System

Memory

HANDBOOK Thoughtflow

X

X

Acquisition/Retention SMP C

AR1

AR2

AR3

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

AR4

Dissemination ACT

PAS

X X

X

X X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X X

X

Legend: TDBR = Transaction and Database Record

PR = Processes and Rules

DR = Documental Record

ET = Experiences and Transformations

IR = Individual Record

SMPC = Structure, Myths, Policies and Culture

AR1 = Information put in database by individuals

AR3 = Regular consultations to individuals

AR2 = User requests data

AR4 = external and/or internal information directed to individual

ACT = Proposital and Aware of individual

PAS = Informal contact or internal communication

From the table, it is possible to identify a wide variety of knowledge types that are handled by the systems, with an emphasis on individual records and processes. As for acquisition and retention strategies, it is clear that individuals use the systems to access necessary documents and some systems collect requests by users.

However, regarding the Structure, Myths, Policies and Culture, they are given no involvement and interaction by the systems, making it difficult for the users to use them at a time that is appropriate. For dissemination, in most of cases, the systems support its intentional search.

The Answer Garden, for example, while providing an environment for questions and answers that help individuals whenever they have any questions, with support from experts, does not provide information according to the context, making the interpretation of recovered information harder.

The KnowledgeScope, Project Memory System and KnowMore System systems can retain knowledge together with its context, allowing individuals to understand a particular process or task being performed, and use it in the current context as a support for solving a particular problem or for decision-making.

Moreover, the KnowledgeScope and the Lotus Note systems, in addition to retaining knowledge, assist in the exchange of experiences among individuals of this organization, allowing to add and/or modify any component of an existing project to a current reality without having to remake the whole process.

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60 Barros, V. F. de A., Ramos, I., Perez, G.

5. DISCUSSION This research, in the form of a literature review on organizational memory (OM) and organizational memory information systems (OMIS) makes it possible to understand the extent and nature of the studies carried out within the field of organizational memory (OM) and information systems (SI), which includes the process of acquisition, retention, and dissemination of knowledge in the organization. From an extensive search in some of the major scientific bases it was possible to understand that, over the years, there are few authors who perform studies addressing OM. These authors have been demonstrating that organizational memory processes supported by information systems help to increase organizational performance and productivity, thereby becoming effective in supporting organizations in accomplishing their goals.

It is necessary to mention that, despite the focus on the need of retaining knowledge, few case studies analyzed how information systems are used in organizations to assist the process of knowledge construction.

The issue of terminology is also a factor that hinders the studies in this area.

There are several terms used to refer to organizational memory information systems.

This terminological inconsistency points to the need for a greater consensus about the term to use so that research on OMIS can be consolidated.

From the models selected and described in section 4, it can be highlighted that while OM research focus on how organizations memorize knowledge, the area of OMIS has been focusing on a particular kind of knowledge, explicit knowledge or information. Moreover, the literature also stresses clear difficulties in managing that information, so it can be reused in a different context from the one where it was produced. Thereafter, it is important to have more studies to develop a better understanding about which knowledge/information can be retained by OM and how this knowledge/information can be retained to ensure its effective reuse to support future decisions.

This is the case, for example, of the KnowledgeScope and the Lotus Note systems, which can promote the exchange of knowledge and experience between individuals, allowing to change, add and/or modify stored information as well as include new information readily available to all organizational members.

The performed literature review also confirms that it is not enough to have an organizational memory information system in place to ensure an effective OM. It is also necessary an organizational culture that fosters the use of this knowledge in a shared and collaborative manner so that it can generate more knowledge, more ideas, more creativity and innovation to the organization.

6. CONCLUSION Organizational memory information systems (OMIS) can be used to retain organizational knowledge (explicit and tacit), therefore they are used to support the structuring of organizational activities, and the communication and knowledge sharing between individuals in the organization. Thus, these systems play an important role in OM, structuring and enhancing OM’s role in decision making, in solving problems as well as in the innovation and quality control of products and services in the JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 45-64

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organization. OMIS also add knowledge management functions, creating an environment that encourages the collaboration and the sharing of ideas and experiences between individuals, aiming to enhance the acquisition, retention, storage, and distribution of organizational knowledge over time, which are major functions of OM. Regarding the literature review, organizational studies applying empirical research, including case studies and/or action-research are necessary. This way developed theoretical models and frameworks can be applied and validated so that they can become effective tools for organizational interventions aimed at diagnosing and improving OM. Moreover, this applied research would enable a better understanding of factors underlying the success of OMIS in organizational settings.

As to the analysis of the selected OMIS, it was observed that organizations are aware of the importance of OM and invest in the preservation of relevant knowledge that can provide them with competitive advantage.

The challenge for organizations is, then, in identifying and implementing a system that adequately supports organizational memory, by assisting organizations in the decision-making process. An OMIS should provide a well-defined environment for the acquisition and retention of the semantically correct knowledge, allowing its reuse in a reliable and safe manner. It should also provide, facilitate and encourage collaboration and sharing functionalities.

It is expected that this literature review can provide the necessary basis for further analysis of the relationship between organizational memory (OM) and information systems (IS), whether in its theoretical context, with conceptual analysis of the relationship between OM and IS, and/or in its practical context, with analysis of the used information systems and their impact on OM; and they can ensure a safe competitive advantage in the market, since they represent key components for the effective management of the knowledge generated in the organization.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil and

by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the Project Scope UID/CEC/00319/2015.

REFERENCES Abecker, A., Bernardi, A., Hinkelmann, K., Kühn, O., & Sintek, M. (1998). Toward a technology for organizational memories. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 40–48. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=683209 Abecker, A., Bernardi, A., Hinkelmann, K., Kühn, O., & Sintek, M. (2000). ContextAware , Proactive Delivery of Task-Specific Information : The KnowMore Project.

Information Systems Frontiers, 2(3/4), 253–276.

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São Paulo: Prentice Hall.

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Replicated document management in a group communication system. In Proceedings of the 1988 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work. Retrieved from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1024798 Kwan, M. M., & Balasubramanian, P. (2003). KnowledgeScope: managing knowledge in context. Decision Support Systems, 35(4), 467–486. doi:10.1016/S01679236(02)00126-4 Malone, T. W., Crowston, K., Lee, J., Pentland, B., Dellarocas, C., Wyner, G., …

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Morrison, J. (1997). Organizational Memory Information Systems: Characteristics and Development Strategies. In Proceedings of HICSS- 97 (pp. 300–309). IEEE Computer Society Press.

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Palvia, P. C., Perkins, J. A., & Zeltmann, S. M. (1992). The PRISM System: A Key to Organizational Effectiveness at Federal Express Corporation. Management Information Systems Research Center, 16(3), 277–292. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/249529 Perez, G., & Ramos, I. (2013). Understanding Organizational Memory from the Integrated Management Systems (ERP). Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management, 10(3), 541–560. doi:10.4301/S1807-17752013000300005 Stein, E. W., & Zwass, V. (1995). Actualizing Organizational Memory with Information Systems. Information Systems Research, 6(2), 85–117.

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JISTEM - Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 65-80 ISSN online: 1807-1775 DOI: 10.4301/S1807-17752015000100004

SOFTWARE SELECTION THROUGH DECISION ANALYSIS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT Danilo Augusto Sarti University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil ___________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT This paper aims to access the best alternative, from a set of five, of software for statistical analysis in a seed company in Brazil. The methodology considers the costs related to the process, R programming and its relationship with the final decision made regarding the software selection, being all these aspects framed by the tool discussed in (Howard, 1988; Howard, 2004) applied to the information technology context. The results present cost reduction in the process of statistical analysis and a change in the decision about the statistical software to be used by the enterprise. The paper consider only one specific application of analysis used by the enterprise which can be improved with the use of platforms such as Rstudio, and the packages Knitr and Shiny.

Keywords: Decision analysis; Information technology management; Open source/R programming; Software Selection; IT in agribusiness.

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1.

Objectives:

The main objective of this paper was the use of the tool for decision analysis discussed in (Howard, 1988; Howard, 2004), and described in theoretical references, to select the best software application alternative, from a set of five alternatives, to proceed the Tukey test, an statistical test used by the enterprise. Four from these alternatives were programmed in R and one alternative was the use of commercial software for the statistical analysis.

The decision analysis tools presented in (Howard, 1988; Howard, 2004) was elected to minimize cognitive problems and other kind of bias related to the decision process and broadly described in (Bell & Raiffa, 1990; Hogarth, R, 1991; Plessner & Bletsch & Bletsch, 2007).

___________________________________________________________________________________________ Manuscript first received/Recebido em: 23/07/2013 Manuscript accepted/Aprovado em: 09/02/2015 Address for correspondence / Endereço para correspondência Danilo Augusto Sarti,Ex-aluno LES/USP, Eng Agrônomo/USP Msc. Applied Economics/USP, Datascientist, Aluno especial do IMECC/Unicamp, Address for correspondence: Av 33 1999 Estádio 13501440 Rio Claro SP daniloasarti@gmail.com (preferred contact).

Published by/ Publicado por: TECSI FEA USP – 2015 All rights reserved.

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In despite of the key objective, the paper also tried to answer other questions and issues. Among them we can cite the quantification of the costs related to the statistical analysis process in each alternative and quantification of cost reduction obtained during the process of construction of the decision bases (concept to be define in theoretical references) The paper also shows how a function in R can serve as an efficient interface and the influence of the interface level on user´s preferences to the considered alternatives.

More broadly, the paper also demonstrates the possibility of using open source platforms in enterprises and how the abilities, such as R programming, made an impact on the decision regarding the most appropriate software for the enterprise.

1.2 Justifications: The work is justified by the illustration of how to solve the problem of software selection in a formal manner. This formalization allows recording the information used at the moment of the decision making.

The example of the use of decision analysis in IT management can serve as a base for future systems choices and can also be used to decision making in other sectors.

The cost reduction obtained with the resolution of the problem was significant, showing the great potential of using open source software, in a creative context, in different economic sectors, resulting in competitiveness to organizations. The costs question is important for any kind of business, especially for new enterprises and small business, in which the initial investments are made and results are uncertain.

Results also allow to say that the use of open source alternatives in a creative way and its teaching at the universities can reduce the technological dependence of enterprises on software with high license costs.

1.3 On the demand and importance of statistical software Enterprises that work with applied agriculture research have a big dependence on statistical analysis of the data collected in the experiments they use to conduct. This is the case of plant breeding and the seed production sector that use statistical analysis for decision making in different steps of their production and research processes.

Usually, these statistical analyses are made in software that produces reports for the decision maker or analyst involved in the process of product development.

In the plant breeding process, there are many statistical analyses used to answer questions about the performance of the products regarding productivity and other characteristics related to the vegetal material experimented.

In general, the product´s tests are made in an appropriate statistical design to answer the key questions. A typical kind of statistical analysis, which comprises a big number of reports in plant breeding process, are mean comparison tests such as Tukey´s test.

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The production of such statistical analysis implies in costs for companies, mainly costs related to license payments for commercial software use, in addition to costs related to the statistical analysis itself. For small companies such costs can be significant and have impact on their competitiveness.

Thus, decisions related to the software used, its efficiency to solve the specific application and other aspects are strategic issues for the management of information technology and systems at the enterprise.

1.4 Potential, popularity and easy use of free and open source software With the advent and consolidation of open-source and free platforms under GPL license, the number of alternatives for software and statistical software has increased. A good example is the R statistical software.

(Muenchen, 2012) discusses the rise in popularity of R in academic and enterprises or other institutions applications. The same author shows the advance and versatility of the software through the increase in the number of scientific papers citing R, number of messages in forums specialized in data-science, etc.

The use of free and open source platforms is interesting because of the two main aspects. First, the user can know the details of the procedures made by the software once its code is open, and in case of good familiarity with the software, the user can adapt the code to their own application. Considering R software to see the code used by a function one needs, just type in the name of the function on the software console and will see its code.

The second aspect is the reduction of bureaucracy to obtain the software by the enterprise. In general, for acquiring a system that requires license payments, the enterprise needs to start an internal process for buying the software that involves different sectors of the enterprise and that can delay the access of the software by the user, considering urgent demands this can be a bad situation. In the case of free software, the user can download it and freely use the system on their own desktop.

2. THEORETICAL REFERENCES: 2.1 Decision analysis and its implementation The theoretical reference for choosing the best statistical application for the analysis system of the enterprise was the tool presented in (Howard, 1988; Howard, 2004).

According to this author, the search for a good decision needs to involve an efficient characterization of the alternatives related to the decision problem, its consequences, preferences of agents related to the problem and, in uncertain conditions, a complete description of the risks (Howard, 1988; Howard, 2004).

This tool allows an iterative and comprehensible modeling of the decision problem, in addition to making the process easily communicated among people of technical areas and non-technical staff related to the decision, minimizing the cognitive problems described in Bell & Raiffa, 1990; Hogarth, R, 1991; Plessner & Bletsch & Bletsch, 2007) and (Ariely, D, 2013). The main ones are:

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a) Anchor: Psychological phenomenon in which the mind gives a nonproportional weight to the first received information about the problem. b) Status quo Bias: A tendency that decision makers have to choose alternatives that maintain the status quo of the institutions and groups. c) Protect earlier decisions: Tendency to maintain aspects related to earlier taken decisions in despite of the fact that such maintained aspects are not reasonable. d) “See what we want see”: Bias that implies searched information that provides proof that the first assumptions about the problem are right. e) Incorrect framing of the decision problem, overconfidence and neglected information.

As previously described, challenging problems can be minimized by the use of the decision analysis tool presented in (Howard, 2004) which main objective is to obtain a set of information called “Decisions Base”. The whole process can be seen in Figure 1.

Figure Decisions Base: Construction and dynamics. Source: Author

1

In Figure 1, it is possible to note that the process of decision analysis and construction of decision base starts in an “obscure” state regarding the decision problem.

From Figure 1, we can see that agents in technical areas, the decision analyst and decision maker, work in an integrated manner sharing and complementing experiences with the available literature about the problem. Through this exchange, the knowledge for the construction of decision base is born, which shows the alternatives, consequences and related preferences and uncertainties in each alternative. The process should be repeated iteratively until the solution to the problem is given and a decision is made.

In general, to make a decision we start with an initial decision base that evolves with the iterative description of the alternatives, consequences, preferences and risks until a set of information, enough to base a decision upon, is provided.

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2.2 Statistical Theory related to the problem As for the statistical topic regarding the application of a test, we consider conducting a means comparison test among the different treatments in a complete randomized blocking design. Statistical reports with this kind of test, in spite of the fact of being simple and questionable, are the base to key decisions in the enterprise, from plant breeding process to registering the products at the Agriculture Department, impacting, therefore, the legalization of the products (MAPA, 2014).

2.3 Tukey´s test The Tukey´s test, reported by the software selected by the enterprise, is a classical technique used in design and analysis of experiments. (Montgomery, 2013), (Cox & Reid, 2000; Hinkelmann & Kempthorne, 2005; Mason et al. , 2003).

Such technique consists in comparing the means of all a*(a-1)/2 pair of treatment means used in an experiment (Montgomery, 2013). In the case considered in this paper, the experiments were conducted in a complete randomized blocking design and the compared means were productivity means of pre commercial hybrids of normal grain corn of the considered enterprise´s portfolio.

The test is based on a maximum value for the difference of two given treatment means so that such treatments are considered statistically equal; in other words, they have to be in the same statistical class if the difference of such means is less than a given distance taken as maximum accepted difference. This allows them to group the developed products in classes of productivity means (Montgomery, 2013).

3. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY The knowledge of information technology used can be divided into programming topics, R programming topics and its availability and structure.

3.1 General theoretical programming topics General topics regarding computer programming were used as techniques to develop algorithms for problem solving, in addition to general subjects regarding the implementation of procedures. Detailed information about such subjects can be obtained in (Cormen et al., 2009; Muller, 2006; Knuth, 1997). For a more statistical programming point of view we suggest (Givens & Hoeting, 2013).

3.2 R software: obtaining and short history R is an open source and free software available for all operations systems at www.r-project.org. The software is a multi-objective platform and allows the analysis and visualization of statistical data at different levels of complexity. It also can be used for a new and specific application development in a completely new and unpublished context or for mixing new and pre-established codes from the software.

The software has a basic installation mode that provides a basic development environment, a console for analysis programming and a graphical interface. The basic JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 65-80

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mode and environment are complemented by packages for specific the application in areas such as math, statistics and econometrics, ecology, finance and geospatial statistics.

R was born in 1995 and today in managed by a group of people called R-core and maintained by the R-foundation, which is supported by different enterprises and institutions.

According to (Muenchen, 2012) R is the most used software by world wide data analysis competitions such as Kaggle, more details at www.kaggle.com.

3.3 R programming R allows the user to use a variety of programming solutions. Its base code uses well established routines made in Fortran, C e in R language itself. A great advantage of R is the production of functions to solve new and specific applications, including the programming of more user friendly applications by non-technical users.

People interested in R-programming can access the R website and its tutorial section where it is possible to find different level materials and tutorials on R, in many languages. For a structured R introduction, we suggest the reading of (Teetor, 2011), (Micheaux & Drouilhet & Liquet, 2013) e (Gardener, 2012).

4. METHODOLOGY The following methodology aims to apply the theoretical reference to the selection of statistical software problem.

4.1 Problem Framing and caracterization According to (Howard, 1988; Howard, 2004), the first step for the construction of the decision base and to decision analysis process is the framing of the decision problem.

In this paper, the problem was structured as to opt for one in a set of five alternatives for Tukey´s test implementation used by the enterprise.

4.2 Considered Alternatives Four alternatives programmed in R were considered in order to make the test required by the enterprise , with different approaches and interface levels, in addition to a commercial software solution previously known by members of the statistical analysis team of the enterprise and that is why it was suggested.

The R-programmed alternatives were called alternative1-R to alternative4-R, however, their production was made iteratively through the decision base construction process from a given start scenario, which included only alternative1-R, whcih evolved to a final scenario with the five alternatives to be considered in the decision.

When showing the dynamics of the alternatives, we only talk about the commercial one, without figures or screenshots that could identify it and hurtto the image or market of the software and its distributors.

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4.2.1 Alternative 1-R: The first alternative programmed in R was based on the scan() function present in the basic installation mode. An important aspect of this alternative was the fact that it was possible to perform the manual typesetting of the dataon R console and then to program the analysis and the test required by the enterprise.

Figure 2 shows the general dynamics of alternative1-R. In such a Figure we can see that for the test implementation the user needs to call the scan()function and typeset all the data manually.

As the data collected and analyzed were from the order of thousands, the manual typesetting was very time consuming.

Figure2 Alternative1-R dynamics. Source: Author 4.2.2 Commercial Alternative: The commercial alternative was an application in the commercial software which required license payment for its use. Through this application, a file with the data previously collected was read by the software and then the analysis was made in a user friendly interface involving pre-established routines known by some members of the analysis team.

4.2.3 Alternative2-R: Alternative2-R was based on the use of a function for csv (comma-separated values) importation. After the data file import, the user could produce the statistical analysis on R console without manual typesetting.

However, the data organized in .csv file should be in the frame shown in Figure 3 which represents the tabular structure showing the columns bloco (corresponds to blocks), tratamentos (treatments) e produção (production) required by the code programmed to run the analysis.

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In spite of the fact that this alternative solves the problem related to manual typesetting of the great amount of data, the structure of the file .csv was different from the one generated by the data collection system shown in Figure 4, already automatized and well establishedin the data analysis team.

Figure 3 Data structure in the file used by Alternative2-R. Source: Author

Figure 4 Data Structure reported by the data collection system and consolidated in the enterprise. Source: Author 4.2.4 Alternative3-R: As a consequence of the frame of the csv file consolidated in the enterprise and shown in Figure 4, alternative3-R was programmed. Itis important to observe that the tabular structure is different from the one shown in Figure 3 generating consequences for the code structure that would use the tabular disposition represented in Figure 4.

The alternative3-R included in its code procedures that allow the data analysis from the data imported in the frame shown in Figure 4. In spite of this, the mechanism to import the file was basically the same as alternative2-R. After importing the file with data, the user could conduct the programming for the data analysis and make the test to compare means.

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4.2.5 Alternative4-R The fourth alternative programmed in R was based on a completely new R programmed function. The aim of such functions was a more user friendly data analysis for Tukey´s test.

The function named analise has as its arguments, the csv file name with the data and frame consolidated in the enterprise, in addition to the directory where the file was saved.

After calling the function and giving the names of the two arguments, the user just presses enter on the keyboard and the report is generated without the need of manual typesetting and manual code programming on the console. The general dynamics of this alternative is shown in Figure 5, where we can see that the user is only required to name the function its arguments. This solutions uses in its code the package called laercio and gives the confidence levels and variation coefficient of the experiment (Montgomery, 2013)..

Figure 5 Alternative4-R dynamics. Source: Author.

4.3 Consequences characterizations To construct the decision base (Howard, 1988; Howard, 2004) itis necessary to determine the consequences of each alternative considered.

In this paper the main consequence considered was the cost related to the process of statistical analysis, modeled by the following equation:

Equation Costs modeling.

1

In this equation, CA = Analysis cost in dollars.

CL = Cost due to license payment for software use (paid by computer on which the software is installed).

CHF = Hourly costs referred to the analyst that makes the analysis.

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Th = Time required to proceed the analysis.

More details about cost theory and economic theory of costs can be found in (Silberberg & Suen , 2001) and (Stackelberg, 2014).

4.4 Preference Assessment Preference assessment can be made at different complexity levels when performing decision analysis. In this paper we adopted the following methodology considering that the work was done in an enterprise context.

For preference assessments, Tukey´s test was conducted in each of the alternatives with each member of the analysis team in separate to minimize the opinion bias.

Then each member, also in secret conditions, was invited to score the solution from 0 to 10 as a way of showing their preference for the alternative considered.

In this process, the members of the team were invited to judge each alternative without considering past experiences with this kind of analysis, aiming to minimize the tendency of the user with prior commercial software alternative experience to evaluate this alternative with higher scores.

5. RESULTS

5.1.1 Decision base construction In earlier stages of the decision regarding which software to use, the decision base was formed by two alternatives: commercial alternative and alternative1R. The composition of decision´s base is shown in Table 1.

Alternative

Consequences: costs

Preferences

characteristics

Commercial

$122,08 /analysis

8

No programming skills required, user friendly interface and ready analysis routines, requires license payments

Alternative1-R

$7,60 /analysis

7

Manual typesetting of data on R console and programming skills required, no license payments required

Table 1 Initial Decision´s Base for the problem.

Source: Author.

In this initial stage, the decision was to choose the commercial software, however, after the presentation to the enterprise staff about the possibilities of JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 65-80

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developing applications in R, the directors made an agreement to allow the development of new alternatives, as long as these processes did not incur other costs and the decision was made by the decision analyst, who had experience with R programming.

Then the decision base was iteratively updated to a second stage and included alternative2-R, described in methodology. Thus, the decision base was as shown in Table 2.

Alternative

Consequences: costs

Preference

Other characteristics

Commercial

$122,08 / analysis

8

No programming skills required, user friendly interface and ready analysis routines, requires license payments

Alternative1-R

$7,60 /analysis

7

Manual typesetting of data on R console and programming skills required, no license payments required

Alternative2-R

$4,2/analysis

8,5

Allowed data file import in csv file, however, the tabular file frame was not the one consolidated in the enterprise. No payments of license.

Table 2 Second stage of decision base. Source: Author.

Given the evidence presented in the second stage of decision base, it was decided to perform another turn for generation of new alternatives and characterization of its costs, preferences and aspects.

In a first moment alternatives2-R had its code changed to permit the use of the consolidated tabular structure of csv file used by the enterprise, in which the data to be imported were set, generating alternatives3-R. Then the process evolved to the development of alternatives4-R based in a function that makes the required analysis in a friendly user context. After this, the decision base had the structure shown in Table 3.

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Alternative

Consequences: costs

Preference Other characteristics

Commercial

$122,08 / analysis

8

No programming skills required, user friendly interface and ready analysis routines, requires license payments

Alternatives1-R

$7,60 /analysis

7

Manual typesetting of data on R console and programming skills required, no license payments required

Alternatives2-R

$4,2/analysis

8,5

Allowed data file import in csv file, however, the tabular file frame was not the one consolidated in the enterprise. No payments of license.

Alternatives3-R

$4,22

9

The same as above, however, its code allowed the use of consolidated csv file

Alternative4-R

$0,9

9,5

Based on a function whose arguments were the name of csv file and the directory where they were saved

Table 3 Final decision base for the problem of statistical software selection. Source: Author.

5.1.2 Decision Made Given the last decision base constructed in an iterative process represented in Table 3, the enterprise decided to choose alternatives4-R as a pattern to its analysis of means comparison.

Such an alternative was chosen because it had the highest preference score, lower cost per analysis and had user friend characteristics for users without R programming skills.

This decision opened also a set of possibilities for the use of data science and machine learning techniques to the collected data given the compatibility of R with these techniques.

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Thus, in addition to the means comparison team, other kinds of more complex specific analysis were possible, a fact that had a great impact on staff of the enterprise involved in the statistics management of information systemdata analysis.

6. DISCUSSION

6.1 Impacts of R programming skills on the final decision We verified that, as a result of decision base construction, R programming skills impacted the decision about the best software alternative to be used and as consequence about the software to be used.

The main impact was the change in the decision from the commercial alternative to alternative4-R and consequently no need of license payments.

Thus, we show as the skills for production of application in open and free platforms can reduce the technological dependence of organizations. This result also allows recommending the teaching of such platforms in universities and technical courses, as a strategy to build human capital that could reduce the technical dependence of organizations.

6.2 Evolution of interface level among alternatives programmed in R and its impacts on costs and preferences In the iterative process of alternatives development for conducting the means comparison tests, there was an evolution in interface level between the alternatives and the users. This increase in interface level was related to the evolution in preference of the user for the alternatives developed, shown in Figure 6. The highest interface level was achieved with alternative4-R.

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Figure User preferences (vertical axis) and considered alternatives. Source: Author.

6

Figure Cost/analysis ($) (vertical axis) and alternatives. Source: Author

7

Comparing Figures 6 and Figure 7, which represent the costs of each alternative, we can infer that the increase in interface level resulted in an additional cost reduction due to the fact that the license payment is not necessary, which is represented by the difference of the red bar (commercial alternative) and the green bar representing Alternatives1-R. JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 65-80

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This fact shows the impact of the evolution in interface level on user´s preference and on the costs related to this application.

7. CONCLUDING REMARKS, LIMITATIONS E RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE WORK This paper showed, in an interdisciplinary context, the use of tools for decision analysis in IT management. Through the use of the tools discussed in (Howard, 1988; Howard, 2004), it was determined the best alternative, from a set of five, to conduct a means comparison test with the use of statistical software in an enterprise in corn breeding and seed production.

A reduction of the cost related to analysis process was obtained. The paper also demonstrated how an R function can serve as an efficient interface and the influence of interface level on user´s preference regarding different alternatives.

The possibility using free and open platforms in enterprises was shown. In addition, it was demonstrated how R programming kills impacted the decision regarding the software to be chosen for the statistical analysis system of the enterprise.

As limitations of the work we can cite the solution of just one specific application, to adjust the work to daily activities of the enterprise in which the work was done. More robust solutions considering all the applications used by the enterprise would be possible. Such solutions could use a package with functions for all the applications used in the enterprise to be loaded on R console in a perspective similar to the one proposed in (Wickham, H. 2014). Another limit of the work was that the solution was conducted in only enterprise in the related sector. If the possibility of solving the same problem in other enterprises exists, a more generalist solution could be built considering the whole sector.

We recommend for future works an broader integration of tools for generating the statistical reports by the selected alternative that comprises the use of tools as Rstudio, available at http://www.rstudio.com and the use of packages Knitr, which uses markdown structures to generate reports, and Shiny for dynamic applications building in R, what would make the scores of users preferences for the alternative greater that the ones observed in this paper, given the fact that such tools would produce an even more user friendly environment for the user of the application. The packages discussed are available on the R website.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO CRIAGENE SK NORMAL AND SPECIALTY CORNS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. THEY SPONSORED THE WORK AS PART OF THEIR COMMITMENT TO DATA SCIENCE DIFFUSION ON AGRIBUSINESS

REFERENCES Ariely, D. (2013). The Irrational Bundle: Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. New York. Harper.

Bell, E. & Raiffa H. (1990). Decision Making: Descriptive, Normative and Prescriptive Interactions. London, Cambridge Press.

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Cormen, T. H. & Leiserson, C. E. & Rivest, R. L. & Stein (2009). C. Introduction to Algorithms. Cambridge MA, MIT Press.

Cox, D. R. & Reid, N (2000). The Theory of the Design of Experiments. Boca Raton, Chapman and Hall.

D. Knuth (1997). The Art of Computer Programming: Fundamental Algorithms.

Massachusetts, Addison Wesley Longman.

Gardener, M. (2012). Beginning R: The Statistical Programming Language. New York. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Givens, H. G. & Hoeting, J.A. (2013). Computational Statistics, New York. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Hinkelmann, K. & Kempthorne (2005). O. Design and Analysis of Experiments. New York, JohnWiley and Sons.

Hogarth, R. (1991). Judgement and Choice. New York, John Wiley and Sons.

Howard, R. (1988). Decision Analysis practice and promise. Management Science, 6, 679-675.

Howard, R. (2004). Speaking of decisions: Precise decision language. Decision Analysis, 1, 71-78.

Mapa

(2014),

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Cultivares.

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http://www.agricultura.gov.br/vegetal/registros-autorizacoes/registro/registro-nacional-cultivares.

Mason, R. L. & Gunst, R. F. & Hess, J. L (2003). Statistical Design and Analysis of Experiments. New York, John Wiley and Sons.

Micheaux, P. L. & Drouilhet, R. & Liquet, B. (2013). The R Software: Fundamentals of Programming and Statistical Analysis. New York. Springer.

Montgomery, D, (2013). Design and Analysis of Experiments. New York. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Muller, J.M (2006). Elementary Functions Algorithms and Implementations. Boston, Birkhäuser.

Munchen, R.A. (2012). The Popularity of Statistical Software. Retrieved from: http://r4stats.com/articles/popularity/.

Plessner, H. & Bletsch, C. & Bletsch, T. (2007). Intuition in Judgement and Decision Making. London, Lawrence Erlbaum.

Silberberg, E. & Suen, W. (2001). The Structure of Economics: A Mathematical Analysis. New York, Mc Graw Hill.

Stackelberg, H. (2014). Foundations of a Pure Cost Theory. Berlin. Springer.

Teetor, P. (2011). R Cookbook: Proven Recipes for Data Analysis, Statistics and Graphics. Cambridge, O´Reilly.

Wickham, H. (2014). R packages. Retrieved from: http://r-pkgs.had.co.nz/demo.html.

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JISTEM - Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 65-80 ISSN online: 1807-1775 DOI: 10.4301/S1807-17752015000100004

SELEÇÃO DE SOFTWARE UTILIZANDO ANÁLISE DE DECISÕES E GERENCIAMENTO DE TECNOLOGIA E SISTEMAS DE INFORMAÇÃO Danilo Augusto Sarti Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil ___________________________________________________________________________________________

RESUMO Este trabalho objetivou determinar a melhor alternativa, dentre cinco alternativas, para implementação de análises estatísticas através de software em uma empresa de sementes. A metodologia utilizada considerou custos relacionados ao processo, programação em R e sua relação com a decisão acerca do software estatístico da empresa através da ferramenta de análise de decisões (Howard, 1988; Howard, 2004) aplicada no contexto da gestão de T.I. Os resultados mostram redução de custos no processo estatístico e mudança na decisão sobre software estatístico a ser utilizado pela empresa. O trabalhou contemplou apenas uma aplicação específica da empresa e a solução adotada pode ser melhorada com uso da plataforma Rstudio, além dos packages Knitr e shiny.

Palavras-chave: Análise de Decisões, Gerenciamento de sistemas de Informação, Open Source/R, Seleção de Software, TI no agronegócio.

1. INTRODUÇÃO 1.1.

Objetivos:

O objetivo central do trabalho foi utilizar a ferramenta de análise de decisões proposta por Howard, 1988; Howard, 2004, descrita no referencial teórico, para selecionar a melhor alternativa para software, dentre cinco alternativas consideradas, para realização do teste de Tukey largamente utilizado por uma empresa. Quatro das alternativas eram programadas em R e uma alternativa envolvia o uso de um software comercial para a finalidade. A ferramenta descrita por Howard (1988; 2004) foi eleita por minimizar os problemas cognitivos e de outras ordens durante tomadas de decisão e descritos em Bell & Raiffa (1990); Hogarth, R (1991) e Plessner & Bletsch & Bletsch (2007).

Além do foco central anteriormente citado, outros objetivos foram buscados.

Dentre eles, podemos destacar a quantificação dos custos relacionados ao processo de ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Manuscript first received/Recebido em: 23/07/2013 Manuscript accepted/Aprovado em: 09/02/2015 Address for correspondence / Endereço para correspondência Danilo Augusto Sarti,Ex-aluno LES/USP, Eng Agrônomo/USP Msc. Applied Economics/USP, Datascientist, Aluno especial do IMECC/Unicamp, Address for correspondence: Av 33 1999 Estádio 13501440 Rio Claro SP daniloasarti@gmail.com (preferred contact).

Published by/ Publicado por: TECSI FEA USP – 2015 All rights reserved.

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análise em cada alternativa e quantificação da redução de custos verificada durante o processo de construção da base de decisão (conceito definido no referencial).

O trabalho também pretende ilustrar como uma função em R pode servir como interface eficiente e a influência do nível dessa interface na preferência dos usuários por diversas alternativas consideradas.

Objetivou-se também a ilustração da possibilidade do uso de plataformas livres em empresas, além de evidenciar como habilidades de programação em R impactaram a decisão em relação ao software mais adequado ao sistema de análise da empresa.

1.2 Justificativa: O trabalho se justifica por ilustrar a resolução do problema de seleção de software de maneira formalizada. Essa formalização permite o registro das informações utilizadas no momento da tomada de decisão.

A ilustração do uso de análise de decisões em gerenciamento de sistemas de informação pode servir como base para decisões em escolhas de sistemas futuros ou, até mesmo, em outras áreas do conhecimento humano.

A redução de custo obtida no processo de resolução do problema foi significativa, ilustrando grande potencial para uso de plataformas open source, de forma criativa, em diversos setores, conferindo, dessa forma, competitividade às organizações. A questão dos custos é importante para qualquer negócio, especialmente para negócios nascentes, nos quais, em geral, são realizados investimentos iniciais cujo retorno é incerto.

O trabalho serve como justificativa para o argumento de que o uso de plataformas livres de forma criativa e eficiente em empresas e seu ensino em universidades pode reduzir a dependência tecnológica de organizações por plataformas com elevados custos de licença.

1.3 Da demanda e importância de software estatístico Empresas que realizam pesquisa aplicada em agricultura são altamente dependentes de análises estatísticas de dados coletados em experimentos realizados.

Este é o caso da indústria de melhoramento de plantas e produção de sementes que utilizam análises estatísticas para tomada de decisões em vários setores de sua atividade.

Usualmente, essas análises são realizadas por softwares que geram relatórios para o tomador de decisão ou para o analista envolvido no desenvolvimento de produtos. No processo do melhoramento genético de plantas, diversas são as análises utilizadas para responder questões acerca do desempenho produtivo e de outras características dos materiais vegetais ensaiados.

Em geral, os ensaios de produtos são realizados em delineamento estatístico apropriado como forma de responder às questões de interesse. Um tipo típico de análise que corresponde à grande parte do número de análises dos experimentos conduzidos são testes de comparação de médias, como o teste de Tukey.

A produção dessas análises incorre em custos para a companhia, principalmente custos devidos ao pagamento de licenças, em caso do uso de softwares JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 65-80

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comerciais, além de custos relacionados ao processo de geração da análise em si. No caso de pequenas companhias tais custos podem ser expressivos e afetar a sua competitividade.

Dessa forma, as decisões relativas ao tipo de software a ser utilizado, a eficiência deste na resolução da aplicação específica, entre outros quesitos, passam a ser estratégicos para o gerenciamento de custos relacionados ao setor de tecnologia da informação da empresa.

1.4 Do potencial, popularidade e facilidades relacionadas a softwares livre e open source Com o advento e consolidação de plataformas open sources e livres, sob licença GPL, o número de alternativas para software estatístico tem aumentado. Um bom exemplo é o software R. Muenchen (2012) trata do aumento da popularidade do software R tanto na comunidade acadêmica quanto em aplicações em empresas e outras instituições. O mesmo autor demonstra o avanço do software e sua versatilidade através do número de artigos científicos que citam o uso do pacote estatístico R, número de mensagens em fóruns especializados em data science, entre outras fontes.

O uso de plataformas open source, livres e seguras é um atrativo em geral por dois motivos principais. Primeiramente, pode-se conhecer com detalhes os procedimentos realizados pelo software, uma vez que seu código é aberto, e, em geral, permite que usuários bem familiarizados com o software desenvolvam suas próprias aplicações. No caso do R, para conhecer o método utilizado por determinada função, basta digitar o nome da função no console obtendo-se assim o seu código fonte.

Outro fator favorável às plataformas open source é a redução de burocracia relacionada ao processo de obtenção de software pela empresa. Em geral, para a aquisição de sistemas que requeiram licença a empresa precisa iniciar um processo de licitação que envolve diversos departamentos, entre eles o de compras, o que pode tornar o processo moroso e retardar o acesso ao software, que se faz necessário muitas vezes com urgência. No caso de softwares livres o usuário pode baixar o sistema livremente em qualquer máquina.

2. REFERENCIAL TEÓRICO 2.1 Análise de Decisões e sua implementação O referencial teórico de análise de decisões para escolha do melhor sistema estatístico para o sistema de análise da empresa foi a ferramenta de análise de decisões proposta em Howard (1988; 2004).

De acordo com esse autor, a busca por uma boa decisão deve conter uma caracterização eficiente das alternativas em relação ao problema de decisão, das consequências relacionadas a cada uma das alternativas, das preferências dos indivíduos relacionados ao problema e, em condições de incerteza, uma descrição adequada dos riscos envolvidos (Howard, 1988; Howard, 2004).

Esta ferramenta torna possível uma modelagem iterativa e compreensível do problema de decisão, além de tornar o processo facilmente comunicável entre pessoas de áreas técnicas e não técnicas envolvidas na decisão, minimizando os problemas JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 65-80

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cognitivos descritos em Bell & Raiffa (1990); Hogarth, R (1991); Plessner & Bletsch & Bletsch, (2007) e Ariely, D (2013). Entre tais problemas descritos nas referências anteriores podemos citar a tendência dos tomadores de decisão a: a) Ancorar nos primeiros pensamentos e considerações sobre o problema: Fenômeno psicológico em que a mente dá peso desproporcional às primeiras informações recebidas sobre a problema a que a decisão se relacione. b) Viés do status quo: Tendência do tomador de decisões a preferir alternativas que mantenham o status quo estabelecido nas instituições e organizações. c) Proteção de decisões prévias: Tendência a se manter aspectos relacionados a decisões tomadas anteriormente, mesmo que tais aspectos sejam racionalmente prejudiciais ou tenham se comprovado falhos. d) Ver o que se quer ver: Viés cognitivo em que o tomador de decisão tende a buscar informação que comprove suas primeiras impressões sobre o problema.

Colocar o problema de forma equivocada, excesso de autoconfiança do tomador de decisão e negligenciar informações.

Os problemas anteriores podem ser resolvidos pelo uso da ferramenta proposta em Howard (2004) cujo objetivo é obter um conjunto de informações denominado de base de decisões. O processo geral da análise de decisões pode ser encontrado na Figura 1.

Figura Dinâmica da Construção da Base de Decisões. Fonte: Autor.

1

Na Figura 1 podemos notar que o processo de análise da decisão e da construção da base de decisões começa com uma situação de obscuridade em relação ao problema de decisão. A partir da Figura 1, verificamos que os agentes das áreas técnicas relacionadas ao problema, o analista de decisão e o tomador de decisão agem de forma integrada complementando suas experiências com a literatura disponível sobre o problema. Através desse intercâmbio, surge o conhecimento para a formação da base de decisão que explicitará as alternativas, as consequências, as preferências dos envolvidos por cada alternativa e as incertezas relacionadas. O processo deve se JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 65-80

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repetir iterativamente até que se chegue a uma solução para o problema ou que se tome uma decisão.

Em geral, em uma tomada de decisão parte-se de uma base inicial de decisão que evolui com a descrição iterativa das alternativas, consequências, preferências e riscos até que se chegue a um conjunto de informações que seja suficiente para embasar uma decisão.

2.2 Teoria Estatística Relacionada ao Problema O tópico estatístico relacionado ao problema em questão era o da realização de comparação de médias entre tratamentos ensaiados em blocos casualisados. Relatórios estatísticos contendo este tipo de teste, embora simples e questionáveis, suportam decisões em diversos setores da empresa, desde o melhoramento genético até o registro de produtos no Ministério da Agricultura, tendo, portanto, impacto na legalização do desenvolvimento de produtos (MAPA, 2014).

2.3 Teste de Tukey O teste de Tukey gerado pelo software a ser escolhido pela empresa consiste em uma técnica clássica em desenho e análise de experimentos (Montgomery, 2013), (Cox & Reid, 2000; Hinkelmann & Kempthorne, 2005; Mason et al., 2003).

Tal técnica consiste na comparação entre as médias de todos os a*(a-1)/2 pares de médias de tratamentos conduzidos em um experimento (Montgomery, 2013).

No caso em questão os experimentos eram realizados em blocos casualisados e as médias comparadas eram as médias de produtividade dos cultivares pré-comerciais da empresa. O teste baseia-se em um valor máximo para diferença entre duas médias de tratamentos para que tais tratamentos sejam considerados estatisticamente iguais, ou seja, estejam dentro de uma mesma classe, caso a distância entre tais médias seja menor que a distância determinada como máxima. Isso permite o agrupamento dos produtos desenvolvidos em classes de médias de produtividades (Montgomery, 2013).

3. TECNOLOGIA DA INFORMAÇÃO O conhecimento de tecnologia da informação utilizado pode ser dividido em tópicos teóricos de programação, tópicos técnicos de programação em R e da estrutura e disponibilidade do software R e do software comercial.

3.1 Tópicos teóricos de programação Os tópicos teóricos de programação envolvidos foram tópicos relativos à produção de algoritmos para resolução de problemas, além de temas gerais acerca da implementação dos procedimentos resolvidos por tais algoritmos.

Para interessados em maiores detalhes recomendamos a leitura de Cormen et al. (2009), Muller (2006) e Knuth (1997). Para um enfoque computacional e estatística sugerimos a leitura de Givens & Hoeting (2013).

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3.2 Plataforma R: obtenção e breve histórico O software R é uma plataforma open source, livre e disponível para todos os sistemas operacionais em www.r-project.org.

Trata-se de uma plataforma multiobjetivo, a qual permite a análise e visualização de dados e análises estatísticas em diferentes níveis de complexidade.

Além disso, pode ser utilizado também como plataforma de desenvolvimento de aplicações específicas totalmente inéditas ou que mesclem código inédito com aplicações já presentes no software.

O software conta com um módulo básico de instalação, que promove um ambiente básico de desenvolvimento, um console para realização de análises e uma interface gráfica. O módulo básico é complementado por packages adicionais para aplicações específicas em áreas básicas como matemática até aplicadas como ecologia, finanças e processamento geoespacial.

O software foi criado em 1995 e, atualmente, é gerenciado por um grupo de indivíduos denominado R-core e mantido pela fundação-R, a qual é suportada por diversas empresas de segmentos variados. De acordo com Muenchen (2012), é o software mais utilizado em competições mundiais de análise de dados como o Kaggle, para maiores detalhes acessar www.kaggle.com.

3.3 Programação em R O R é um software que permite o uso de diversas técnicas de programação. Seu código fonte aproveita-se de rotinas bem estabelecidas em Fortran, C e na própria linguagem R. Uma vantagem dessa linguagem é a possibilidade de programação de funções para realização de aplicações específicas inéditas, ou então, a programação de aplicações que permitam um uso mais amigável por parte de usuários com menos familiaridade com o software.

Interessados em programação podem acessar o item referente a tutoriais no site do projeto R, o qual disponibiliza grande quantidade de material para leitores de diferentes níveis e, em vários idiomas, entre eles o português. Introduções ao R podem ser encontradas em Teetor (2011); Micheaux & Drouilhet & Liquet (2013) e Gardener (2012).

4. METODOLOGIA A seguinte metodologia visa à aplicação do referencial teórico apresentado anteriormente para a seleção da melhor alternativa de software estatístico pela empresa.

4.1 Caracterização do Problema De acordo com Howard (1988; 2004), a primeira etapa para a construção da base de decisões e para o processo de análise de decisões é a caracterização do problema a ser decidido.

Neste trabalho, o problema é decidir-se entre uma de cinco alternativas para implementação do teste de comparação de médias utilizado pela empresa.

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4.2 Alternativas Consideradas Foram consideradas como alternativas para realização do teste requerido pela empresa quatro alternativas programadas em R, com diferentes abordagens e níveis de interface, além de uma alternativa de software comercial previamente conhecida por membros da equipe de análise e por isso sugerida.

As alternativas programadas em R foram denominadas de alternativa1-R até alternativa4-R, entretanto, a produção delas foi realizada iterativamente através do processo de construção da base de decisões a partir de um cenário inicial, que contava apenas com alternativa1-R e alternativa comercial, e que evoluiu até um cenário final com as cinco alternativas a serem consideradas para a decisão.

Na ilustração das alternativas e dinâmicas faremos menção apenas verbal à alternativa comercial e suas características, sem figuras ou screenshots que possam identificá-la e, de certa forma, prejudicar a sua marca ou seus distribuidores.

4.2.1 Alternativa 1-R: A primeira alternativa desenvolvida em R era baseada na função scan() presente no módulo básico de instalação. Um aspecto importante dessa alternativa era a necessidade de digitação manual dos dados no console do R para que posteriormente fosse programado o teste requerido pela empresa.

A Figura2 ilustra a dinâmica geral da alternativa1-R. Por esta figura verifica-se que para a implementação do teste, ou seja, antes de sua programação o usuário precisa utilizar a função scan() e digitar todos os dados do experimento manualmente.

Como o volume de dados a serem analisados era da ordem de milhares, a digitação manual exigiu grande consumo de tempo.

Figura2 Dinâmica da Alternativa1-R. Fonte: Autor.

4.2.2 Alternativa Comercial A alternativa comercial tratava-se de uma aplicação em software comercial, que requeria pagamento de licença de uso. Através dessa aplicação, um arquivo com os dados previamente coletados e organizados era aberto em interface bastante amigável ao usuário e o teste de comparação de médias era realizado com rotinas previamente estabelecidas e conhecidas por alguns membros da equipe de análise.

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4.2.3 Alternativa2-R: A alternativa2-R baseava-se no uso de uma função para importação de arquivos no formato csv (comma-separated values). Após a importação dos dados o analista poderia programar a análise no console do R, dispensando-se assim digitação manual dos dados.

Entretanto, os dados organizados nos arquivos csv deveriam estar no formato ilustrado na Figura 3. Tal figura representa a estrutura tabular dos dados em coluna de blocos, tratamento e produção, requerida pelo código programado para execução do teste de Tukey pelo software.

Embora essa alternativa resolva o problema relacionado à digitação manual de grande volume de dados, a estrutura do arquivo .csv era diferente da gerada pelo sistema de coleta de dados, representada na Figura 4, relativamente automatizado e já implementado na empresa.

Figura 3. Organização de Dados no arquivo utilizado pela Alternativa2-R. Fonte: Autor.

Figura 4. Estrutura gerada pelo sistema de coleta de dados e consolidado na empresa. Fonte: Autor.

4.2.4 Alternativa3-R: Como decorrência do formato csv consolidado na empresa representado na Figura 4, foi desenvolvida a alternativa3-R. É interessante observar que esta estrutura tabular é diferente da representada na Figura 3 com impactos na estrutura do código que contemplasse a estrutura representada na Figura 4.

Esta alternativa3-R incluiu no código da análise a ser realizada procedimentos que permitiriam a análise dos dados importados nessa organização representada na JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 65-80

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Figura 4. O mecanismo de importação dos dados era basicamente o mesmo da alternativa2-R. Após a importação do arquivo contendo os dados, o analista procedia à programação da análise para obtenção do teste de comparação de médias.

4.2.5 Alternativa4-R A quarta alternativa desenvolvida em R era baseada em uma função programada. O intuito dessa função era permitir o uso das funções e do código programado no console para obtenção do teste de médias de forma mais amigável ao usuário final.

A função denominada de analise possui como argumentos o nome do arquivo csv que continha os dados organizados no formato consolidado pela empresa, além do diretório que continha o arquivo.

Após informar os dois argumentos anteriores, o analista apenas acionava a tecla enter e o relatório com o teste de médias era gerado automaticamente, sem necessidade de digitação manual de dados nem de programação de código no console do R. A dinâmica geral dessa alternativa está representada na Figura 5, na qual podemos ver que basta o usuário digitar o comando “analise” seguido do nome do arquivo e do diretório que contém o arquivo com os dados para que a o resultado do teste seja mostrado. Nessa solução o código fonte utiliza um package denominado laercio e determina os níveis de confiança e o coeficiente de variação do experimento (Montgomery, 2013).

Figura 5. Dinâmica da alternativa4-R. Fonte: Autor.

4.3 Caracterização das Consequências Na composição da base de decisões proposta em Howard (1988; 2004), é necessário a determinação das consequências em relação a cada uma das alternativas consideradas.

No presente trabalho a principal consequência analisada para cada alternativa foi o custo referente ao processo de análise, composto a partir da seguinte equação:

Equação Custo associado a cada alternativa

1

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CL= Custo de licença relacionada ao uso do software (paga por equipamento onde o software estava instalado) em dólares CHF= Custo em horas do funcionário que realiza a análise NA= Número de Análises Realizadas Th= Tempo em horas requerido para análise Maiores detalhes acerca da teoria econômica sobre custos podem ser encontrados em Silberberg & Suen (2001) e Stackelberg (2014).

4.4 Caracterização das Preferências A caracterização de preferências pode assumir diferentes níveis de complexidade no contexto de análise de decisões. No caso em questão tentou-se adotar uma metodologia de aplicação facilitada no contexto de uma instituição empresarial.

A captação da preferência por cada alternativa procedeu-se da seguinte forma.

O teste de comparação de médias foi realizado em cada uma das alternativas com cada membro da equipe em separado para minimização do viés de opinião.

A seguir cada membro, também em condições sigilosas, era convidado a dar uma nota de 0 a 10 para a solução proposta como forma de ilustrar sua preferência pela alternativa. Nesse processo, os membros da equipe eram convidados a julgar a alternativa sem necessariamente se embasar em experiências passadas, como forma de minimizar a tendência dos indivíduos que possuíam experiência anterior com a alternativa comercial a privilegiarem-na.

5. RESULTADOS 5.1.1 Construção da base de decisão para o problema em questão No estágio inicial das discussões acerca do problema de escolha da melhor alternativa para realização do teste de médias a base de decisões contava com duas alternativas: alternativa comercial e alternativa1-R. A composição da base de decisões nesse momento pode ser resumida na Tabela 1.

Alternativa

Consequência Preferência em termos de Associada custos

Outras Características

Comercial

$122,08 / análise

8

Não requeria conhecimentos de programação, envolvia interface amigável e rotinas prontas, requer pagamento de licença

Alternativa1R

$7,60 /análise

7

Requeria digitação manual de dados no console e conhecimentos de programação, não requer pagamento de licença

Tabela 1 Estágio inicial da base de decisões para o problema de escolha de software estatístico. Fonte: Autor.

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Nesse estágio inicial a decisão foi pela utilização do software comercial, entretanto, após o conhecimento das possibilidades de desenvolvimento de aplicações no software R a empresa concordou em prosseguir com o desenvolvimento de novas alternativas, desde que o processo não envolvesse custos e ficasse a cargo do analista de decisões que possuía conhecimento da plataforma R. A partir daí a base de decisões passou para um segundo estágio com o desenvolvimento e inclusão da alternativa2-R descrita no item referente à metodologia.

Dessa forma, a base de decisões passou a conter a configuração representada na Tabela 2.

Alternativa

Consequência em Preferência termos de custos Associada

Outras Características

Comercial

$122,08 / análise

8

Não requeria conhecimentos de programação, envolvia interface amigável e rotinas prontas, requer pagamento de licença

Alternativa1-R

$7,60 /análise

7

Requeria digitação manual de dados no console e conhecimentos de programação, não requer pagamento de licença

Alternativa2-R

$4,2/análise

8,5

Permitia a importação de dados em arquivos csv, entretanto, o formato do arquivo não correspondia ao consolidado na empresa

Tabela Segundo Estágio da Base de Decisão para o Problema. Fonte: Autor.

2

Diante da evidência de resultados iniciais devidos ao desenvolvimento de uma nova alternativa em R decidiu-se proceder mais uma rodada de produção de alternativas e verificação de seus custos, preferências e características.

Primeiramente, a alternativa2-R teve o código alterado para que pudesse ser utilizada a estrutura consolidada de arquivo csv utilizada pela empresa, contendo os dados a serem importados para análise no software, originando-se a alternativa3-R. Após isso, o processo evolui para o desenvolvimento da alternativa4-R baseada numa função que permitia uma aplicação para realização da análise requerida mais amigável ao usuário.

Dessa forma, a base de decisões passou a conter a configuração explicitada na Tabela 3.

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Alternativa

Consequência em Preferência termos de custos Associada

Outras Características

Comercial

$122,08 / análise

8

Não requeria conhecimentos de programação, envolvia interface amigável e rotinas prontas, requer pagamento de licença

Alternativa1-R

$7,60 /análise

7

Requeria digitação manual de dados no console e conhecimentos de programação, não requer pagamento de licença

Alternativa2-R

$4,22/análise

8,5

Permitia a importação de dados em arquivos csv, entretanto, o formato do arquivo não correspondia ao consolidado na empresa, além de envolver a programação da análise no console

Alternativa3-R

$4,22

9

Idem ao anterior, entretanto, permitia o uso do arquivo .csv consolidado na empresa

Alternativa4-R

$0,9

9,5

Baseava-se em uma função que requeria apenas a digitação do nome do arquivo csv que continha os dados a serem analisados e o diretório onde o arquivo se encontrava

Tabela 3 Constituição Final da Base de Decisões para o problema em questão. Fonte: Autor.

5.1.2 Decisão Tomada Diante da base de decisões construída em processo iterativo de desenvolvimento de alternativas representada na Tabela 3, a empresa decidiu por adotar a alternativa4-R como padrão para realização do teste de médias.

A alternativa4-R foi escolhida por ter maior nota de preferência, menor custo/análise e ser de uso amigável por usuários que não possuíam conhecimentos avançados de programação em computadores e linguagem R.

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A escolha da alternativa permitiu também a abertura da possibilidade para novas aplicações das áreas de Data Science e Machine Learning aos dados coletados pela empresa devido à grande compatibilidade da plataforma R com aplicações dessa natureza.

Dessa forma, além de realizar o teste de médias, outros tipos de análises mais avançadas e específicas seriam permitidos, fato que agradou bastante os envolvidos na gestão do sistema de aquisição e análise de dados da empresa.

6. DISCUSSÃO

6.1 Impactos dos conhecimentos de programação em R na decisão final Pode-se verificar também como resultado da construção da base de decisão que as habilidades de programação em R tiveram impactos na decisão final acerca da alternativa mais apropriada para a finalidade da análise requerida e, portanto, de software a ser utilizado pela empresa.

O principal impacto foi a mudança da decisão em favor da alternativa comercial para alternativa4-R, eliminando-se, assim, a necessidade de pagamentos de licenças relacionadas ao software comercial.

Assim, evidencia-se a forma como conhecimentos técnicos de desenvolvimento de aplicações em plataformas livres e/ou open source podem reduzir a dependência tecnológica de organizações.

Além disso, este resultado também permite a recomendação do ensino desse tipo de plataforma em universidades e cursos técnicos, como forma de gerar capital humano com o conhecimento técnico que permita redução de dependência tecnológica nas organizações.

6.2 Evolução do nível de interface entre as alternativas desenvolvidas em R e seus impactos em termos de custo e preferência Durante o processo de desenvolvimento de alternativas para implementação do teste de médias ocorreu também uma evolução no nível da interface entre as alternativas e os usuários. Essa evolução no nível de interface relacionou-se com o a evolução da preferência pelas alternativas desenvolvidas representada na Figura 6. O maior nível de interface foi conseguido na alternativa4-R.

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Figura 6 Evolução da preferência entre as alternativas consideradas. Fonte: Autor.

Figura 7 Evolução do custo/análise entre as alternativas. Fonte: Autor.

Ao contrastarmos a Figura 6 com a Figura 7, que representa a evolução dos custos de cada uma das alternativas, podemos verificar que o aumento no nível de interface propiciou uma redução de custo adicional à redução de custo devido à licença,

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representada pela diferença da dimensão da barra vermelha, correspondente à alternativa comercial, e a barra verde correspondente a Alternativa1-R. Esse fato ilustra o impacto da evolução no nível de interface para aplicações na preferência por usuários finais e nos custos relacionados à operação dessa aplicação.

7. CONCLUSÕES, LIMITAÇÕES E RECOMENDAÇÕES Este trabalho ilustrou, em uma perspectiva interdisciplinar, o uso de ferramentas de análise de decisões no gerenciamento de tecnologia da informação.

Através da ferramenta de análise de decisões proposta por Howard (1988; 2004), determinou-se a melhor alternativa dentre cinco alternativas consideradas para a realização de testes de comparação de médias através de software estatístico em uma empresa de pesquisa e desenvolvimento de sementes melhoradas geneticamente.

Redução do custo relacionado ao processo de análise em cada alternativa foi evidenciada.

O trabalho demonstrou como uma função em R pode servir como interface eficiente e a influência do nível dessa interface na preferência dos usuários por diversas alternativas consideradas.

A ilustração da possibilidade do uso de plataformas livres em empresas também foi ilustrada, assim como, demonstrar como habilidades de programação em R impactaram a decisão em relação ao software mais adequado ao sistema de análise da empresa.

Dentre as limitações do trabalho podemos citar a solução de apenas uma aplicação em específico, para acomodar a realização do trabalho ao dia a dia da empresa em que foi realizado. Soluções mais robustas poderiam ser programadas contemplando a totalidade de aplicações usadas pela empresa. Tais soluções poderiam contemplar um package para ser carregado no R com todas as funções necessárias às aplicações, numa perspectiva próxima da proposta em Wickham, H (2014). Outra limitação seria a solução do problema em apenas uma empresa de um setor. Caso fosse possível a solução do mesmo problema para outras empresas do setor de sementes uma solução geral poderia ser proposta para o setor como um todo.

Recomenda-se que em trabalhos futuros sejam utilizadas maiores integrações na geração dos reports pela alternativa escolhida pela empresa que contemplem as ferramentas Rstudio, disponível em http://www.rstudio. com/ e o package Knitr que utiliza funcionalidades da linguagem de programação markdown para geração de relatórios aliadas ao package shiny que permite a geração aplicações dinâmicas em R tornando provavelmente as notas de satisfação dos usuários descritas nos resultados ainda maiores. Os packages citados anteriormente são encontrados no próprio site do R. REFERÊNCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS Ariely, D. (2013). The Irrational Bundle: Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. New York. Harper.

Bell, E. & Raiffa H. (1990). Decision Making: Descriptive, Normative and Prescriptive Interactions. London, Cambridge Press.

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Cormen, T. H. & Leiserson, C. E. & Rivest, R. L. & Stein (2009). C. Introduction to Algorithms. Cambridge MA, MIT Press.

Cox, D. R. & Reid, N (2000). The Theory of the Design of Experiments. Boca Raton, Chapman and Hall.

D. Knuth (1997). The Art of Computer Programming: Fundamental Algorithms.

Massachusetts, Addison Wesley Longman.

Gardener, M. (2012). Beginning R: The Statistical Programming Language. New York. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Givens, H. G. & Hoeting, J.A. (2013). Computational Statistics, New York. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Hinkelmann, K. & Kempthorne (2005). O. Design and Analysis of Experiments. New York, JohnWiley and Sons.

Hogarth, R. (1991). Judgement and Choice. New York, John Wiley and Sons.

Howard, R. (1988). Decision Analysis practice and promise. Management Science, 6, 679-675.

Howard, R. (2004). Speaking of decisions: Precise decision language. Decision Analysis, 1, 71-78.

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Mason, R. L. & Gunst, R. F. & Hess, J. L (2003). Statistical Design and Analysis of Experiments. New York, John Wiley and Sons.

Micheaux, P. L. & Drouilhet, R. & Liquet, B. (2013). The R Software: Fundamentals of Programming and Statistical Analysis. New York. Springer.

Montgomery, D, (2013). Design and Analysis of Experiments. New York. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Muller, J.M (2006). Elementary Functions Algorithms and Implementations. Boston, Birkhäuser.

Munchen, R.A. (2012). The Popularity of Statistical Software. Retrieved from: http://r4stats.com/articles/popularity/.

Plessner, H. & Bletsch, C. & Bletsch, T. (2007). Intuition in Judgement and Decision Making. London, Lawrence Erlbaum.

Silberberg, E. & Suen, W. (2001). The Structure of Economics: A Mathematical Analysis. New York, Mc Graw Hill.

Stackelberg, H. (2014). Foundations of a Pure Cost Theory. Berlin. Springer.

Teetor, P. (2011). R Cookbook: Proven Recipes for Data Analysis, Statistics and Graphics. Cambridge, O´Reilly.

Wickham, H. (2014). R packages. Retrieved from: http://r-pkgs.had.co.nz/demo.html.

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JISTEM - Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 81-106 ISSN online: 1807-1775 DOI: 10.4301/S1807-17752015000100005

ANALISYS OF IT OUTSOURCING CONTRACTS AT THE TCU (FEDERAL COURT OF ACCOUNTS) AND OF THE LEGISLATION THAT GOVERNS THESE CONTRACTS IN THE BRAZILIAN FEDERAL PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Graziela Ferreira Guarda Edgard Costa Oliveira Rafael Timóteo de Sousa Júnior University of Brasília – UnB, Federal District, Brazil ___________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT Information technology (IT) outsourcing has for a long time been a major trend in business and government. Accountability of IT outsourcing contracts in the public administration is recognized as an important factor contributing to government transparency and public services quality, given the legislation governing these contracts and the amount of related expenditures. Considering the trend towards open government data publishing, including data on outsourcing contracts, there is an interesting opportunity for citizens to participate in the open auditing of these contracts as a means to assess the good application of public resources. In this study we explore this possibility by analyzing open data published by the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU is its acronym in Portuguese), an interesting case since this agency has a paramount role in auditing the whole Brazilian Federal Public Administration. To this end, we gathered open data from the TCU regarding all outsourced IT services contracts maintained by the agency during the years 2000-2013. This data is analyzed to verify, from an external point of view, the related duration and values, identifying diferences between the predicted and actual amounts spent and evaluating the administration of such contracts regarding legislation. This analysis is based on a detailed survey of the relevant legislation as well as the verification of original contract terms and their addendums. As a result, we observed substantial differences in the amount spent on execution with respect to those predicted in the original contracts. Also, we identified the utilization of special justifications prescribed by law to sustain the extension of some contracts. Given these results, it is possible that IT outsourcing is not necessarily proved to be the best solution for the public sector problems regarding the lack of skilled personnel, which implies the need to assess the cost-benefit of maintaining these contracts. Also, it is possible that the existing legislation needs development in order to provide more flexibility to outsourcing contract management.

Keywords: IT Services, IT Governance, IT Outsourcing Contracts, Open Social Auditing, Brazilian Federal Public Administration, Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU). ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Manuscript first received/Recebido em: 23/03/2014 Manuscript accepted/Aprovado em: 17/01/2015 Address for correspondence / Endereço para correspondência

Graziela Ferreira Guarda, Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica, Rua 34 norte lote 04 apto 208 - Águas Claras - DF, Universidade de Brasília - UnB, E-mail: grazielafg@yahoo.com Edgard Costa Oliveira, Doutor em Ciências da Informação, Área Especial de Indústria Projeção A UnB Gama - Setor Leste, Caixa-postal: 8114 - DF, Universidade de Brasília - UnB, E-mail: ecosta@unb.br Rafael Timóteo de Sousa Júnior, Doutor em Processamento de Sinais e Telecomunicações, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, FT, ENE, Laboratório de Engenharia de Redes – Asa Norte - DF, Universidade de Brasília - UnB, E-mail: desousa@unb.br Published by/ Publicado por: TECSI FEA USP – 2015 All rights reserved.

82 Guarda, G. F., Oliveira, E. C., de Sousa Jr., R. T.

1. INTRODUCTION The activity of information technology (IT) outsourcing1 has had significant growth rates within the IT service segment2, a trend that is valid both for the Brazilian and global markets (Hendry, 1997).

In Brazil, Public Administration is one of the main contractors of outsourced IT services, thus contributing to the strengthening of this growth rate. Decisions to adopt such contracts are in line with Decree-Law No. 200/67, Art. 10 §7°, which mandates that administration should focus its efforts on management activities and not on operational tasks. In addition, Decree 2.271/97 established that computer-related activities should preferably be contracted to third parties. However, some authors who have examined the hiring of IT services by the public sector reported performance problems due to lack of formalization of the hiring process, lack of knowledge about this process and shortcomings in its implementation (Barbosa, Junqueira, Laia and Faria, 2006; Cardoso, 2000 and Cardoso, 2006).

Thus, the process of hiring of IT services needs to be more efficient, requiring extensive planning to guide investment and to ensure the desired benefits to the business processes. This planning should permeate the entire organization, providing IT alingment to the direction and goals of the organization. Consequently, all procurement of IT goods and services should have as a major goal to support one or more strategic objectives, detailing the intended benefits and evaluation indicators as well as specific goals to be achieved (Cruz, 2008).

Accountability of IT outsourcing contracts in public administration is recognized as an important factor contributing to government transparency and public services quality, given the legislation governing these contracts and the amount of related expenditures. Considering the trend towards open government data publishing3, including data on outsourcing contracts, there is an interesting opportunity for citizens to participate in the open auditing of these contracts as a means to assess the good application of public resources. In this study we explore this possibility by analyzing open data published by the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU is its acronym in Portuguese), an interesting case since this agency has a paramount role in auditing the whole Brazilian Federal Public Administration.

This methodology is nearly analogue to a black box software testing and validation approach (Howden, 1980) where external indicators are collected and analyzed so as to verify conformance to requirements. This approach presents interests that allow the evaluation of the effects of the whole organizational functioning, abstracting its internal structure and constituents, though this imposes limitations to the approach since it does not assess internal motivations and constraints. It is also noteworthy that this approach is adequate for an open social verification of governement data as there is more independence between the observer and the object 1

IT outsourcing is defined as hiring an external organization to provide specialized IT services. This occurs when the contractor does not want to use its internal resources to operate and/or implement its own IT sector.

2 The IT industry can be roughly divided into three main segments: (i) hardware; (ii) software; and (iii) IT services. In the IT services segment, the different categories or types of services include: (i) outsourcing; (ii) advice; (iii) integration and development; (iv) support and training. The outsourcing services can in turn be subdivided into: (i) outsourcing of software applications (development and maintenance); (ii) outsourcing of IT infrastructure management (machines, servers), and (iii) outsourcing processes highly dependent on IT business, such as purchasing, human resources, among others.

3 Brazil is a founder member of the Open Government Partnership, a multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance (http://www.opengovpartnership.org/about).

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of interest. Alternative approaches such as this were foreseen by (Broadbent and Guthrie, 1992).

Moreover, the chosen methodology reflects a commitment of this paper to contribute to the social control of public services, an idea that has been gaining thrust in Brazil in recent years, contemporary to the maturing of the Brazilian democracy (Schomer, 2012). It is an important attitude towards transparency of public services in Brazil, and the TCU openly provides information on its IT contracts, since it is one of the most important institutions to control the use of public resources (Speck, 1999) and has a significant performance and effectiveness auditing role combined with the release of recommendations for improving the performance of public federal agencies (Robinson, 2007), being an exemplary organization for these agencies.

This paper, which constitutes an extendend version of (Guarda, Oliveira and de Sousa, 2014), comprises a literature review addressing the concepts of outsourcing and IT outsourcing within public administration. Also, a survey of the TCU expenses on IT outsourcing is presented covering contracts for the period 2000 to 2013. The ensuing analysis using the gathered data was divided into two stages, since the years 2000-2011 refer to concluded contracts, while the years 2009-2013 refer to contracts still in progress.

1.1. GOALS The central goal is to analyze all contracts related to IT outsourcing through the years 2000 to 2013 by the TCU, in order to observe contratct durations and values.

The gathered data is then used to identify differences between planned and actual duration and spending values, as well as to analise the management of these contracts in light of the related legislation and public regulations.

1.2. MOTIVATION Until 2008, the Brazilian Federal Public Administration has lacked a unified standard to regulate the process of hiring IT services or resources, such as the purchase of hardware and software, and the procurement of computing and/or information services.

In april 2008, the Brazilian Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management (MPOG is its acronym in Portuguese) published a normative instruction (NI) for the purpose of disciplining the hiring of services, whether continuously or not, by member agencies of the General Service System (SISG). This regulatory document, formally NI SLTI/MPOG No. 02/08, presented rules and guidelines for hiring services in public administration, adopting the expression "hiring services" in a generic sense, indeed applying the regulations to all types of services contracted by government.

Then, in addition to NI 02/08, in May 2008 the MPOG published NI SLTI/MPOG No. 04/08, which provides instructions specifically for the hiring process of IT services by directfederal public administration. On November 16th , 2010, NI 04/08 was replaced by NI SLTI/MPOG 04/10,, which entered into force on January 2nd, 2011, establishes the necessary IT service hiring phases: planning for procurement, vendor selection and contract management.

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84 Guarda, G. F., Oliveira, E. C., de Sousa Jr., R. T. In addition to NI 04, with nearly concomitant new rules , the TCU has reiterated and further developed the theme, producing a new and challenging legal framework for government IT managers. These facts demanded the development of new professional skills, which are still lacking in most public bodies, as the TCU itself has come to this conclusion in its audits since then. This new legal framework causes significant impacts on public bodies, requiring special care for its adoption by top managers, in view of the restrictions related to public budget, existing staff, operational situation and government strategic planning.

Considering this legislation , it is an interesting research subject to take into account the challenging problems faced by the Federal Public Administration with respect to IT outsourcing. It is important to assess spending on the outsourcing of IT services in this context, especially considering that the government has invested in hiring personnel specifically assigned to and trained for performing public procurement.

1.3. RESEARCH PROBLEM According to (Hendry, 1997), the services sector has been one of the fastest growing in Brazil and around the world in recent decades. Apart from its positive and negative points, outsourcing has become a reality in Brazilian companies and organizations, and especially in public service, where it has been used increasingly in recent years. Therefore the development of this research was performed to identify wether the practiced IT outsourcing contract management contributes to the quality of public spending, given that IT outsourcing involves a significant amount of public resources.

Thus, in this study the analysis of all contracts held by the TCU during the years 2000 to 2013 also has the intention to verify if the option for IT outsourcing has been financially and managerially appropriate to public service, considering that an alternative solution was to maintain those services in the hands of public employees.

One of the main problems identified in Brazilian public administration, with respect to outsourcing, is that the government has already identifyied items for improvement, but has not keep an adequate pace for developing actions to enable the required improvement. These problems were identified by the TCU itself in various public agencies, resulting in a TCU recommendation for MPOG to publish a specific standard for IT service hiring, which was consolidated in NI 04/08 and later in NI 04/10.

Thus, it is motivating to make a detailed analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing IT services in public administration, so this study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on this subject, particularly by verifying whether the process of hiring these IT services has been effective for the public administration.

1.4. METHODOLOGY This section specifies the materials used to develop the study, and presents the methodology used for analysis and results interpretation.

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1.4.1 MATERIALS The materials used throughout the development of this work include the follwing:  

Current Brazilian legislation on hiring IT in Public Administration; IT Contracts data regarding the years 2000-2013 and addenda published by the TCU.

These documents are available as open data published by the MPOG and the TCU in their respectives web portals.

1.4.2 RESEARCH STAGES Theoretical Review: The first stage of the work consisted in a literature review about the main issues addressed in this study. This phase proved to be of paramount importance in order to elucidate some of the basic concepts related to the topic of IT outsourcing in the Federal Public Service, and other related topics.

Survey and Choice of the TCU Contracts: a number of 35 contracts were chosen to be objects of analysis. The sources of data were contracts and addendum terms available on the TCU web portal regarding the provision of IT services.

Contracts solely aimed at purchasing or leasing of computer equipment and software licenses were excluded from the data set. The chosen contracts were separated into a set for the analysis of finalized contracts (2000-2011) and a set for contracts in progress (2009-2013), giving way to the following lists: 

Concluded: 56-2000; 57-2000; 78-2001; 84-2001; 85-2001; 86-2001; 48-2003; 04-2004; 09-2005; 17-2006; 25-2006; 05-2007; 06-2007; 08-2007; 37-2007; 53-2007; 59-2007; 67-2007; 39-2008; 53-2008; 61-2008; 57-2009 e 34-2011.



In Progress: 08-2009; 01-2010; 17-2010; 24-2010; 33-2011; 61-2011; 69-2011; 13-2012; 52-2012; 02-2013; 11-2013 e 20-2013.

Compilation of Information: The information gathered was compiled in the following separate tables: 

Concluded Contracts – table that contains relevant information of 23 finished contracts between 2000 and 2011;



Contracts in Progress – table that contains relevant information of 12 ongoing contracts between 2009 and 2013;



Summary of Concluded Contracts – table showing the amount and percentage of actual spending related to all IT services contractors during the period 2000 to 2011;



Summary of Contracts in Progress – table showing the amount and percentage of actual spending related to all IT services contractors during the period 2009 to 2013;



Highest Contract Values in the sampling period (13 years) – table intended to identify companies and classify by value their related IT Outsourcing contracts with the TCU (Indeed this table shows data regarding a single company).

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86 Guarda, G. F., Oliveira, E. C., de Sousa Jr., R. T.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. CONCEPTS RELATED TO OUTSOURCING Outsourcing, in what seems to be its broadest sense, means the purchase of any product or service from another company. In general, companies outsource products and services that they can not or will not produce for themselves (Turban, McLean & Wetherbe, 2004). Thus, outsourcing is a management approach that delegates to an external agent the operational responsibility for processes or services hitherto performed in the organization. As outsourcing has different approaches, it is important to understand the concepts of some authors before assessing which model fits best in a given organization.

Although there are several contradictions among researchers on the definition of outsourcing, the evolution of this practice led to a richer theoretical background of the phenomenon (HätÜnen and Eriksson, 2009). The classic form of outsourcing can be defined as a management process based on transferring support activities to third parties - establishing a partnership with them so that the company concentrates only on tasks directly linked to the business in which it operates (Guarda, 2008).

There are authors arguing that outsourcing is the transfer of functions and services to third parties (Foina, 2001) or that business process outsourcing is the transfer of all activities that are not part of the company core competency (Beal, 2005).

These authors also state that outsourcing has emerged in order to reduce costs, increase business productivity, and increase the quality and productivity of services, even if these factors are not always met.

Notwithstanding these factors, outsourcing requires a transformation in organizations, forcing them to concentrate their energies on their primary value-added business activity, thus better results are created to favor the effectiveness and optimization of management. According to (Queiroz, 1998), the quality resulting from outsourcing is linked with the specialty of the partners, as the more experience the third party has in relation to its service, the better the efficiency and effectiveness in the practice.

2.2. OUTSOURCING IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) Outsourcing IT services has been increasingly common in the organizational context, especially in the public sector, since these services are now almost indispensable in any field and many organizations prefer to outsource IT (to specialized companies) while focusing their management on core activities, thus building more confidence in being ahead of their competitors and obtaining better profits.

According to (Earl, 1998) IT outsourcing is motivated by the need to cut costs and reduce staff. Also IT outsourcing has been defined as an organization's strategy to maintain control over deadlines and quality of service (Leite, 1997). For (AraĂşjo, 2008), the reason why companies outsource the IT area is related to the amazing and rapid advances in this technology field, so it is easier to be more productive by

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outsourcing these services to specialized companies that keep pace with these advances.

2.3 ADVANTAGES AND DRAWBACKS OF IT OUTSOURCING IT Outsourcing main advantages are related to the provision of various multidisciplinary professionals to solve the problem of the contracting organization, resulting in cost reduction, concentration of activities, adequate skills, labor savings and the elimination of routine activities. In general, the expected IT outsourcing benefits are (Hätönen and Eriksson, 2009): 

Financially: cost reduction, stability of capital outflows with periodic payments for services;



Technically: improvement of the quality of IT services, gaining access to new technologies; and,



Strategically: Focusing on core business, time to market, and the possibility of attracting skilled professionals to the job.

According to (Laudon, 2004), outsourcing advantages include to reduce or to control IT costs, while producing information systems even when internal resources are not available or are disabled. In this regard, (Leite, 1997) argues that IT outsourcing allows the company to have access to experts on the subject while still focusing on IT considering business priorities.

On the other hand, IT outsourcing drawbacks include problems of contract termination, loss of activities control, excessive bureaucracy, loss of professional experiences and conflicts of interest (Dias, 2000). This author further states that the lack of internal management for IT services implies the loss of knowledge which is given to third parties, hindering services continuity if the ousourcing company is no more available. An interesting drawback example is documented by the TCU in its Judgment No. 1.521/03-Plenary Session showing that excessive IT outsourcing in the federal public administration resulted in the loss of business intelligence.

Table 2.1 highlights the main IT outsourcing advantages according to (Leite, 1997) and (Vidal, 1993), as well as the main drawbacks to outsource the provision of IT services according to (Laudon and Laudon, 2004), an author who states that, despite the benefits resulting from outsourcing services, not all organizations benefit from this process, which, if not properly understood and managed, can cause serious problems for contractors.

In light of the findings by the authors referenced above, many IT outsourcing risks exist for the Brazilian Federal Public Administration, including major nonconformities to contractual statements and non-use of the delivered services, especially by means of information systems. The lack of contract management and supervision processes can result in getting services that do not always meet the goals set. In some cases it is observed that failures come from the specifications for outsourcing procurement, a step before hiring suppliers. If the rules for the provision of services are not well specified and do not provide administrative sanctions in case of noncompliance, outsourcing risks increase considerably.

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88 Guarda, G. F., Oliveira, E. C., de Sousa Jr., R. T.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Table 2.1 – IT Outsourcing Advantages and Drawbacks.

Advantages Drawbacks Unconcern with the process of providing supplies.

Lack of training / qualification of the third party.

High level of services, with increased user Difficulties by the third party to understanding the satisfaction. contractor business.

Technical Flexibility.

Loss of control over quality, costs and deadlines.

Objectivity of cost-benefit analysis for new Internal resistance of the technical staff and users in projects. regard to outsourced professionals.

Expenditure forecast.

Culture differences of the outsourced services in regard to company standards.

Transfer of responsibility regarding the operation Poorly planned goals. of information systems.

Labor claims.

Leakage of confidential information.

Increase in costs and difficulties in bidding processes since the volume of expenses at the end of a contract are hardly the same as originally planned.

Given these potential problems, (Foina, 2001) proposes the following precautions regarding IT outsourcing: 

Clearly define in the contract the area of operation for the third company;



Establish metrics for managing the quality of services;



Set a minimum number of monthly hours to be developed by the service provider.

2.4. IT OUTSOURCING ADMINISTRATION

IN

THE

BRAZILIAN

FEDERAL

PUBLIC

Currently, most IT services in the Brazilian Federal Public Administration are provided under outsourcing contracts, since this is the management model adopted based on the assertion that the core objective is the proper functioning of the public administration while IT services comprise support objectives.

The paper by (Ramos, 2001) states that outsourcing has been used especially at the federal level to hire services related to support activities or complementary to core activities, these ones being defined as strategic since they can not be assigned to third parties in full as this would jeopardize public safety and interest.

In public companies and agencies, the outsourcing of IT has been considered a way to improve the services provided by the State, following exemplary experiences from the private sector. To (Willcocks, 1994) the government embraced the idea based on the fact that, in some, cases private companies could obtain better performance performing some government functions, thus outsourcing IT services were envisioned to improve government processes.

2.5. THE BRAZILIAN FEDERAL LAW REGARDING OUTSOURCING A considerable set of laws and regulations govern the procurement of IT services and goods for the Brazilian Federal Public Administration. This section summarizes the key pieces of this corpus, using Table 2.2 to arrange the instruments in the order of time. This compilation, illustrating the evolution of the law from 1991 to JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 81-106

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2010, includes the official instrument name and number, its publication date, a brief description and comments on the instrument objectives and legal obligations related to outsourcing, including relationships with other instruments.

1

2

3

4

5

6

Table 2.2 – Brazilian federal legal instruments used in hiring IT services and goods.

Instrument Publication Description Comments on Objectives and Date Relation with Outsourcing Law No. 23/10/1991 Provides the capacity and Defines in Article 8 what common 8.248/1991 competitiveness of the IT automation and data processing and automation industry, goods and services are. and makes other provisions.

Law No. 21/06/1993 Regulates article. 37, Establishes rules for biddings and 8.666/1993 item XXI, of the Federal contracts to be performed by the Constitution, establishing Public Administration. Defines in rules for biddings and Article 22 the procedure for bidding contracts by the Public and in Article 24 the cases in which Administration and the bidding is dispensable. makes other provisions.

Decree No. 21/01/1994 Regulates the Regulates the Information and IT 1.048/1993 Information and IT Resources System (SISP), which is Resource Management responsible for planning, System of the Federal coordination, organization, operation, Public Administration. control and monitoring of IT resources. Defines in Article 2 the goals of the SISP. Decree No. 07/07/1997 Regulates the Defines which activities may be 2.271/1997 procurement of services subject to hiring via bidding. States in by the Federal Public its Article 1 that incidental, Administration, direct, instrumental activities, or those autonomous agencies and complementary to matters that foundations and makes constitute the area of legal other provisions. competence of the organ, may be subject to indirect execution. Its Article 3 states that the object of the contract must be explicitly defined in the bidding announcement.

Decree No. 08/08/2000 Establishes the rules for Constitutes a complement to Law No. 3.555/2000 the public bidding 8.666/1993 (item 2 in this table). Its processes in the form of Article 5 states that auctions do not auctions for the apply to engineering works and procurement of common services nor to real estate leasing and goods and services. sales.

Decree No. 19/09/2001 Regulates the Prices Defines the Prices Registration 3.931/2001 Registration System System (SRP) which is a set of which is governed by procedures for the formal recording article 15 of Law No. of prices in relation to the provision 8.666/1993 (item 2 in of common services and the this table), and makes procurement of goods. Defines in its other provisions.

Article 2 when the SRP should be used.

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90 Guarda, G. F., Oliveira, E. C., de Sousa Jr., R. T. Instrument

Publication Date 17/07/2002

7

Law No. 10.520/2002

8

Law No. 11.077/2004

30/12/2004

9

Decree No. 5.450/2005

31/05/2005

10

Decree No. 5.504/2005

05/08/2005

11

IN No. 02 MPOG/SLTI

30/04/2008

Description Establishes, on the realm of the Union, States, Federal District and Municipalities, in accordance with article 37, item XXI, of the Federal Constitution, the bidding method by auctions for the procurement of common goods and services, and makes other provisions.

Modifies Law No. 8248/1991 (item 1 in this table), Law No. 8237/1991, and Law No. 10.176/2001, providing the capacity and competitiveness of the IT and automation industry, and makes other provisions.

Regulates electronic auctions for the purchase of common goods and services, and makes other provisions.

Establishes the requirement for using the public auction, preferably in its electronic form, by public and private entities, for the procurement of common goods and services performed as a consequence of voluntary public funds transfers from the Federal Government4.

Provides rules and guidelines for the procurement of services, continued or not.

Comments on Objectives and Relation with Outsourcing Modifies the Law No. 8.666/1993 (item 2 in this table), including electronic auctions as a bidding method. Complements this Law items 5 and 6, establishing that the process may be held by means of electronic auctions for the purchase of common goods and services. Defines in its Article 11 that the procurement and purchasing of common goods and hiring of services must be made using the SRP (item 6 in this table).

Modifies Law No. 8248/1991 and supplements Decree No. 3.555/2000 (item 5 in this table), regulating the capacity and competitiveness of the IT and automation industry.

Recommends the use of electronic bidding for procurements defined by Law.

Convalidates the Decree No. 3.555/2000 (item 5 in this table), and determines that the electronic auctions should be mandatory in the procurement of common goods and services as highlights its Article 4.

Reinforces the Decree No. 5.450/2005( item 9 in this table).

Expands the mandatory use of electronic auctions for public and private entities for the procurement of common goods and services due to voluntary public funds transfers from the Federal Government.

Complements the instruments defined in items 2, 4, and 7 in this table.

Controls rules and guidelines for hiring services continued or not.

4

Transfer of resources from the Federal Government to another government level, as financial assistance, cooperation, or help, which is not a result of a constitutional or legal requirement, or destined to the public federal healthcare system.

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Analisys of IT outsourcing contracts at the TCU (Federal Court of Accounts) and of the legislation that governs these contracts in the Brazilian Federal Public administration Instrument

Publication Date 30/12/2008

12

Ordinance No. 11 MPOG/SLTI

13

Decree No. 7.063/2010

13/01/2010

14

Decree No. 7.174/2010

12/05/2010

15

IN No. 04 MPOG/SLTI

16/11/2010

Description Defines the General Information Technology Strategy (EGTI) for the Federal Public Administration.

Approves the Regimental Structure and the Demonstrative Table on Commission and Gratified Functions of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management, and makes other provisions.

Regulates the procurement of IT and automation goods and services by the Federal Public Administration, direct or indirect agencies, foundations instituted and maintained by the Government and other organizations under the direct or indirect control of the Union.

Provides the process of hiring IT solutions by members of the SISP of the Federal Executive Branch agencies.

91

Comments on Objectives and Relation with Outsourcing Complements the instrument described in item 11 of this table and enforces compliance with the instrument described in Item 3. Lays the foundation for transitioning from the current state of the Federal Government IT environments. The EGTI aims to define a set of improvements and is the foundation for a governance model for the renowned Information Technology Resources Administration System (SISP), serving as contextualization between the parties to reach maturity.

Complements the instrument described in item 3 of this table.

Complements the instruments described in items 1, 2 and 7 in this table and modifies the instrument in item 5. Highlights in its Article 2 that the acquisition of IT goods and services should be preceded by the procurement planning, including basic design or reference specifications containing the object to be hired.

Revokes the instruments defined in items 3 and 11 of this table and builds upon the instrument in item 14. Reorganizes the topics and steps that must be completed for the hiring of IT solutions within SISP.

Table 2.2 is aimed at summarizing how outsourcing rules have developed over the last decade, given law modifications and the creation of new perspectives. In this context, it is noteworthy the inclusion of the electronic bidding method for the acquisition of common goods and services. Before that inclusion, the bids for the purchase of goods or hiring IT services used competitive bidding.

According to Decree 3.555/00, public auctions constitute the category by which the competition for providing common goods or services is made in public sessions, by means of written pricing proposals and verbal bids, giving way to a decision in which the winning bidder will necessarily be the one that offers the lowest price. Thus, in Brazil, materials or services procurement occurs through public bidding processes (auctions) held by the government, either in-person or electronic auctions.

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92 Guarda, G. F., Oliveira, E. C., de Sousa Jr., R. T. transparency, competitiveness, and control of the process as a whole (Santanna, 2007).

The advantages of using this bidding category include savings in time and cost.

Regarding time, the typical deadline for the traditional competitive bidding is 45 days while the auction category is 15 days, which represents a reduction of one third of the time for completion of the process, due to fewer bureaucratic obstacles. In relation to cost, the auctioneer has the opportunity to negotiate in real time the values with the bidders, so that the amount spent on bids tend to be smaller, resulting in potential savings for the Public Administration.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION This section aims to compile the published data and then analyze IT outsourcing contracts by the TCU convering the years 2000-2013, including the analysis of contracts already finalized (2000 to 2011) and contracts still in progress (2009 to 2013).

The actual expenses are calculated by adding the initial values to the values given in each addendum. The results are grouped into the following tables: Table 3.1 – Concluded Contracts – 2000 to 2011; Table 3.2 – Contracts in Progress – 2009 to 2013; Table 3.3 – Summary of Concluded Contracts – 2001 to 2011; Table 3.4 – Summary of Contracts in Progress – 2009 to 2013.

Table 3.1 – Concluded Contracts – 2001 to 2011.

Contract 56-2000-DF Category: Competition

Status: Concluded Contract

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 517.704,00 -

Total Value:

517.704,00

Company: CTIS

Date: Rationale: 14/11/00 Hiring services to design, implement and deploy the system for Electronic Collection of Statement of Accounts.

Contract 57-2000-DF

Category: Unenforceability of Bid

Status: Concluded Contract

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 31.200,00 -

Total Value:

31.200,00

Date: 20/11/00

Company: LINK DATE

Rationale: Hiring a company specializing in IT, to perform maintenance for the "Automation System of Inventory" software, related to Equity and Warehouse modules.

Contract 78-2001-DF Category: Competition

Status: Concluded Contract

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 364.320,00 -

Addendum 1 Addendum 2

364.320,00 364.320,00

Date: 31/12/01

Company: FÓTON

Rationale: Hiring systems development consultancy, based on the systems development methodology Rational Unified Process - RUP or a similar methodology, based on the Unified Process UP, as specified in the Annexes of the Call.

100.0 31/12/04 Extension until 31.12.2003.

100.0 31/12/04 Extension of the Term of the Contract until

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Addendum 3 Total Value:

486.712,92 1.579.672,92

31/12/04.

133.5 31/12/04 Renegotiation of prices in the Contract.

Contract 84-2001-DF

Category: Competition

Status: Concluded Contract

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 4.215.577,50

Total Value:

4.215.577,50

Company: CTIS

Date: Rationale: - 31/12/01 Development and implementation of information systems, corrective and adaptative maintenance and documentation based on the methodology Rational Unified Process - RUP. Contract 85-2001-DF

Category: Competition

Initial Value:

Status: Concluded Contract

Company: CTIS

Value: %↑ 1.623.072,00

Addendum 1:

81.153,60

Addendum 2:

1.704.225,60

Addendum 3:

-

Addendum 4:

1.704.225,60

Addendum 5: Addendum 6: Addendum 7: Total Value:

245.578,90 1.949.804,50 1.949.804,50 9.257.864,70

Date: Rationale: - 31/12/01 Development of information systems currently in operation at the TCU. The service warranty is 36 months, according to clause 16.

5.0 30/12/03 Promote growth of 5% to the value of the original contract. st 105.0 31/12/04 Extends until December 31 , 2003 the validity of the original contract.

31/12/04 Changes the First and Fourth Clauses of the Contract. st 105.0 31/12/04 Extension of the term until December 31 , 2004.

15.1 31/12/04 Renegotiation of the contract value.

120.1 31/12/05 Extension of contract validity until 31/12/05.

120.0 31/12/06 Extension of validity.

Contract 86-2001-DF

Category: Competition

Status: Concluded Contract

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 1.099.460,60

Date: - 27/12/01

Addendum 1:

1.170.380,60

106.5 27/12/03

Addendum 2:

1.170.380,60

106.5 27/12/04

Addendum 3: Addendum 4: Addendum 5: Addendum 6:

112.841,16 1.284.170,04 1.284.170,04 1.284.170,04

10.3 116.8 116.8 116.8

Total Value:

7.405.573,08

27/12/04 27/12/05 27/12/06 27/12/07

Company: CTIS

Rationale: Provision of support services to computer services users - remote and local support.

Extension of Contract until 27.12.2003 and to promote a 6.4505% increase of the initial contract value.

Extension of the term of the contract until 27/12/04.

Renegotiation of contract prices.

Extension of validity.

Extension of validity.

Exceptional extension of the contract validity until 27/12/07.

Contract 48-2003-DF Category: Exemption of Bid

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 336.000,00

Status: Concluded Contract Date: 01/07/03

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Company: SERPRO

Rationale: Provision of information and IT services for continuous online access to the CPF and CNPJ registry data.

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94 Guarda, G. F., Oliveira, E. C., de Sousa Jr., R. T. Addendum 1: Total Value:

54.000,00 390.000,00

16.1 01/07/07 Increase of 16.07%.

Contract 4-2004-DF

Category: In-person Auction

Status: Concluded Contract

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 83.040,00

Addendum 1: Addendum 2: Addendum 3: Total Value:

83.040,00 83.040,00 83.040,00 332.160,00

Company: CAST

Date: - 10/02/04

Rationale: Hiring of technical support services and software versions update.

100.0 10/02/06 Sixth clause- On the Validity and Effectiveness.

100.0 10/02/07 Extension of the term until 10/02/07.

100.0 10/02/08 Extension of the term until 10/02/07.

Contract 9-2005-DF

Category: Competition

Initial Value:

Status: Concluded Contract

Value: %↑ 447.760,00

Date: - 11/04/05

Addendum 1: Addendum 2:

88.560,00 88.560,00

19.8 06/06/07 19.8 06/06/08

Addendum 3: Addendum 4: Total Value:

88.560,00 88.560,00 802.000,00

19.8 06/06/09 19.8 06/06/10

Company: SOFTTEK

Rationale: Supply, installation and configuration of a software integrated solution for support, upgrade and remote assistance services, and training for the construction and administration of an extract, transform and load data service (Extract, Transform and Load - ETL).

Extension of the term.

Extension of the term of Contract No. 09/2005 entered into force between the parties on 11/04/05, corresponding to the item 1.1 of the seventh clause.

Extension of CT n° 09-05.

Extension of the Term of the Contract 09/05.

Contract 17-2006-DF Category: Unenforceability of Bid

Initial Value:

Total Value:

Value: %↑ 15.600,00

Status: Concluded Contract

Company: LINK DATE

Date: Rationale: - 01/04/06 Hiring maintainance for the "Automation System of Inventory" software, related to Equity and Warehouse modules. Posted on 23/03/06.

15.600,00 Contract 25-2006-DF

Category: Exemption of Bid

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 12.500.000,00

Addendum 1: Total Value:

12.500.000,00

Status: Concluded Contract

Company: SERPRO

Date: - 31/05/06

Rationale: Provision of data extraction and transmission services from SIAFI and SIASG services, as well as services for the production of a data warehousing solution named Intelligence and Support System for the External Control (SÍNTESE).

NA 30/11/08 Amendment of terms and deletion of items.

Contract 5-2007-DF

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 119.000,00

Status: Concluded Contract Date: - 13/03/07

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Company: HEPTA

Rationale: Provision of technical support services to www.jistem.fea.usp.br

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products pertaining to the Microsoft platform integrating the computing infrastructure of the TCU. Total Value:

119.000,00 Contract 6-2007-DF

Category: Electronic Auction

Status: Concluded Contract

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 194.190,00

Addendum 1: Total Value:

194.190,00 388.380,00

Company: UNIMIX

Date: - 13/03/07

Rationale: Provision of technical support services to products pertaining to the Oracle platform integrating the computing infrastructure of the TCU. 100.0 13/03/09 Extension of contract validity until 13/03/09.

Contract 8-2007-DF

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Status: Concluded Contract

Value: %↑ 45.840,00

Date: - 13/03/07

Addendum 1: Addendum 2:

45.840,00 45.840,00

100.0 13/03/09 100.0 13/03/10

Addendum 3:

45.840,00

100.0 13/03/11

Addendum 4: Total Value:

45.840,00 229.200,00

100.0 13/03/12

Company: CAST

Rationale: Providing technical support services for OLAP Business Objects solutions integrating the computing infrastructure of the TCU. Extension of Contract 08/07.

Extension of the term of the Contract Signed on 13/03/2007 between the parties for the provision of technical support to computer services.

Extension of the term of the Contract until 13/03/11.

Extension of validity of the CT 08/07.

Contract 37-2007-DF Category: Exemption of Bid

Initial Value:

Status: Concluded Contract

Value: %↑ 42.840,00

Addendum 1: Addendum 2:

42.840,00 42.840,00

Addendum 3: Total Value:

42.840,00 171.360,00

Company: SERPRO

Date: - 01/06/07

Rationale: Provision of Data Processing services for the Tape 50 aggregate values all over Brazil.

100,.0 01/06/09 Extension of contract validity until 01/06/09.

100.0 01/06/10 Extension of the term of the Contract until 01/06/10.

100.0 01/06/11 Extension of the term of the Contract n° 37/07.

Contract 53-2007-DF

Category: Exemption of Bid

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 322.000,00

Total Value:

322.000,00

Status: Concluded Contract Date: - 03/09/07

Company: SERPRO

Rationale: Provision of information and IT services (queries to CNPJ and CPF).

Contract 59-2007-DF Category: In-person Auction

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 241.400,00

Status: Concluded Contract Date: - 16/10/07

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Company: DG10

Rationale: Provision of specialized IT technical services, including planning, development, implementation and execution of the operation

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96 Guarda, G. F., Oliveira, E. C., de Sousa Jr., R. T. and monitoring of the Information Technology environment. Note: The closure of the Montana activities occurred on 24/10/07 and the Data Graphics company started delivering services on 25/10/07.

Total Value:

241.400,00 Contract 67-2007-DF

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Status: Concluded Contract

Value: %↑ 1.945.000,00

Date: - 28/12/07

Addendum 1:

101.724,69

5.2 28/12/08

Addendum 2: Addendum 3:

2.194.121,64 0,01

112.8 28/12/09 0.0 28/12/09

Addendum 4:

141.864,76

7.3 28/12/09

Addendum 5:

567.322,92

29.2 28/03/10

Addendum 6: Addendum 7: Total Value:

378.215,28 109.009,95 5.437.259,25

19.5 28/05/10 5.6 28/05/10

Company: CTIS

Rationale: Provision of specialized technical IT services, including planning, development, implementation and execution of remote and onsite technical support activities to Information Technology clients within the TCU. Increase of 12.81% in the value of services, with a temporary and a permanent instalment.

Extension of the term until 28/12/09.

Suspension of software and information systems services - item 3 of "remote support services".

Renegotiation of contract values that, in the period from 01/05/2008 to 31/07/09, changes from R$ 181.843,47 to R$ 188.129,52 and, after 01/08/08, changes from R$ 181.843,47 to R$ 189.107,64.

Extension of the term of the Contract until 28/03/10.

Extension of the term of the Contract n° 67/07.

Renegotiation of prices in the Contract n° 67/07.

Contract 39-2008-DF Category: Exemption of Bid

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 488.254,35

Addendum 1: Total Value:

Status: Concluded Contract

-

Date: - 18/08/08

NA 18/02/11

Company: SERPRO

Rationale: Provision of information and IT services, consolidated in the delivery of data drawn from the Registry of Individuals – CPF, the National Registry of Legal Entities - CNPJ and Individual Income Tax - IRPF, pertaining to the Secretariat of the Federal Revenue of Brazil, by means of special calculations on databases localized in the Federal data Processing Service SERPRO. Deletion/modification of items of the basic design.

488.254,35 Contract 53-2008-DF

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 157.289,34

Total Value:

157.289,34

Status: Concluded Contract Date: - 17/10/08

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Company: DG10

Rationale: Provision of specialized IT technical services, including planning, development, implementation and execution of the operation and monitoring of the information technology environment.

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Contract 61-2008-DF Category: Electronic Auction

Status: Concluded Contract

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 172.800,00

Addendum 1:

172.800,00

Addendum 2: Addendum 3: Total Value:

172.800,00 172.800,00 691.200,00

Company: REDECOM

Date: - 02/12/08

Rationale: Provision of technical support services for network solutions.

100,0 01/12/10 Extending the term of Contract No. 61/08 signed between the parties on 01/12/2008, according to the terms in its Fifth Clause.

100,0 01/12/11 Extension of the term until 01/12/11.

100,0 01/12/12 Extension of the CT 61/08.

Contract 57-2009-DF

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Total Value:

Status: Concluded Contract

Value: %↑ 51.194,00

Date: - 30/12/09

Company: REDECOM

Rationale: Provision of upgrade and technical support services for the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager backup solution, as specified in Annex I - Terms of Reference of the Electronic Auction Bid No. 71/09.

51.194,00 Contract 34-2011-DF

Category: Electronic Auction

Status: Concluded Contract

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 2.854.491,00

Total Value:

2.854.491,00

Date: - 21/12/11

Company: AMÉRICA

Rationale: The provision of data storage solutions, including training, installation and configuration services, additionaly to onsite technical support to the products during the warranty period. ATA - SRP.

For the composition of Table 3.1, the 'Value' rows as well as the 'Date' and 'Rationale' columns were all gathered from the querying of Contracts and Addendum terms, available on the TCU web portal at https://contas.tcu.gov.br/contrata/ConsultaPublica?opcao=resultado.

To calculations for the '%↑' column consist of percentage increases in amounts spent within the listed Contracts.

The 'Total Value' represents the sum of the values in column 'Value' for Contracts where Addendum terms were found.

Table 3.2 – Contracts in Progress – 2009 to 2013.

Contract 8-2009-DF Category: Electronic Auction Status: Contract in Progress

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 325.850,00

Addendum 1:

325.850,00

Date: - 15/04/09

Company: DG10

Rationale: Provision of specialized technical IT services, including planning, development, implementation and execution of the operation and monitoring of the Information Technology environment of TCU. 100.0 14/04/11 Extension of the term until 14/04/11.

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98 Guarda, G. F., Oliveira, E. C., de Sousa Jr., R. T. Addendum 2:

2.319,43

Addendum 3: Addendum 4:

326.159,19 49.435,92

Addendum 5: Addendum 6:

0,01 421.556,29

Addendum 7: Total Value:

452.220,84 1.903.391,68

0.7 14/04/11 Renegotiation of prices of the Contract signed between the parties on 14/04/09.

100.1 14/04/12 Extension of the term of the Contract 08/09.

15.2 14/04/12 Adding one more monitoring and operation round (from 0 to 6 hours) to contract n° 08/09.

0.0 14/04/12 Modification of official and commercial name.

129.4 14/04/13 Extension of the term and modification of the sixth clause.

138.8 14/04/14 Extension of the CT 08/09.

Contract 1-2010-DF Status: Contract in Progress

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 240.876,00

Addendum 1: Addendum 2: Addendum 3: Total Value:

240.876,00 254.450,40 254.450,40 990.652,80

Date: - 21/01/10

100.0 21/01/12 105.6 21/01/13 105.6 21/01/14

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 3.224.000,00

Addendum 1: Addendum 2: Addendum 3: Addendum 4:

3.224.000,00 3.224.000,00 357.166,71 3.545.208,35

Addendum 5:

104.088,79

Total Value:

Date: - 31/05/10

100.0 100.0 11.1 110.0

28/05/12 28/05/13 28/05/13 28/05/14

3.2 28/05/14

Company: CTIS

Rationale: Execution of specialized technical services in the field of information technology for the organization, development, implementation and ongoing execution of remote and local technical support to users of information technology solutions, including performing regular routines, guidance and clarification of questions and receiving, recording, analysis, diagnosis and care of user requests.

Extension of validity for CT 17/10.

Extension of the term until 28/05/13.

Renegotiation of prices in the contract n° 17/10.

Extension of technical services for organization, development, implementation and ongoing execution of remote and local technical support, for users of IT solutions.

Review and Renegotiation of prices for contract n° 17/2010.

13.678.463,85

Category: Exemption of Bid

Initial Value:

Rationale: Provision of technical support services to Microsoft products integrating the computing infrastructure of the TCU, under contract by unit price, under the contract unit price for Microsoft products services, including preventive and reactive support, as specified by the Electronic Auction Notice # 73/09.

Extension of the term until 20/01/12.

Extension of the term of the contract n° 1/10.

Extension of the term of 21/01/2013 to 01/20/14.

Contract 17-2010-DF Status: Contract in Progress

Category: Electronic Auction

Company: HEPTA

Value: %↑ 151.207,87

Contract 24-2011-DF Status: Contract in Progress Date: - 23/05/11

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Company: SERPRO

Rationale: Provision of information and IT services, for data extracted from the CPF, CNPJ and IRPF systems, of the Secretariat of the Federal Revenue of Brazil, by special calculation in databases located in SERPRO.

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99

Analisys of IT outsourcing contracts at the TCU (Federal Court of Accounts) and of the legislation that governs these contracts in the Brazilian Federal Public administration Total Value:

151.207,87 Contract 33-2011-DF Status: Contract in Progress

Category: Exemption of Bid

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 56.133,24

Addendum 1: Addendum 2: Total Value:

56.133,24 56.133,24 168.399,72

100.0 01/07/13 100.0 01/07/14

Value: %↑ 300.034,56 300.034,56

Date: - 01/11/11

Value: %↑ 2.232.691,36

Date: - 28/12/11

Addendum 1:

-

NA 13/10/12

Addendum 2:

-

NA 27/12/12

Total Value:

Company: AMÉRICA

Rationale: Provision of data storage solutions, including training, installation and configuration services, and onsite technical support to products during the warranty period. th Extension of the term specified in Item 1 of 5 Clause of contract n° 69/11, signed by the parties on 28/12/11. th Extension of the term provided in Item 1 of 5 Clause of contract n° 69/11.

2.232.691,36 Contract 13-2012-DF Status: Contract in Progress

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 209.000,00

Addendum 1:

209.000,00

Total Value:

428.000,00

Company: TECNISYS

Rationale: Provision of onsite technical support to software (item 1 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server and Item 2 - JBoss Enterprise Application Platform).

100,0 07/05/14 Extension of the validity and amendment to fifth clause of contract n° 13/12.

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 295.000,00

Total Value:

295.000,00

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Company: SERPRO

Rationale: Provision of information and IT services.

Contract 69-2011-DF Status: Contract in Progress

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Rationale: Provision of Data Processing services for Tape 50 added values.

Extension of the term of the contract n° 33/11.

Extension of the term of the contract n° 33/11.

Contract 61-2011-DF Status: Contract in Progress

Category: Exemption of Bid

Initial Value: Total Value:

Date: 02/07/11

Company: SERPRO

Value: %↑ 605.000,00

Date: - 08/05/12

Contract 52-2012-DF Status: Contract in Progress Date: - 28/12/12

Rationale: Provision of onsite technical support to VMware products, with an estimated employment of 1.000 credits, to be consumed on demand, under contract by unit price.

Contract 2-2013-DF Status: Contract in Progress Date: - 10/04/13

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Company: AÇÃO

Company: AÇÃO

Rationale: Provision of management software for the virtualized environment, official training and implementation service the management

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100 Guarda, G. F., Oliveira, E. C., de Sousa Jr., R. T. solution.

Total Value:

605.000,00

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 559.000,00

Total Value:

559.000,00

Category: Electronic Auction

Initial Value:

Value: %↑ 2.869.980,00

Total Value:

2.869.980,00

Contract 11-2013-DF Status: Contract in Progress Date: - 30/04/13

Rationale: Provision of management software for the virtualized servers in the headquarters and state branches, including the execdution of official training and the implementation service of the management solution.

Contract 20-2013-DF Status: Contract in Progress Date: - 20/05/13

Company: AÇÃO

Company: CAST

Rationale: Provision of onsite and remote information systems development, maintenance and testing, under contract by unit price, as specified in the Annexes of the Electronic Auction Notice n° 16/13.

For the composition of Table 3.2, the same rules explained for Table 3.1 were applied, also on data gathered from the querying of Contracts and Addendum terms, available on the TCU web portal at https://contas.tcu.gov.br/contrata/ConsultaPublica?opcao=resultado.

The consolidation of data from Tables 3.1 and 3.2 results in Tables 3.3 and 3.4 which show values regarding the original contracts and addendums for the provision of IT services during the period 2000-2013, as well as the percentage increase ratio of total value to initial value for all contracts.

Contract 56-2000 57-2000 78-2001 84-2001 85-2001 86-2001 48-2003 04-2004 09-2005 17-2006 25-2006 05-2007 06-2007 08-2007 37-2007 53-2007 59-2007 67-2007 39-2008 53-2008

Table 3.3 – Summary of Concluded Contracts – 2000 to 2011 Company Bid Category Initial Value Sum of Addendums CTIS Competition 517.704,00 Link Date Unenforceability 31.200,00 Fóton Competition 364.320,00 1.215.352,92 CTIS Competition 4.215.577,50 CTIS Competition 1.623.072,00 7.634.792,70 CTIS Competition 1.099.460,60 6.306.112,42 SERPRO Exemption 336.000,00 54.000,00 Cast In-person Auction 83.040,00 249.120,00 Softtek Competition 447.760,00 354.240,00 Link Date Unenforceability 15.600,00 SERPRO Exemption 12.500.000,00 Hepta Electronic Auction 119.000,00 Unimix Electronic Auction 194.190,00 194.190,00 CAST Electronic Auction 45.840,00 183.360,00 SERPRO Exemption 42.840,00 128.520,00 SERPRO Exemption 322.000,00 DG-10 In-person Auction 241.400,00 CTIS Electronic Auction 1.945.000,00 3.492.259,25 SERPRO Exemption 488.254,35 DG-10 Electronic Auction 157.289,34 -

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Total Value

↑%

517.704,00 31.200,00 1.579.672,92 4.215.577,50 9.257.864,70 7.405.573,08 390.000,00 332.160,00 802.000,00 15.600,00 12.500.000,00 119.000,00 388.380,00 229.200,00 171.360,00 322.000,00 241.400,00 5.437.259,25 488.254,35 157.289,34

0.00 0.00 333.59 0.00 470.39 573.56 16.07 300.00 79.11 0.00 0.00 0.00 100.00 400.00 300.00 0.00 0.00 179.55 0.00 0.00

Analisys of IT outsourcing contracts at the TCU (Federal Court of Accounts) and of the legislation that governs these contracts in the Brazilian Federal Public administration 61-2008 57-2009 34-2011

Contract 08-2009 01-2010 17-2010 24-2011 33-2011 61-2011 69-2011 13-2012 52-2012 02-2013 11-2013 20-2013

Redecom Redecom América

Electronic Auction Electronic Auction Electronic Auction ∑=

172.800,00 51.194,00 2.854.491,00 27.868.032,79

518.400,00 ∑=

Table 3.4 – Summary of Contracts in Progress– 2009 to 2013 Company Bid Category Initial Value Sum of Addendums DG-10 Electronic Auction 325.850,00 1.577.541,68 Hepta Electronic Auction 240.876,00 749.776,80 CTIS Electronic Auction 3.224.000,00 10.454.463,85 SERPRO Exemption 151.207,87 SERPRO Exemption 56.133,24 112.266,48 SERPRO Exemption 300.034,56 América Electronic Auction 2.232.691,36 Tecnisys Electronic Auction 209.000,00 209.000,00 Ação Electronic Auction 295.000,00 Ação Electronic Auction 605.000,00 Ação Electronic Auction 559.000,00 CAST Electronic Auction 2.869.980,00 ∑= 8.198.793,03 ∑=

101

691.200,00 51.194,00 2.854.491,00 48.198.380,14

300.00 0.00 0.00 57.82

Total Value

↑%

1.903.391,68 990.652,80 13.678.463,85 151.207,87 168.399,72 300.034,56 2.232.691,36 428.000,00 295.000,00 605.000,00 559.000,00 2.869.980,00 24.181.821,84

484.13 311.27 324.27 0.00 200.00 0.00 0.00 100.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 33.90

In Table 3.3, observing each percentage increase in the ratio of final contract value to the initial value (↑%), there are significant increases in a number of contracts with a maximum 573.56% increase. The results also show that the sum of initial contract values between 2000 and 2011 is R$ 27.868.032,79 and that with addendums these values were increased to R$ 48.198.380,14, which represents a total increase of 57.82% during the analyzed period.

In Table 3.4, observing each percentual increase in the ratio of final contract value to initial value (↑%), there are significant increases in a number of contracts with a maximum 484.13% increase. The results also show that the sum of initial contract values between 2009 and 2013 is R$ 8.198.793,03 and that with addendums these values were increased to R$ 24.181.821,84, which represents a total increase of 33.90% during the analyzed period.

These results indicate that the estimated values for the hiring of IT services are far below the amounts actually spent in the end. Since the Law says that a contract may be valid for a period of 60 months, it means that the best practice is to estimate the expenditures for the possible 5-year contract duration, considering that in practice the contract usually continues until the last possible deadline. This also indicates that maybe hiring IT outsourcing is strategic enough to justify longer contracts.

Another important aspect of the results are the real contract characteristics that differ from legislation governing the hiring of IT services by the public administration.

For instance, Article 65 item II §1° of Law 8.666/93 defines that in case of procurement of services, the allowed percentage additions or reductions in addendums is up to 25% of the initial contract value. Also, Article 65 item II §2° instructs that no increase or reduction may exceed the limits established in the previous paragraph, except reductions resulting from an agreement between the contractors (terms stated

by Law n° 9.648/1998). The present analysis observes that added addendum values are above the percentage allowed by law in different contracts, the highest ones being the following:

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102 Guarda, G. F., Oliveira, E. C., de Sousa Jr., R. T. 

Concluded contract 78-2001: in addendum 3 a value of R$ 486.712,92 represents an increase of 133.5% compared to the initial value of the contract;



Contract in Progress 08-2009: in addendum 7 a value of R$ 452.220,84 represents an increase of 138.8% compared to the initial value of the contract.

This is a contract management difficulty imposed by Law as a means to preventively restrain fraud. Notwithstanding this fact, maybe the observed contract modifications in this case seem to indicate the need to develop the Law, since there is evidence that some IT outsourcing contracts would benefit if they were signed for longer periods. Also, considering new IT services provison modes, such as Cloud Computing (Mell and Grance, 2011), continuous or periodic payment per service should be allowed instead of fixed period contracts.

Finally, another observation is that a single company (CTIS) has got the highest values in the TCU IT outsorcing contracts, with its 6 contracts in a total of 35 analyzed contracts, as shown in Table 3.5. Considering that the sum of concluded contracts, R$ 48.198.380,14 and contracts in progress, R$ 24.181.821,84, totals RS 72.380.201,98, the observation is that the company earned 55.97% of the total amount spent by the TCU for outsorced IT services during the 13 years of the sampling period.

So, a single company is bound to more than 50% of the values employed in IT outsourcing with its 6 contracts in a total number of 35 contracts (17,14%).

Table 3.5 – Highest Contract Values in the sampling period (2000-2013).

Company Contract Status Total Value R$ CTIS 56-2000 Concluded 517.704,00 CTIS 84-2001 Concluded 4.215.577,50 CTIS 85-2001 Concluded 9.257.864,70 CTIS 86-2001 Concluded 7.405.573,08 CTIS 67-2007 Concluded 5.437.259,25 CTIS 17-2010 In Progress 13.678.463,85 Total R$ 40.512.422,28

This concentration on one provider gives way to an undesirable side effect that, by signing the successive contracts, the provider becomes expert in the object and in the client, thus becoming the most able to win the following bids on the same object.

4. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS Long-term IT services planning is a necessary process for good IT governance.

This exploratory study shows that there still are some issues to be dealt with in this process, specifically in regard to IT outsorcing planning. Although there is much talk in related cost savings, some discussion is lacking regarding necessary adaptations of outsourcing practices to existing conditions in the Brazilian public sector, in the light of Law and regulations. This study shows indicators that the Government still needs to mature its IT long-term planning, given that IT outsourcing has been broadly adopted for fundamental services by public bodies, although the respective contract management processes are characterized by difficulties regarding modifications in values, duration and specifications, as observed in this paper case study.

In Brazil there is an extensive set of Laws and regulations applied to IT contracts, whose evolution was summarized in the literature review in this study. The modifications in legal instruments over recent years make it clear that the Government has been developing and maturing in some issues, specialy the bidding categories that JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 81-106

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103

eased the acquisition of IT goods and services bound to a Federal Adminsitration IT spending that exceeds six billion dollars per year, according to data from the Integrated Financial Management System (SIAFI) and the Department of Coordination and Governance of State Owned Enterprises (DEST).

The improvement of procurement rules as well as the consolidation of related knowledge contributed to the reduction of risks, given that hiring IT services imply in high investments. Also this enables to verify whether management practices are really efficient, considering that the correct application of IT resources is part of good management and promotes the protection of critical information, helping organizations achieve their institutional goals. The improvements in this area also depend on strengthening management skills and qualification of people and processes within the agencies that use outsourced IT services. Another concern is that, considering some of the related contract values, possibly there are situations favoring the utilization of public employees for provision of some IT services in place of outsourced personnel.

Independent of the adopted solution, it seems that either way requires investments in management policies, indicators and metrics for managing quality of service, and the adequate binding from IT services to overall government goals.

In which respects this paper methodology, although it has the interest of preserving the independence between de object and the observer, the chosen approach for this study shows some limitations since the object of study is considered under a black box verification method and the analysis is based solely on external indicators, although there surely are internal motivations and constraints that have been determinant for IT outsourcing contract management decisions regarding the duration and financial extensions of contracts.

It is also important to point out that the data used in this study is public and published by the source agency itself, as all analyzed information was taken from the TCU website. Thus, the information is delivered to the population openly, which is indeed positive in regard of the Public Administration transparency. It would be yet more useful if these publications were in the form of linked open government data, including data sets and related ontology, such as those concerning the Brazilian Federal Budget (Silva, Sousa, Veiga, Martins, Exposto and Mendonca, 2104). By proposing an effective analytic approach in this context, the present paper methodology contributes to empowering citizens to use these open data sets for exercising the necessary social control on government activities.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank the Brazilian research and innovation agencies CNPQ, CAPES and FINEP, as well as the Brazilian Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management, for their support to this work.

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JISTEM - Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 107-124 ISSN online: 1807-1775 DOI: 10.4301/S1807-17752015000100006

NEW TIMES, NEW STRATEGIES: PROPOSAL FOR AN ADDITIONAL DIMENSION TO THE 4 P'S FOR E-COMMERCE DOT-COM Maximiliano Gonetecki Oliveira FAE Centro Universitário, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil Ana Maria Machado Toaldo Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil ___________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT Proper marketing management is fundamental to any business endeavor, including dot-coms. However, to date, as identified in a review of the International Journal of Electronic Commerce (IJEC) production and the last 10 years of EnANPAD (EnANPAD is the annual Brazilian Academy of Management conference). There are no works on the applicability of the 4P's to e-commerce, a gap in the literature that this study proposes to fill. It uses a qualitative approach methodology, investigating several empirical studies about digital commerce, and comparing it with the mainstream strategic marketing literature. Inferences were developed, pushing further the theory boundaries of this field. Both the classical works as those from Borden (1964) and Mccarthy (1960) and many other contemporaries are evaluated. The present research utilizes these works as a source of information and data. Using a process of comparison with the marketing mix model, it searches for a possible lack of fit between the related empirical environments and such a model. The results identify several key variables in each of the P's related to security in electronic commerce. This dimension seems to be the key in shaping the perception of customer value, thus supporting its inclusion as a fifth dimension along with the 4P's.

Keywords: e-commerce, e-tailing, dot-com, electronic retail, marketing strategy, marketing mix.

1. INTRODUCTION The structural reality of the new markets, driven by information technology, progressively imposes a need for adaptation by organizations into their relation to markets and stakeholders. Regarding this demand, Katsikeas, Robson and Hulbert (2004) and Roberts and Adams (2010) highlight Digital Marketing and emerging new technologies as themes of interest to marketers. The increasing role of e-business in an organization's net profit also promotes this trend (E-COMMERCE, 2009). EITO 2010 ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Manuscript first received/Recebido em: 13/09/2013 Manuscript accepted/Aprovado em: 09/01/2015 Address for correspondence / Endereço para correspondência

Maximiliano Gonetecki de Oliveira, Me., R. 24 de Maio, 135, Centro, Curitiba-PR, 80230-080, FAE Centro Universitário, max@magox.com.br Ana Maria Machado Toaldo, Dr., Av. Lothario Meissner, 632, 2º andar, Jardim Botânico, Curitiba-PR, 80210-170, Universidade Federal do Paraná, anatoaldo@ufpr.br Published by/ Publicado por: TECSI FEA USP – 2015 All rights reserved.

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estimated the value of the global Information Technology and Communication market to be €2.3 trillion (Euros) (EITO, 2010). The U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration reported $3.371 billion in e-commerce in the U.S.A. in 2009, including both Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) transactions (E-STATS, 2011).

It is important to align academic interests with those of practitioners. Bharati and Tarasewich stated that "e-commerce as a research field is still in its infancy" (Bharati and Tarasewich, 2002) which suggests that a considerable knowledge gap still exists. Due to the significant growth of the Internet as a new stratum for business, marketers are required to achieve results in this environment. It presents a duality, since the fertile, but unique business environment requires specific tools and techniques, but still lacks a mature theoretical body. One of the underlying questions is whether it is plausible to assume the applicability of traditional marketing strategy methods in this new social-cultural-economic paradigm.

Stemming from this question, the marketing mix enters the spotlight. The works of Mccarthy in the sixties are still a consistent framework for marketers. But with the emergence of e-commerce as a powerful environment to do business, questions about its reliability were raised. Schultz, (1999), by analyzing the speech of Peter Sealey, a retired vice president of Coca-Cola, made the observation that the 'p' in promotion and 'p' in place would disappear, and that the obsolescence of marketing and communication would come only when consumers ceased to shop in brick and mortar stores. However, since the publication of his article, there have been great technological developments. Mobile phones with Internet access, free wireless networks, popular laptops, readers and countless other devices with browsers that before were accessible to only a select few are a reality for a large portion of the population. Despite these changes, traditional trade has not ended, and probably never will as long as we are relational beings, but it is undeniable that e-commerce has gained representative space as a business model.

In Brazil, the virtual world gains new followers every day, as shown by the level of mobile and Internet access as reported by Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística – IBGE (2009) in the 2008 Supplement to the National Survey by Household Sampling (PNAD) about internet access and possession of cellular telephones for personal use. This study showed a clear trend of strong growth in internet use, including an increase of 75.3% between 2005 and 2008 for Brazilians over 10 years old, a total population of 56 million users. It seems beyond doubt that the ‘virtual environment’ has been consolidated.

Numbers aside, the virtual environment offers other interesting dynamics, such as a reduction in information asymmetry, connectivity between consumers and even the assumption of a market that is closer to perfection. Within this environment with its own rules, human creativity is gaining ground in terms of innovation and enterprise.

Organizations, business models, and the dot-com companies emerge based exclusively on the virtual environment, with the underlying concept of not having an extension into the offline world. In other words, they generally do not have a tangible structure for interacting directly with the consumer. Some of these enterprises even operate without the need for physical distribution of products; such as digital service providers, software developers and any vendors of intellectual capital. Regarding tangible products, it is possible to carry out only their distribution. Major retailers such JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 107-124

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as Amazon.com, e-Bay, Alibaba, and Submarino are examples of this type of company.

Due to this scenario, marketing professionals are facing a new situation triggered by the Internet and technology as a whole when performing their activities.

While planning and analyzing marketing strategies, they face questions like: Should the pragmatic model of marketing mix, i.e., the 4 P's, be applied to dot-com businesses? Do all of its dimensions match the reality of e-commerce? Or is a new approach necessary?

Through the literature review of previous works that have mainly explored analysis of organizational performance in the virtual environment, this study aims to answer the above questions. Only empirical works published in major journals were adopted as raw material to improve the study's consistency. The theme of these papers addressed issues at e-commerce in a retail perspective. Adopting this base of information, the present research used the qualitative approach as a methodology to investigate such empirical conclusions, data, and present literature to evaluate the fit with the current marketing mix model. Within this approach, it was possible to reach a theoretical conclusion.

We searched scientific publications for any studies addressing the applicability of the marketing mix to e-commerce. Surprisingly, out of the last 10 EnANPAD conferences (EnANPAD is the annual Brazilian Academy of Management conference) and the entire production of the International Journal of Electronic Commerce (IJEC one of the most respected journal in the field of e-commerce) no work considered the topic. This paper's relevance is found in trying to answer if the existing theory is sufficient to meet the challenges of this new environment or if there is a need for a new conceptual perspective of the operational tactics of marketing strategy. Also considering that "academic research is not contributing enough to the development of technologically sophisticated marketing strategies" (Katsikeas, Robson and Hulbert, 2004, p.573], studying the applicability of traditional marketing techniques in virtual business can be fruitful for both companies and academics.

The understanding of best practices and correct frameworks to operate ecommerce business is mandatory for practitioners as well. Within the increasing relevance of virtual commerce in company portfolios and the massive adoption of mobile devices by consumers, competitiveness in the virtual world can be directly related to business success. This scenario impels marketers to acquire the necessary knowledge to take appropriate actions in their business.

Briefly, this paper presents a diagnosis of the marketing management paradigm from the perspective of dot-com businesses. It develops a compelling analysis that culminates in proposing an expansion of the marketing mix, offering a better structure for operating digital marketing strategies. This also opens the door for discussing the strategic marketing management methodology in greater depth, given an e-commerce perspective. We begin with a theoretical review of the marketing mix and then of econsumers. This is followed by a transposition of the marketing mix into the virtual environment, with a proposal for adaptation. The article finishes with limitations to this current investigation and proposals for future research.

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2. MARKETING MIX Webster (1992)states that marketing strategy involves market segmentation (S), targeting (T) and positioning (P) of a company in a market, or simply STP. These settings are directly related to the level of strategic business units (SBU - Strategic Business Unit) and are part of the corporate strategy. Still, in each business unit there are tactical strategies, which are strategies that correspond to the marketing mix (4 P's). The same methodology is highlighted by Kotler (2009), where marketing management is described as a process that begins with research, followed by strategic definitions (STP), with further development of the four marketing mix elements (4P's) guided by initial results. Plans are then implemented and subject to control. This process formally uses the 4P's as facilitators of marketing strategy operationalization, representing a company's final outputs (Yanaze, 2006).

While STP addresses the direction that the company will take, the marketing mix is concerned with how to operationalize such a strategy. Each of the four dimensions must be carefully and jointly planned with the others and aligned with corporate strategy, Webster (1992). In all, the company must structure a web of interactions that are inherent to or necessary for its value proposition to make sense and, thus, to reach its goals with consumers.

Regarding value perceived by clients, Neal (2002) proposes an interesting breakdown involving the sum of the product (Product), channel (Placement), and brand (Promotion) benefits, while subtracting the cost (Price). Thus, formulating the product price while considering marketing, distribution and product features follows marketing strategy precepts aimed at delivering value to consumers, which is the final goal of marketing as stated by AMA (2013).

Briefly, the marketing mix can be viewed as an action plan that will operationalize company functions, so that it can be delivered upon its strategic plan and, consequently, achieve corporate objectives.

Product, Price, Placement and Promotion have been elements consolidated in the area literature since the mid-twentieth century. Even though the overall concept has been the target of numerous efforts by academics seeking to 'expand' or 'upgrade' its elements, they have remained consistent (Dominici, 2009). They have been used for more than 50 years as the ideal model in marketing management. However, there are two distinct fields concerned with studying the contemporary model. Both have compelling arguments, exposing an ambivalence that foreshadows the longevity of a heated debate. The so-called revisionists criticize McCarthy's model as too internally focused, which ignores the consumer (Dominici, 2009), and thus discounts the customer orientation from the current marketing paradigm (Webster, 1988). On the other hand, conservationists seek to adapt the model to the supposed new reality (Dominici, 2009).

Evaluating the applicability of the 4P's to todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s organizations has become an obsession for many authors, with many criticizing that the "P's" focus is on the process and not on the consumer. In contrast, the 4P concept has an uncanny adaptability.

Since each dimension's sub variables are not fully defined, they provide for a framework with multiple possibilities. The great power of "P's" rests in how they are not exhaustive but adaptive. This is probably why revisionists have difficulty introducing a new a paradigm.

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When Borden (1964) developed the twelve elements that McCarthy (1960) would later rearrange into the four P's, he said: "The list of items I used in my classes and my work as a consultant cover the main areas of marketing activities that require a management decision [...] I understand that others may build a different list " (Borden, 1964, p. 9).

With this attitude, the forefather of what would become the marketing paradigm took an open position regarding the elements' construction, demonstrating the concept's inherent flexibility. This same point is raised by Grรถnroos (1994) when criticizing McCarthy's 4P's as rigid, not customer-focused and limiting Borden's initial idea about the marketing mix. This was probably why Borden had no intention of creating a fixed list. Even though this last discussion is important and needs to be mentioned, the central proposal of this article does not include debating the current marketing paradigm's conceptual sphere, but rather focuses on its operation within the virtual environment.

3. THE VIRTUAL CONSUMER During the first decade of this century it became apparent that online consumers, despite being essentially the same as people who patronize traditional stores, demonstrate unexpected behavior, since they do not face the same restrictions in time, space or money (Torres, 2009). Online shopping uses electronic payments and does not require paper money, which is easier, especially when considering international transactions. Concurrently, a new phenomenon began with the so-called Web 2.0. In this scenario consumers have been empowered through a reduction in information asymmetry in the market. Today, all companies, both traditional and dot-com, are faced with a different context. In the 12 years following the Internet "bubble", ecommerce in the United States grew dramatically (Table 01).

Year

Volume in US$ (billions)

Growth

2000

27.763

2001

34.930

25.81%

2002

45.212

29.44%

2003

58.157

28.63%

2004

74.175

27.54%

2005

92.804

25.11%

2006

114.912

23.82%

2007

138.145

20.22%

2008

142.281

2.99%

2009

145.214

2.06%

Table 1: B2C transactions in the U.S.A. (E-STATS, 2011)

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It would be natural to assume that the Internet's commercial potential results in a market demand for technical guidance, but apparently researchers' interest in this area is still incipient, reflected in the small number of articles on the topic at EnANPAD conferences over the past 11 years (Table 02 ). Internationally, there are many papers devoted to e-commerce (Bharati and Tarasewich, 2002), many of which have been published in IJEC. However, there are apparently no articles anywhere in its history (1996 to 2011) that specifically address the theme of the marketing mix. Thus, the major components of the marketing mix do not seem to be getting the attention deserved by researchers.

Year

2001

Number 4 of Articles

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Total

5

6

4

6

4

5

9

9

7

8

68

Table 2: Number of Internet related publications at EnANPAD conferences Source: Prepared by authors from ENANPADs publications from 2001 to 2011.

This context does not eliminate the market's need to operationalize these variables. This need could possibly motivate professionals who have personal experience with the development of digital marketing tactics to document their tacit knowledge. One example is the recent "Bible of Digital Marketing" (original in Portuguese: A Bíblia do Marketing Digital) (Torres, 2009), produced by a market professional and graduate school professor, who apparently used only his personal empirical experience to write the book. Other authors with a similar profile are Adolpho (2011), who authored "The 8P's of Digital Marketing" (original in Portuguese: Os 8P´s do Marketing Digital), and Gabriel (2010) who authored “Marketing in the Digital Era” (original in Portuguese: Marketing na Era Digital). The last one is even considered a best seller. This interesting phenomenon is a reflection of marketing's early history, when early practitioners began documenting tacit knowledge that then aroused the interest of the academia (Bartels, 1988). There are initiatives to produce knowledge on Digital Marketing, but research on the topic is still incipient.

4. THE 4P’S Several authors have suggested adding new variables to the Marketing Mix as used in traditional business models. Judd (1987) proposes the addition of People, while Kotler (1986) adds Formation of Public Opinion and Political Power. Booms and Bitner (1982) bring the perspective of services by adding Participants, Physical Evidence and Process. Finally, Baumgartner (1991) presents the most extensive model to date, the 15P's, adding: Politics, Public Relations, Probe, Partition, Prioritization, Profit, Plan, Performance, and Positive Implementations.

The list of attempts to modify the 4P's does not stop with these authors.

Goldsmith (1999) adds an eighth ‘P’ of Personalization to Booms and Bitner's

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proposal (1982). Melewar and Saunders (2000) add Publications, considering the areaof Corporate Visual Identity Systems - CVIS. Focusing exclusively on the digital market, "Cybermarketing", by Karsaklian (2001), apparently the first Brazilian publication dealing with this subject, dates from the turn of the century). This book examined the four P's of marketing within the online business model context proposing additions (Database and Dialogue). However, the “D’s” were not embraced by the market. It is unknown whether any study has examined the ineffectiveness of Karsaklian's model, but a superficial assessment sheds light on its deficiencies.

A database system, from Karsaklian’s viewpoint, is an important variable for companies, not consumers. Looking at business strategy, correct management of data in order to produce competitive information can represent a significant increase in strategic sustainability. However, this variable means little to the consumer since there is not a direct impact on the purchasing process, so from client perspective it has little value.

Dialogue is an important variable for consumers because it represents the ability to communicate with the company. However, it can and should be framed within the component “Place“, as it relates to interface with consumers. Thus, it is not strong enough to be deployed as a new dimension.

Gabriel (2010) disagrees with the concept of Digital Marketing as a new field, having its own body of knowledge. Her perspective brings the assumption of the existence of only one type of Marketing, which should be applied to any business endeavor. She argues that principles and applications are the same as 4P’s.

Adolpho (2011) suggests using an extended marketing mix: Research, Production, Planning, Publication, Promotion, Propagation, Precision and Customization. As this is a current proposal focused exclusively on the electronic market, it deserves a more detailed analysis. Out of the eight variables, promotion is the only one framed in the traditional model.

The research element refers to how well a company understands its clients. The author suggests that the company needs to gather information about its customers. This element should not be framed in the marketing mix since it is part of the Marketing Management process as defined by Kotler (2009).

Planning would be the customization of digital marketing for a certain company. This is equally untenable as a dimension, since the definition of the strategic process itself includes planning.

Propagation is related to social networking about a website in order to attract more users and generate a viral logic. Again, the author is referring to a good communication tactic. This will not impact the consumer buying process as defined in the marketing literature, so it does not represent an obstacle for the consumer.

Publication would fall within the domain of content management, paying attention to the search engines. This variable could be easily absorbed by the place dimension, which addresses the element of user interface.

Accuracy studies a site's performance indices, evaluating the number of hits, length of stay, etc. This element is in fact a management support tool, and does not have a place in the tactical framework of the Marketing Mix, as again, it doesn’t impact directly in the consumer buying process as a barrier.

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Production is the ability to generate internal and external content. Another element that can be characterized as a variable dimension in Promotion, as traditionally defined in the marketing mix.

Finally, the item customization, which is usually deemed as the Holy Grail of customer relationship, generates the ability to interact with individual customers in a more effective way. Despite being viewed as applicable to all of the 4P's, it is clearly not an element that inhibits the purchase process. That is, its use can improve users' experience, but its absence is not an impediment to the buying process.

Thus, Adolpho's proposal (2011) may have value for general management as a map for some relevant points, but it is a rudimentary attempt to supplant the traditional elements of the marketing mix in the Strategic Marketing level.

It is interesting to note that for all of the additional P's proposed, whether for digital or traditional market, these authors primarily take into account the organizational perspective; i.e., variables that are important to keep a company's status quo and competitiveness in the markets it serves. However, none of these additional variables has as direct impact on the buying process from a consumer perspective as traditional 4P's do. For example, if the store is inaccessible to the consumer, they will not complete the purchase process. Similarly, if the product does not meet their needs, the price is inconsistent, or the client is not aware of the existence of the offer, the purchase will be unlikely. It can be said that the 4P's represent variables that can become obstacles to the consumption process. This perspective is where all the other dimensions proposed so far lose their meaning as new elements of the Marketing Mix.Can the 4P's be used as a tool for Digital Marketing? This question leads to a more detailed assessment of factors related to the marketing mix.

Despite the youth of Digital Marketing as a discipline, many variables and characteristics have been studied by researchers and practitioners and can be highlighted. Each of the P's from the marketing mix can be defined from the digital perspective, based on variables highlighted in academic articles and contextualized by empirical observations whenever possible, in order to offer a critical overview of how it differs from the traditional context. The goal is not to form an exhaustive list, which is beyond the scope of this work, but to offer a guide, which can directly impact the development of Digital Marketing plans.

Price - consumers have enormous power in comparing prices and finding information, creating a tendency to eliminate the asymmetry of information; some even would argue that this is the principle of a perfect market (Kuttner, 1998). Bertrand's (1883) classical model of competition highlights product homogeneity, zero search costs and consumers that are perfectly informed about prices as factors characterizing an economy based purely on sale at the lowest price. However, Brynjolfsson and Smith (2000) point out that other factors also influence consumer choice, and highlight trust as an important element. There are Brazilian websites devoted to comparing prices, such as “Buscapé” and “Bomdefaro”, which offer the service free of charge and display the price of products for sale in different shops on the Internet. In addition, consumers can access a vast amount of information on product characteristics. A traditional search that could take days in the real world, an effort that many consumers would not be willing to undertake, is simple and comfortable in the digital environment. However, analysis of this dimension should not be summed up using merely the economic logic of classical competition, as other variables ranging from JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 107-124

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each client's motivational particularities when performing a search to the subjective aspects that affect consumer behavior ultimately influence the price search process.

Place - with online shopping, switching stores only requires a few clicks. A customer can go virtually anywhere in the world, and is not limited by geography.

Buyers do not face inconveniences, traffic, parking, queuing, or any other problematic characteristics found in the traditional buying process. However, customer satisfaction and their overall purchasing experience are important to attracting and retaining clients, and should be taken quite seriously, since online customers can more easily change stores. From a business perspective, another big change that the Internet has made possible is the strategy of offering rare, low demand, or micro-targeted products, since it allows access to specific consumers in a large scale, as related to the long-tail concept (Anderson, 2006).

An observer without much experience might infer that Place in e-commerce has the same function as in traditional commerce. This is a common error coming from inexperienced observers, believing that business products should be delivered solely by physical means. Although many virtual businesses offer products that need to be handled, there are others who do not. Some offers demand solely virtual distribution.

This includes software development projects (web sites, engineering schematics, technical plans, etc.), pictures, music, advertising materials, remote computer maintenance services, publishing services and others.

Product â&#x20AC;&#x201C; experience products have a lower probability of success in ecommerce than search products (Morgado, 2003). Products with extensive sensorial aspects that need to be handled, tested, and proven end up with a disproportionate disadvantage compared to traditional sales channels. This limitation does not exert much influence on functional products, which do not require great interaction with consumers seeking specific features, functions, attributes, or patterns that are relatively easily quantified. The challenge to understanding the perspective consumers have of products inserted in the digital environment might be one of the watersheds between success and failure of an e-commerce.

Promotion - communication on the Internet has a feature it shares with the Price element. It allows interaction and can be manipulated or customized by the user.

Advertising obtains a whole new world of possibilities with different mechanics, which means a careful analysis of viability in order to adapt any work to the digital environment (Torres, 2009). In this channel there is a plethora of possibilities that can be exploited for digital communication that are only limited by available technological resources and marketers' imaginations. In developing Internet promotions, it is important to consider end user accessibility, since different devices can generate different experiences, not all necessarily satisfactory.

But what really defines the digital market? One of the first concepts that must be consolidated in a strategist's mind is that the planner is not just a company website, but the seller. "In the context of the Internet, the seller is replaced by a website" (Lohse and Spliller, 1998, cited in Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1999).

This concept shows an important logic of e-commerce, since the point of interaction in a traditional store is the seller and in the virtual one the website. In other words, this interface should provide an experience and value as close as theoretically possible to that a client receives in a physical store. Many electronic stores invest in technology to try to maximize the customer experience through customization.

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and promotions for each visitor, based on their individual navigation, products of interest and other multidimensional analysis.

It could be said that the care that exists in traditional patterns of trade can be transferred in large part to a virtual store. However, regarding some characteristics of the marketing mix in the digital market, there are limitations. For example, the consumer will probably not have direct contact with a vendor, and in most cases will receive support that is not necessarily in real time. Most often, they will have to make self-service purchases where they cannot handle products, payments are electronic and there are delivery deadlines for receiving the goods. If there is a problem in a transaction, customers must use virtual channels to try to solve it or even return the product, probably at their own expense. Clearly in all these stages there is an inherent risk that is considered and assumed by the client.

In conclusion, the three goals of the first phase of marketing strategy advocated

by Webster (1992) are: check market attractiveness in terms of consumer desires and needs and competitive offerings; promote customer orientation; and finally offer a value proposition consistent with the previous ones. In the author's view, it is possible to shift the focus from a transaction-oriented perspective to that of an ongoing relationship. These three values would be developed as part of strategy and operationalized through the marketing mix. Also in the virtual world, it is assumed that the four dimensions of the marketing mix individually preserve different aspects of a strategic composition that must be carefully studied to be attractive to consumers.

5. THE MARKETING MIX IN THE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT: ANALYSIS AND PROPOSITION As discussed, the elements of the marketing mix have structures apparently applicable to Digital Marketing. The logic of dot-com stores follows primarily the same principles as traditional stores since they also demand a process for analyzing price, product, promotion and place, and the same marketing goal - delivering customer value. Supposedly the Marketing Mix should also be used to operationalize marketing strategy. On a more theoretical perspective, meta-analysis of the concepts already presented suggests that these aspects were defined due to relevance of generalized critical points to the significant majority of enterprises as a way of addressing the operationalization of Marketing Strategy. However, the virtual world presents new problems that must be considered. Among them, security stands out, identified as a key element in virtual shopping for generating the confidence needed to make the virtual buying process happen. (Akin and Singh, 2005, Barbosa et al., 2009, Benbasat and Kim, 2010, Crist贸bal et al, 2011, Featherman and Pavlou, 2003, Jarvenpaa, Tractinsky, 1999, Johnston and Warkentin 2004, Kaur, 2005, Koyuncu and Lien, 2003, Kulbupar, 2005, Ling et al, 2011, Lohse, Bellman and Johnson, 2000, Monsuw茅, Dellaert and Ruyter 2004, Nilash et al, 2011, Oliveira, 2007, Torres, 2009).

Security is also relevant to other types of digital commerce, such as m-commerce or pervasive e-commerce, accomplished through various electronic devices such as cell phones, PDA's, tablets and mobile devices in general (Joubert and Belle, 2009).

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In summary, it can be said that security concerns can directly or indirectly cause an inhibition to electronic shopping. In addition, each of the 4P's must be evaluated for e-commerce to outline the relevance of the security dimension to each.

Place - security is important to creating the environment of a stable store, which requires a good Information Technology infrastructure [Cristóbal, 2011, Ferreira, et al 2008, Kulbupar, 2005, Oliveira, 2007, Tung, Kun, 2011). Consumers need the serenity to navigate the website without worrying about any system "crashes" or "bugs". There is also a need for security involving the product being shipped as specified and received in perfect condition (Kovacs and Farias, 2001).

Product - consumers need to obtain what they examined and purchased in the online store. This represents the need to be sure that customers will receive what they choose, with appropriate specifications and expected performance and quality without unpleasant surprises (Barbosa, et al 2009, Featherman and Pavlou, 2003, Ferreira, et al 2008, Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky, 1999, Kaur, 2005, Kim and Benbasat, 2010, Kovacs and Farias, 2001, Monsuwé, Dellaert and Ruyter 2004) the subsequent consumption and disposal of products are also valued, just like traditional products sold in physical stores. This last point should be supported by electronic commerce whenever appropriate.

Price, perhaps the most easily “contextualizable” dimension, because of the importance of payment security. The virtual environment is known to be vulnerable due to the large number of frauds committed, so consumers are particularly sensitive to payment security (Barbosa, et al 2009, Benbasat and Kim, 2010, Kailani and Kumar, 2011, Kaur, 2005, Kovacs and Farias, 2001, Koyuncu and Lien, 2003, Ling et al, 2011, Monsuwé, Dellaert and Ruyter 2004).

Promotion - even cyber promotion has a security perspective. In the case of advertising, due to numerous phishing attempts to acquire information from Internet users by using spam e-mail, spyware or even cookies to track behavior; many antivirus tools block sites in an attempt to protect consumers (Torres, 2009). More experienced Internet users distrust suspicious deals, which inhibits involvement due to the fear of being cheated, even if the opportunity is real. Additionally there are traditional viruses spread by email (such as worms), making safety also important to various forms of digital communications.

As noted, each of the P's has security-related elements. However, there are other variables linked to this dimension that are not necessarily steeped in the traditional marketing mix elements. Given the importance of Security in e-commerce, it is plausible to adde it to the model as a dimension of a Digital Marketing Mix, as a tool to guide managers in the implementation of Strategic Marketing.

Additionally, the inherent virtual nature and magnitude (in the sense of range) of e-commerce are incompatible with traditional dimensions, as they are ambiguous in terms of value and risk, especially when they comes from an exclusively online store.

The media has widely publicized the various problems for virtual consumers. Some studies suggest that brand trust has the ability to minimize this effect (Hernandez, 2001), by increasing the perception of a consumer guarantee. This inherent risk is not a recently discovered feature, but it was identified at the end of the twentieth century as a major problem of buying electronics. Consumers who first contact a virtual store are uncertain if it is legitimate or not, whether it is a website created by a hacker in a remote region of the world or if it is a real company. This weakness inherent to virtuality demands legitimacy, and places great importance on security in e-commerce.

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Security begins to reflect its importance empirically by the emergence of companies like Paypal, PagSeguro and e-Bit, which offer financial transactions through a to payment gateway on their websites. This symbolically conveys greater credibility to visitors and facilitates payment security. Projects like the Google '+1' button and antivirus tools like Norton Internet Security, Avast, Kaspersky, and Bitdefender, among others, are trying to create a community of secure websites by assigning scores that rate security and/or warnings that users can reference during navigation. However, this question remains open because it has not completely eliminated the possibility of fraud, which naturally leads consumers to keep a defensive posture. Similar fear is found when it comes to personal data and privacy (Rohm and Milne, 1998). In some countries like Brazil, this problem is compounded by a lack of any legal regulation involving the misuse of personal data, which in this case is not considered a crime punishable by imprisonment.

The importance of security in e-commerce has been highlighted by several studies as cited herein. These studies reveal that security is present in each of the four pillars of the e-commerce marketing mix perspective. Such a fact strengthens a critical view of this variable's relevance in the marketing mix pillars and also exposes a secondary role of security, as it is, for use in digital commerce.

In principle, the security issue does not invalidate the 4P’s structure for use in digital marketing, since in each dimension it supposedly addresses key elements of tactical relevance for a virtual store's strategy. However, because of the 4P’s structure they end up by being subdued to a key issue in e-commerce: the security variable. (as the 4P’s are, the structure ends subduing a key issue in e-commerce: the security variable.)

Considering the elements of security within the traditional format of the Marketing Mix, in other words using the 4P’s without modification, it assumes the use of conservationist logic (Dominici, 2009). This means the new variable would lose relevance in any analysis.

However the issue of security in the virtual environment goes beyond the four dimensions and has a higher level of tactical relevance as part of the value perceived by the customer impacting directly on the shopping analysis, representing a strong barrier to the buying process. Thus, without security, users are unlikely to make purchases. Like all 4P's, security is a critical variable of the consumer perspective that enables the buying process to be complete.

Again, recalling that customers usually pay close attention to security aspects when making online purchases, we suggest that this dimension should be represented as a variable in the equation of perceived value, because security improves the attractiveness of online stores from customers' perspectives, thus leveraging perceived value. The use of security as a guiding element can direct the creation of virtual stores with better service structures, more stable technological environments, more reliable logistic structures and processes, as well as more comprehensive customer support.

Furthermore, the inclusion of security in a store's value proposition needs to be assessed against marketing objectives in the pursuit, creation, development and delivery of customer value (Rust, Zeithmal and Lemon, 2001). Thus, the fact that Marketing Strategy aims to deliver value and Marketing Mix in turn operationalizes it deserves attention. The Digital Marketing Mix, ultimately, must be correctly aligned with the same strategic objective: maximizing value from the customer's perspective.

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As already mentioned, the Marketing Mix operationalizes key elements that must be addressed, representing the dimensions that make a difference in practical application. They are critical factors for successful marketing. That said, one wonders whether it would be reasonable to consider if the 4P's alone are able to guide Digital Marketing management without underestimating the relevance of Security.

Without going into the conservationists or revisionist merits, the full effectiveness of this tool in e-commerce should continue to be as relevant as it has been in traditional marketing. Observing the Internet scenario and all the considerations made so far, it is clear that security is a crucial element due to its relevance in enabling effective electronic retailing, for being a variable that enters customer perceived value, for being present throughout the other P's, and also for being a strong barrier to electronic consumption.

It is logical that using traditional Marketing Mix elements in Digital Marketing requires the inclusion of a security variable. This implies a fifth dimension, or "S" of Security that would absorb all variables related to safety, presently divided among the other dimensions or simply ignored. The introduction of the fifth element is completely justified in view of the virtual environment, since it is a key dimension for success in e-commerce from a consumer perspective that must be correctly structured by practitioners.

According to Neal (2002), an offer's value is equal to the product's benefits (Product) + channel benefits (Square) + brand benefits (Promotion) - cost (price); i.e., the Marketing mix. At first glance, the delivery of value in the digital environment follows this principle. So for the Digital Marketing Mix to continue representing the final value from the customer perspective it needs an update that includes the Security value equation (Figure 01). In this equation the variable can assume a positive value when perceived by the customer, or negative in its absence.

eVP =

∑∑∑∑ BP1+

BP2+

BP3+(

S)-P

Figure 1 - Equation for calculation of Perceived Value in Digital Marketing based on Neal (2002). BP1 = Product Benefits; BP2 = Channel Benefits; BP3 = Brand Benefits; S = Perception of Safety; P = Price. Source: Prepared by the authors.

A highlighted Security analysis can create the necessary emphasis for managers to apply this element so that a company can deliver the best value to consumers. As an example, some of the aspects that need to be addressed in such a security dimension include: - Infrastructure/Hardware: Assessing infrastructure issues involves the correct planning and installation of equipment that will operate the website in terms of hardware, supporting the system demand without a bottleneck in a way that the user experience is not compromised. Contingency plans and backup operations should also be part of them. SLA (Service Level Agreement) services and planning scalability for equipment are imperative for monitoring business growth over time.

- Checkout: This is a critical stage in the online buying process. Simplified signup, low system response time, payment stability and flexibility are essential in order to provide assurance to users, offering online or telephone support, personalizing the shopping JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 107-124

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experience, and obtaining security gateways and certifications. Systems can be strengthened by correctly prioritizing speed, consistency and third-party access to private information.

- Confidential Information: Customers' personal information must be internally controlled and properly managed, to prevent inadequate use or distribution by both employees and third parties with bad-intentions.

- Ambience: Development of partnerships with certifying companies, banks or credit card operators in order to create a better ambience for the virtual store, which signals greater website credibility.

- Ambience Exhibition: Preparing correct product exposure and description maximizes clients' comprehension, to result in a correct expectation of the product in terms of visual function and quality.

- Terms: The client must be concisely and objectively informed about their rights and risks in buying a product and what support is offered by the store after purchase and use.

- Delivery: Product delivery must be monitored to see that it corresponds to what is promoted on the website and that products are in perfect condition after shipping. This includes enabling client to monitor or be informed of delivery progress and evaluating the mechanisms supporting this process so that the buyer feels comfortable and secure with delivery.

- Stocks: Consistency of stock generates credibility with customers. Selling a product and then telling the customer it is under backorder creates uncertainty and dissatisfaction.

- Protection: Protecting the store from any cyber attacks that could affect its credibility or even generate a system crash is paramount, to prevent loss of earnings and value and creating a strong image to customers.

It is important to note that temporality becomes a powerful influencer for the validation of the "s" for security. The current technological, social and legal situation and customers' close scrutiny of security makes it an essential element for any online business. However, this does not necessarily imply that it will remain so in the future, since the cited variables can change, influencing the consumer perception of shopping over the Internet.

6. FINAL THOUGHTS This study sought to offer a broad theoretical review of critical points related to the construction and subsequent success of Digital Marketing by assessing the applicability of the 4P's. As a result, a fifth dimension representing security aspects was identified that should be added to the marketing mix. This element is more important in client value assessment for virtual stores than brick and mortar stores, and an integral aspect of the purchasing process, making it a key element in the operationalization of Marketing Strategy. The direct applicability of the 4P's is not ideal for marketing managers of online stores, but the additional dimension called "Security" increases the effectiveness of the 4P model.

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The real reason for the addition of the fifth dimension in the Digital Marketing Mix is to keep its efficacy as a managerial tool for this environment, because it is the primary guide for the practitioner in structuring digital marketing tactics. This proposition is grounded in the concept of the structural pillars for an endeavor, the absence or failure of which can prevent correct implementation of marketing strategy at the operational level. In Traditional Marketing, an error in one of the four pillars can cause the collapse of a venture; in Digital Marketing, an error in one of the five pillars can have the same effect. Also, proper analysis, planning and execution helps a company achieve success from a competitive perspective.

Expanding the Marketing Mix for e-commerce systematizes the main elements related to security of a virtual store. Such aspects went beyond the primary infrastructure logic to reach more functional aspects of the process, such as product delivery that is in accordance with the purchase order. This enhanced managerial tool provides practitioners with greater strength in planning and executing digital marketing strategy. Consequently there might be gains in operating income, total value proposition and in the longevity and success of the enterprise.

As the proposal was based only on a theoretical review, future studies might empirically assess the validity of the expanding the 4P's into 4PS. This would validate their effectiveness using practical results from market experiences in the management of electronic commerce. A qualitative study with prominent practitioners could generate support for the consolidation of the fifth element "S" as a critical factor in the operationalization of digital strategy.

Limitations of this study include its theoretical nature and that it focuses on analyzing only dot-com companies that operate exclusively on the Internet; it did not consider companies with a real representation in the offline world. Further works should also investigate the model with primary data, producing empirical conclusions.

Once it is a theoretical study its assumptions must be taken within the limitations of such a format.

A conclusive research type should be addressed to evaluate the perspective of consumers about the proposed model. Marketing mix is a framework that deals with major issues which could affect the consumers motivation to reach a specific objective, thus it would be an important complement for this paper to investigate the impact of security over consumers buying decision process.

Another relevant point on the agenda in many academic circles is the validity of the current marketing mix and marketing paradigm in today's world. The marketing mix has not been evaluated within a more contemporary holistic perspective that includes certain subjective aspects. Thus, criticism about the internal focus of the marketing mix, as made by revisionists, could also be extended to the proposed 4ps model.

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JISTEM - Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 125-144 ISSN online: 1807-1775 DOI: 10.4301/S1807-17752015000100007

CONVERSATIONAL COMPETENCES MODEL FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT MODELO DE COMPETÊNCIAS CONVERSACIONAIS PARA O ALINHAMENTO ESTRATÉGICO ENTRE TECNOLOGIA DA INFORMAÇÃO E NEGÓCIO Luís Kalb Roses Universidade Católica de Brasília, Brasília/DF, Brasil Jean Carlos Borges Brito Faculdade Projeção, Brasília/DF, Brasil Gentil José de Lucena Filho LabCon - Laboratório de Conversas, Brasília/DF, Brasil _____________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT The main objective of this study is the development of a model of conversational competences for Business and IT managers aiming at the strategic alignment between their areas. The theory of this alignment highlights the importance of communication between Business and IT areas, which is explored in the social dimension of their managers’ relationship through conversational competences. A survey research was performed with Business and IT managers from public and private organizations in Brazil, whose data were analyzed through multivariate statistical techniques – exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis – and thematic content analysis. The results confirmed the constructs and most of the hypotheses of the proposed research model, which was expanded with new constructs and hypotheses.

Keywords: IT and Business strategic alignment. Communication. Social dimension. Strategic Conversations. Conversational competences.

____________________________________________________________________________________________ Manuscript first received/Recebido em: 04/02/2014 Manuscript accepted/Aprovado em: 11/11/2014 Address for correspondence / Endereço para correspondência

Luís Kalb Roses, Professor Doutor, SGAN Quadra 916, Módulo B, Sala A138, Av. W5 Norte, Brasília (DF), CEP 70790-160, Universidade Católica de Brasília, e-mail: lkroses@gmail.com.

Jean Carlos Borges Brito, Professor Mestre, Área Especial nº5 e 6, Setor C Norte, Taguatinga (DF), CEP 72115-700, Faculdade Projeção, e-mail: zuluaer@gmail.com.

Gentil José de Lucena Filho, Professor Doutor e Diretor-Executivo de Pesquisa do LabCon Laboratório de Conversas, Condomínio Ville de Montagne, Quadra 32, Lote 43, Jardim Botânico, Lago Sul, Brasília (DF), CEP 71680-357, e-mail: gentil@labconbrasil.com.

Published by/ Publicado por: TECSI FEA USP – 2015 All rights reserved.

126 Roses, L. K., Brito, J. C. B., Lucena Filho, G. J. de

RESUMO O objetivo principal deste estudo é o desenvolvimento de um modelo de competências conversacionais aos gestores de TI e Negócio para o alinhamento estratégico entre as suas áreas. A teoria desse alinhamento destaca a importância da comunicação entre as áreas de TI e Negócio, que na sua dimensão social é explorada neste estudo sob o enfoque das competências conversacionais no relacionamento entre os seus gestores.

Foi realizada pesquisa survey junto a esses gestores em organizações públicas e privadas localizadas no Brasil, cujos dados foram analisados por meio de técnicas estatísticas multivariadas – análise fatorial exploratória e confirmatória – e análise de conteúdo temática. Os resultados da pesquisa confirmaram os construtos e a maioria das hipóteses do modelo de pesquisa proposto, que foi expandido com novos construtos e hipóteses.

Palavras-chave: Alinhamento estratégico TI e Negócio. Comunicação. Dimensão social. Conversas estratégicas. Competências conversacionais.

1

INTRODUCTION

In this study, the strategic alignment between Business and Information Technology (IT) within organizations, or Business-IT alignment, can be seen as the degree to which the information technology mission, objectives, and plans support and are supported by the business mission, objectives, and plans (Reich and Benbasat, 2000). It is also how IT is aligned with Business and vice versa (Business is aligned with IT), promoting the efficient growth of investments in IT (Luftman, 2000; Mithas, Tafti, Bardhan and Goh, 2012). Such an alignment has been identified as one of the major concerns of IT managers (Luftman and Zadeh, 2011; Ullah and Lai, 2013).

Over time, research on Business-IT alignment has favored its intellectual dimension (analysis of strategies, structures and planning methods) over its social dimension (Reich and Benbasat, 2000; Tan and Gallupe, 2006; Chan, 2007), which is where its causes of lack of success are (Rigoni, 2010; Abib, Hoppen and Rigoni, 2012; Silva, Luft, Cavalcante and Freitas, 2013). This dimension investigates the actors within organizations, their values and communication, which will be reflected on the mutual understanding between business and IT managers when representing their area mission, objectives and plans (Rigoni, 2010).

It is a fact that IT managers taking part in Business planning has affected both IT and Business planning content (Tan and Gallupe, 2006), influencing the organizations´ competitiveness (Kearns and Lederer, 2003). However, this participation needs to be encouraged through the communication between Business and IT managers, which strengthens interconnected relationships between these two areas (Henderson and Venkatraman, 1993; Rezende, 2002; Brodbeck and Hoppen, 2003). In this regard, Chan (2002) highlights communication as a requirement for Business-IT alignment, both in formal and informal structures of the organization.

After all, communication is an essential element in social interaction (Giddens, 1984).

Research has highlighted communication in the Business-IT alignment process (Reich and Benbasat, 2000; De Haes and Van Grembergen, 2008; Yayla and Hu, 2009; Johnson and Lederer, 2009; Silvius, De Haes and Van Grembergen, 2009; Chong, Chan, Ooi and Darmawan, 2011), which is an evaluation criteria (Luftman, 2000) and a weak aspect (Luftman, 2000; Rigoni; Hoppen; Santana, 2007; Reinhardt and Bigueti, 2013) in this alignment. The success of the business depends largely on JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 125-144

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the efficacy, efficiency and flexibility of the internal organizational communication, as everything that happens in the organization depends on it (Malmelin, 2007; Chong et al., 2011).

Communication of meanings in social interactions takes place by means of interpretative patterns, which add meaning to what each participant says and does. The use of these cognitive patterns, in the context of mutual knowledge, depends on and is developed under a â&#x20AC;&#x153;cognitive orderâ&#x20AC;? shared by a community which reestablishes this order (Garfinkel, 1967; Giddens, 1993; Scott, 2001). Thus, it is noted the interdependence between communication and cognition in social interactions. After all, conveying information and sharing knowledge through this interdependence occur in a social dimension of spoken interaction, or as conversations, in this study.

Studies about conversations in organizational communication are not new (Gratton and Goshal, 2002; Mengis and Eppler, 2008; Lima, Filion, Dalfovo and Junior, 2013; Martins, 2013). However, studies about conversations in Business-IT alignment are not common. This fact encourages further research on how communication takes place in the Business-IT alignment process (Johnson and Lederer, 2009) through the conversations between Business and IT managers. In this context, the following research question is relevant in this study: What is the influence of conversational competences on Business and IT strategic alignment? In order to answer it, the objective of this study is the development of a model of conversational competences for IT and Business managers aiming at the strategic alignment between their areas.

2

STRATEGIC CONVERSATIONS

Studies by Von Krogh and Roos (1995) reveal that conversations between Business and IT managers have strategic characteristics as they focus on the development of the organization and create the future of the Business, as they project and distribute resources for this future. According to Chermack, Van Der Merwe and Lynham (2007), a strategic conversation is a phenomenon composed of a set of conversations, interactions and dialogs, which take place daily and between the members of an organization, in formal and informal situations.

An effective strategic conversation requires a common language, the alignment of ideas, the engagement in rational argumentations, and the development of ideas within an organization (Heijden, 2005). A common language is achieved through the mutual understanding of the speakers in a conversation, taking its jargon and context into careful consideration. Therefore, Business managers must speak a language that IT managers understand and vice versa.

The development of ideas within an organization is the objective of the strategic conversation, aiming at the development of a common language in the alignment of ideas, with the opportunity to criticize and to be criticized in a constructive manner. After all, there is no absolute truth and a manager may have an opinion about and understanding of something that has not been perceived by the other manager, as each one of them is from a different field of work and skill set (Lima et al., 2013). The opportunity for constructive feedback helps managers reach an agreement on the subject in question.

Urbanavicius and Lima (2014) found that strategic conversations between comanagers, despite their influence on strategic practices, are started by those who like to talk. Thus, according to these authors, enjoying a conversation must be an JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 125-144

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important characteristic of leaders, or managers, so that their strategic conversations happen and their results achieved, based on strategic guidance (mission, vision and goals) towards conducting business and, consequently, Business-IT alignment.

Thus, through strategic conversations, it is possible to contribute to BusinessIT alignment (Reich and Benbasat, 2000). In this regard, strategic conversations are expected to have a positive influence on Business-IT alignment, from the perspective of both Business and IT, as such a strategic alignment between these two areas must be considered from the perspective of each one of them (Kearns and Lederer, 2003).

Then, the following hypotheses are developed: H1a â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Strategic conversations between Business and IT managers have a positive influence on Business-IT alignment from IT perspective; and H1b â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Strategic conversations between Business and IT managers have a positive influence on Business-IT alignment from Business perspective.

2.1

CONVERSATIONAL COMPETENCES

A good level of communication between Business and IT managers results from a good relationship between them (Jorfi, Nor and Najjar, 2011). Whenever the relationship between Business and IT is more active, due to meetings, workshops and informal conversations, the alignment is more effective as a consequence of a shared understanding through communication (Abib and Hoppen, 2012). Pinto and Graeml (2011) support this fact when they relate the late involvement of IT managers in discussions about strategies and new products to rework and the lack of IT optimization to enable these new products.

A good relationship between Business and IT arises from conversational competences in the development of their strategic conversations. Competence is a word that originates from daily experiences and lifestyle people have in society, being used to show that a person is competent enough to perform a task (Fleury and Fleury, 2001). Dacoreggio (2006) states that a competence is only recognized when it is available; that is, for a manager, whether from IT or Business, there is no point in simply knowing that he knows how to talk and how to be a good listener. This manager needs to show, in particular, that he is aware of the distinctions in conversational competences through his daily experiences, values, skills and attitude, in order to receive the due recognition from the other manager.

Flores and Winograd (1989), Kofman (2001) and Echeverria (2008) highlight the following conversational competences, relevant in this study: commitments, effective listening, and productive explanations and questions. Conversational commitments establish common goals and joint actions between Business and IT, when IT is committed to support and sustain Business strategic objectives, while Business is committed to invest in technological infrastructure whenever IT projects are a priority. Thus, the use of a common language must be pursued, through clear and objective explanations so that speakers can understand what is explained. In this context, effective listening and productive explanations and questions are conversational competences that characterize effective communication and help in the development of that common language (Kofman, 2001).

2.1.1 Commitments Commitments are conversational competences which can aid in reducing the gap found in the interactions between Business and IT managers, described by

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Luftman and Brier (1999) as commitments and promises which are not fulfilled by IT. Business areas depend on services and systems provided by IT in order to automate and speed up their processes. Business managers, when making projections and plans for the future of the organization, notice that their individual efforts are not enough to achieve Business objectives, as they need to develop partnerships with IT managers in order to make commitments of interest between them.

Flores and Winograd (1989) state that commitments are made for those who speak and for those who listen, through speech acts. Commitments made between Business and IT managers foster common objectives and joint actions between their areas. Kofman (2001) asserts that a conversation based on commitments has the purpose of appointing whoever is responsible for what, how, when, the purpose and to whom something is assigned to. This group of actions impacts future expectations, which will require their coordination and leveling between the people involved in them.

Kofman (2001) says that when certain people make a request, an offer or a promise, they do not express through words the current state of the world, as these speech acts are used to express the purpose and the obligation of making the future state of the world to be aligned with such words. Through promises, a future course of action is proposed, that is, a new world is created and whoever makes a promise declares their commitment to fulfilling certain obligations in the future. Managers may even delegate some tasks to other individuals so that a promise is fulfilled; however, responsibility can not be assigned to someone else (Kofman, 2001).

Based on the aforementioned, this study regards commitments, through requests, offers and promises, as one of the required conversational competences from Business and IT managers. Although requests, offers and promises are part of the negotiation dialogue between managers, these three components characterize the commitments made between them, through the demand (request), its respective solution (offer) and the conditions of execution (promise). Thus, commitments have a positive influence on the strategic conversations between them and on the strategic alignment between their areas, from the perspective of each one of them, as stated in the following hypotheses: H2a â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Commitments between Business and IT managers have a positive influence on strategic conversations between these areas; H2b â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Commitments between Business and IT managers have a positive influence on Business-IT alignment from IT perspective; and H2c â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Commitments between Business and IT managers have a positive influence on Business-IT alignment from Business perspective.

2.1.2 Effective Communication Mastering and controlling the conversation elements, or spoken communication, lead to an effective communication through encouraging dialogs, direct conversations and face-to-face communication in order to achieve organizational objectives (Martins, 2013). From the studies by Kofman (2001), this study regards an effective communication as a dimension that encompasses conversational competences of effective listening and of productive explanations and questions. In the conversations between Business and IT managers, they must be careful and verify whether what they said was heard the way they had intended it to be, reducing reasons for disagreements and conflicts.

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It is necessary to make a distinction between hearing and listening, as the former is a biological phenomenon related to the perception of sounds, and the latter belongs to mastering a language and is composed of people´s social interactions, contributing to understanding and interpretation (Echeverria, 2008). Thus, effective listening is a conversational competence which can contribute to the development of teamwork, through partnerships such as the ones between IT and Business managers.

An effective communication requires that IT managers observe the perspective from which Business managers are expressing themselves and vice versa. Whenever necessary, they must make corrections of distorted mutual conceptions through productive explanations and questions, which need to be used jointly so that they have an effective communication, contributing to effective listening. For effective listening, managers must allow the other speaker to explain themselves and then ask questions productive explanations and questions (Echeverria, 2008). This helps Business and IT managers understand each other, sustaining their judgments and creates facts that make sense.

Productive explanations help Business and IT managers to reveal and find solutions to differences they have in knowledge, reasoning and purposes (Kofman, 2001). Productive questions is the way to observe other people´s logical capacity, helping them explain not only their thoughts, but also their reasons (Kofman, 2001).

Therefore, productive explanations and questions create an environment of cooperation, bring down barriers and make possible the coordination of actions towards the benefit of the collective, reducing some gaps found in the interactions between Business and IT manages (Luftman and Brier, 1999; Reich and Benbasat, 2000; Tan and Gallupe, 2006; Bassellier and Benbasat, 2007; De Haes and Van Grembergen, 2008).

Communication in which managers only explain or question, even if they are skillfully made, is not effective. (Kofman, 2001). Productive explanation must be aligned with productive questions, as ritualized conversations come from the isolated use of these skills (Gratton and Goshal, 2002). After all, commitments are made based on a common language, which comes from competences such as effective listening, and productive explanations and questions, all related to an effective communication.

Thus, the following hypotheses are developed: H3a – Effective communication between Business and IT managers has a positive influence on Business-IT alignment from IT perspective; H3b – Effective communication between Business and IT managers has a positive influence on Business-IT alignment from Business perspective; H3c – Effective communication between Business and IT managers has a positive influence on strategic conversations they have; and H3d – Effective communication between Business and IT managers has a positive influence on commitments between them.

2.2

PROPOSED RESEARCH MODEL

Figure 1 shows the proposed conversational competences model with the developed hypotheses in this study, aiming at Business-IT alignment, where it is possible to see the positive influence of conversational competences - effective communication (effective listening, productive explanations, and productive questions) and commitments (requests, offers, and promises) – on strategic

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conversations between Business and IT managers; from these strategic conversations on Business-IT alignment, from the perspective of each of these two areas (according to the perspective, the related area is in bold and underlined); and from an effective communication between them on the their commitments, in the domain of conversational competences required from them.

Figure 1 - Conversational competences model in Business-IT strategic alignment

Despite the fact it is an evaluation model of such influences at a certain moment, in a static perspective of Business-IT alignment (Chan and Reich, 2007), it does not misrepresent the characteristics of the continuous process required from the Business-IT alignment dynamics (Brodbeck and Hoppen, 2003; Chan and Reich, 2007). After all, relationships are sustained in the many exchange situations that arise from the daily organizational conversations between IT and Business managers.

3

METHODOLOGY

This exploratory descriptive research uses a survey strategy, which is characterized by the application of a structured research instrument in order to obtain the respondents´ perceptions, which are representatives of a sample of a population (Malhotra, 2009).

3.1

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

The research instrument used was a questionnaire with 50 questions, divided into three parts: I) eight demographic questions related to the respondent and their work organization; II) 41 closed questions, which evaluate respondent perceptions based on a Likert-type scale of seven points, where the first item (1) of the scale refers to strong disagreement, the last one (7) to strong agreement, and the other items between them (2 – disagree; 3 – slightly disagree; 4 – neutral; 5 - slightly agree; and 6 – agree); and III) an open question (item A1), in which respondents were asked to give their opinions about the importance of the conversations between Business and IT managers in the Business-IT strategic alignment process.

Regarding the composition of the part II of the research instrument, items 1, 2, 27, 28 and 29 are related to strategic conversations, as presented by Von Krogh and Roos (1995), Chermack et al. (2007), Lima (2007), Mengis and Eppler (2008) and Heijden (2005); items 3 to 8 to effective listening, as defined by Kofman (2001) and JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 125-144

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Echeverria (2008); items 9 to 14 to productive explanations, based on Kofman (2001); items 15 to 20 to productive questions, as presented by Kofman (2001); items 21 to 26 to commitments, based on Flores and Winograd (1989), Kofman (2001) and Echeverria (2008); items 30 to 35 to Business-IT alignment from IT perspective, according to the instrument developed by Kearnes and Lederer (2003) and also used

by Tan and Gallupe (2006); items 36 to 41 to Business-IT alignment from Business perspective, based on the instrument developed by Kearnes and Lederer (2003) and also used by Tan and Gallupe (2006).

As items 30 to 41 were taken from an existing instrument developed in English, they were translated by means of back translation with the help of two people fluent in English and in Portuguese, when the necessary adjustments were evaluated by the author and by an expert in IT governance. The face validity of the instrument was done with the support of 20 senior professionals (for instance, managers, system analysts, engineers, accountants, mathematicians). Some adjustments were made in the research instrument, which was submitted to a pre-test with four respondents. This process resulted in small improvements in the final version of the instrument, which was submitted to a pilot test with two different respondents, when it was deemed suitable to the research.

3.2

RESPONDENTS AND DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES

The respondents of the target population of the research were Business and IT managers from public and private organizations in Brazil, based in the cities of Brasilia (Federal District) and Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro State). These cities were chosen by convenience, as they have a high concentration of public organizations and companies from a variety of economic sectors, which, in this research, were those from such sectors as aerospace, legal, technological, financial, education, healthcare, energy, pension, consultancy, intelligence, logistic, and auditing. The number of employees of these organizations ranged from 83 (the lowest) to 110.000 (the highest).

Two of the organizations have operations abroad.

The sampling method in the research was the accidental non probability type, which, according to Bisquerra, Sarriera and Martinez (2004), chooses its individuals based on certain criteria, aiming at representativeness through the resulting sampling.

The authors highlight that this procedure is often used in situations in which the sample of individuals is based on the ease of access, being a particular case the use of volunteers. Therefore, it is not possible to generalize the results of the sample to a larger population than the analyzed one, as it is not possible to calculate the sampling error and, consequently, the ideal representativeness of the sample.

26 organizations were researched, through emailing the research instrument to the employees contacted by the researcher (or research facilitators), so that they could forward it to potential respondents from their respective organizations, that is, Business and IT managers. Other research facilitators, related to three different organizations, preferred to receive a hard copy of the research instrument. Therefore, 29 public and private organizations took part in the research.

The distribution of the research instruments started on June 14th, 2010, and the deadline for the submission of answers was July 9th, 2010, which was then extended to two different dates (August 7th , 2010 and August 30th , 2010) due to the low number of answers received. 113 research instruments answered were received from 24 organizations, which 59.8% were public ones and 40.2% private ones. Six of them were rejected by the target population criterion â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or Business and IT managers from JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 125-144

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strategy and tactics segments –, whereas 107 were accepted – or 36.89% of the total defined population (290).

3.3

DATA ANALYSIS

For the initial storage of the data, a Microsoft (MS) Excel® spreadsheet was used to save research answers from closed questions and open question, as well. From this spreadsheet, the answers of closed items were imported to the SPSS® software, version 17. These quantitative data were analyzed by means of second generation multivariate analysis, using the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), through SPSS itself, and the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), through Amos®, version 16.

Although the open question were optional (item A1), 30 answers were chosen, (28.03% of the sample), based on the rules of exhaustion, representativeness and relevance (Bardin, 2009). These answers were saved in a MS Excel spreadsheet so that all the material was organized before the beginning of the analysis. Next, thematic content analysis (TCA) was applied with “boxes” procedure based on a system of categories composed of commitments, effective communication and strategic conversations. This system was not regarded as exhaustive, with regard to restricting the discovery of new categories during the analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994).

4

RESULTS AND ANALYSES

The respondents´ demographic profile was distributed as follows: a) 79.4% are male and 20.6% female; b) 9,3% have a higher education degree and 90.7 have a postgraduation degree; c) 65.1% have a degree in exact sciences, 30.2% have degree in human sciences and 4.7% have a degree in these two areas; d) as for how long they have been working as managers in their organizations, 26.2% have been for only 5 years, 29.9% from 5 to 10 years and 43.9% for more than 10 years, which characterizes the respondents´ work experience as managers; e) as for how long they have been working in their organizations, 19.6% for up to 5 years, 22.5% between 5 and 10 years and 57.9% for more than 10 years; f) as for the position as a manager, 8.4% are directors, 8,4% are advisors, 57% are executive managers and 26.2% are in new management positions; and g) 61.7% are IT managers, while 38.3% are Business managers (15.9% from area that supports the core business 22.4% from the core business area).

4.1

DATA EXAMINATION AND PREPARATION

Prior to the application of the EFA, the data were examined and carefully prepared, as the extreme or typical questions may have a negative influence on the result of these analyses, requiring data adjustment (Hair, Anderson, Tatham and Black, 1998). Thus, the data was prepared following these steps: univariate scatter plot examination; identification of the missing data and outliers, taking univariate and multivariate detections into consideration; and verification of the normality, homoscedasticity, and linear relationship.

The occurrence of missing data (up to 1.9% by variable) was within the 3% acceptable limit of the sample (Cohen, Cohen, West and Aiken, 2003). In the univariate analysis, outliers were not identified, that is, observations had a standard deviation greater than 3 (Hair et al., 1998) - the values found were between 0.292 and 1.74. In the multivariate analysis, the D² Mahalanobis distance measure was used (Tabachnick and Fidel, 2001), being identified 13 outliers – 12.14% of the cases and having as limits critical values to χ² with p<0,001.Characteristics that could justify their exclusion were not found.

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Normality hypothesis was not confirmed for frequency distribution of the metric variables observed (items 1 to 41), a situation confirmed by the K-S test (Kolmogorov-Smirnov) for normality. As a consequence, homoscedasticity was not observed either, which occurs when two or more distributions show equivalent dispersions (Bisquerra, Sarriera and Martinez, 2004).

Thus, data transformation took place next (Hair et al., 1998), through exponentiation calculation, and results closer to normality were obtained for many variables, despite the fact it was not achieved, but contributing to homoscedasticity.

The symmetry and asymmetry of the distribution curves were improved, showing variation of -0.655 to 0.233, and kurtosis showing variation of 1.711 to -0.337.

Asymmetry lower than 3 and kurtosis lower than 8 are acceptable values (Kline, 1998).

The linear relationship between two variables is evaluated by means of bivariate scatter plot analysis (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2011). The five most normal variables were analyzed (P41, P39, P38, P36 and P35) as well as the five least normal (P11, P3, P17, P24 and P22), two by two, with no curvilinear relationship observed.

The correlation matrix values are enough to justify the use of the factor analysis, as the visual inspection shows a substantial number greater than 0.30 (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2011). In addition, a correlation matrix with MSA (measure of sampling adequacy) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or degree of correlation between variables â&#x20AC;&#x201C; greater than 0.80 will be worthy to recognition.

4.2

EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS

The EFA by components (R Factor Analysis) was adopted, aiming to summarize most of the original information (variance) in a minimum number of factors for prediction purposes. This is necessary to represent most of the variance in the original set of variables, in addition to the fact that specific variance and errors represent a small portion of the total variance.

4.2.1 Identification of Factors and General Alignment In the definition of the number of unrotated factors to be extracted, the latent root (eigenvalues) criterion was used, being chosen factors with eigenvalue greater than 1. When the total number of variables is between 20 and 50, this criterion is recommended in order to establish a more reliable cutoff point (Hair et al., 1998), which is the case in this research (41 variables). Factors (components) chosen were those that obtained eigenvalues greater than 1 and represented 70.561% of the cumulative variance, that is, factors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Percentage variance criterion has the approach of achieving specific cumulative percentage out of the total variance extracted by successive factors. The purpose is to ensure practical significance for the derived factors, ensuring that they may explain a specific amount of variance. There is no absolute threshold adopted for all applications, and percentage from 60% to 95% is regarded as satisfactory in some areas of study (Hair et al., 1998). The selection of the 10 factors was supported by the Scree test, which highlights the number of the most representative factors.

4.2.2 Interpreting the Factors After the identification of the 10 factors with the unrotated factor matrix, the orthogonal rotation method was applied. It simplifies the factor structure and has an adequate analysis to interpret the variables and their contributions across each factor,

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whereas oblique rotation method is not well developed and is subject to considerable controversy (Hair et al., 1998). In the orthogonal rotation, the varimax method was used as it simplifies the columns of the factorial matrix and provides transparency in the way the factors are arranged.

Hair et al. (1998) state that a cutoff point of + 0.55 or greater is relatively high and may be adjusted if necessary. A value greater than 0.40 was established as a cutoff point for each variable. In the EFA with R factor Analysis, the first component (factor) explains most data variability, which, in this analysis, is approximately 28.04% and, as a consequence, the variables are going to be more correlated to it. The following variables were excluded from the analysis as they represent complex items, that is, factor loadings in more than one factor: var_trans_p2, var_trans_p5, var_trans_p15, var_trans_p16 and var_trans_p25.

Reliability tests were performed for each factor, by means the calculation of Crombach's Alpha coefficient. Factors 6 and 8 were excluded, due to their low reliability in relation to the reference value, that is, lower than 0.70. It was not possible to calculate Crombach's Alpha coefficient for factors 7, 9 and 10, as each one of them has just one variable. Thus, the variables related to these values were also excluded from the analysis.

Unidimensionality problems were not detected (Hair et al., 1998), as the variables of a factor did not relate to concepts outside the origin factor (dimension or construct). From the defined codebook, which is composed of the characteristics and purpose of measuring each variable, the selected factors were defined as follows: factor 1 – effective communication (EFCOM); factor 2 – Business-IT alignment, from Business perspective (BUSITA); factor 3 – Business-IT alignment, from IT perspective (ITBUSA); factor 4 – commitments (COMMT); and factor 5 – strategic conversations (SC).

4.3

CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS

In the CFA, by means of structural equation modeling, the maximum likelihood estimation procedure was adopted, which is more common and recommended when the minimum size of the sample ranges from 100 to 150 (Hair et al., 1998), situation of this research.

4.3.1 Research Model Fit The research model fit was analyzed through three measure sets (Hair et al., 1998): a) absolute fit measures, which judges the model fit (structural and measuring); b) incremental fit measures, when the proposed model is compared with another null model; and c) the parsimonious fit measures, which measure the model by estimated parameter. The application of multiple measures provides consensus to the acceptance of the research model.

Table 1 shows the examined indexes, that is: a) chi-square (χ²); b) degrees of freedom (DF); c) chi-square divided by degrees of freedom (χ²/DF); d) RMSEA (root mean square error of approximation); e) CFI (comparative fit index); f) NFI (normed fit index); g) IFI (incremental fit index); h) TLI (Tucker-Lewis index); and i) Hoelter.

Absolute fit measures were below the required limits, both for the RMSEA value (0.06 < 0.08) and for χ²/GL (1.43 < 3).

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136 Roses, L. K., Brito, J. C. B., Lucena Filho, G. J. de

Table1 - Model fit indexes Model fit indexes

Desired Values (Kline, 1998; Hair et al., 1998; Kenny, 2014)

Achieved Values

χ² DF χ²/DF NFI TLI

<3 > .90 > .90

487.831 341 1.43 0.75 0.90

CFI IFI RMSEA Hoelter .05 index Hoelter .01 index

> 0.90 > 0.90 < 0.08 >75 >75

0.906 0.908 0.06 84 88

From the incremental fit measures, the required minimum value (0.90) was not achieved by NFI (0.75) and TLI (0.90), although the former was slightly lower and the latter at the same value, while CFI (0.906) and IFI (0.908) exceeded the minimum limit value. As the χ² statistics are significant, the Hoelter index was used, which indicates the size of the sample in which χ² would not have been significant (α=0.01 and α=0.05), when values greater than 75 indicates a satisfactory fit of the sample.

Thus, the research model was accepted as an acceptable representation of the established constructs (effective communication; Business-IT alignment, from both IT and Business perspectives; commitment; and strategic conversations).

Regarding the construct validity (convergent and discriminant validity), the convergent validity may be verified through the analysis of the factor loadings of the items that compose the construct. The one that shows strong (β>0.5) and significant (p<0.000) factor loadings has this validity (Steenkamp and Van Trijp, 1991; Hair, Anderson, Tatham and Black, 2005), a situation which was observed in all the model constructs. Discriminant validity is achieved by means of comparison of the shared variance (r²) between the constructs and the average variance extracted from each construct, when the latter is greater than the former.

According to Table 2, the correlation between the constructs ranged from rminimum of 0.220 (EFCOM–ITBUSA) and the rmaximum of 0.609 (ITBUSA–BUSITA), as per the average variance extracted, diagonally highlighted. From the analyzed data, it is then possible to infer that the model contains discriminant validity and that all the constructs are distinct. Finally, composite reliability coefficients are considered to be accepted if they are greater than 0.70 and the extracted variances greater than 0.50 (Kline, 1998; Hair et al., 2005), which is the case in this study. This can be seen in Table 3, which indicates that, in addition to being valid, the scale is reliable.

Table 2 – Comparison between shared and extracted variance EFCOM

EFFCOMM BUSITA – ITBUSA COMMT SC

EFCOM 0.666 0.361 0.220 0.553 0.480

BUSITA 0.361 0.793 0.609 0.276 0.461

ITBUSA 0.220 0.609 0.736 0.254 0.487

COMMT 0.553 0.276 0.254 0.720 0.533

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ST 0.480 0.461 0.487 0.533 0.613

Conversational competences model for information technology and business strategic alignment

Composite reliability (> 0.70)

Extracted Variance (>0.50)

0.87 0.91 0.89 0.84 0.70

0.666 0.793 0.755 0.720 0.613

EFCOM BUSITA ITBUSA COMMT SC

137

4.3.2 Analysis of the Hypotheses According to the statistics provided by the CFA, when the dependent construct was strategic conversations, there was an influence from effective communication (β=0.27; p<0.05) and commitments (β=0.50; p<0.001), being the latter the most relevant of the two previous ones. When the dependent construct was commitment, it was influenced by the effective communication construct (β=0.55; p<0.000). The strategic conversations construct was the one that showed the greatest effects on the Business-IT alignment constructs, both from IT perspective (β=0.91; p<0.000) – or Business-IT alignment (IT in bold and underlined) – and from Business perspective (β=0.80; p<0.000) – or Business-IT alignment (Business in bold and underlined).

Table 4 shows the results of the hypotheses testing.

Table 4 – Hypothesis analysis of the proposed research model Hyp.

Independent Construct

Dependent Construct

Result

β

p-value

H1a

Strategic conversations

Business-IT alignment

Supported

0.91

p<0.000

H1b

Strategic conversations

Business-IT alignment

Supported

0.80

p<0.000

H2a

Commitments

Strategic conversations

Supported

0.50

p<0.001

H2b

Commitments

Business-IT alignment

Rejected

-0.27

p=NM

H2c

Commitments

Business-IT alignment

Rejected

-0.30

p<0.07

H3a

Effective communication

Business-IT alignment

Rejected

-0.12

p=NM

H3b

Effective communication

Business-IT alignment

Rejected

0.09

p=NM

H3c

Effective communication

Strategic conversations

Supported

0.27

p<0.05

H3d

Effective communication

Commitments

Supported

0.55

p<0.000

Notes: β = standardized beta coefficients; and NM = not meaningful.

By analyzing the variables of conversational competences, the evidence did not show a significant effect of the commitments construct on the Business-IT alignment constructs, that is, from IT perspective (β=-0.27; p<NS) and from Business perspective (β=-0.30; p<0.07). Similarly, the effective communication construct did not show a significant effect on the same constructs, that is, in IT perspective (β=0.12; p=NS) and in Business perspective (β=0,09; p=NS). Thus, the improvement in the effective communication (effective listening, productive explanations and productive questions) between Business and IT managers has a high impact on commitments and strategic conversations, which will affect the Business-IT alignment directly within organizations, from the perspective of both of these areas.

4.4

THEMATIC CONTENT ANALYSIS

The TCA confirmed the ex-ante categories defined in theory, according to the examples of IT managers (ITM) and Business managers (BM) statements, in Table 5.

Conflict resolution and judgments were identified in the TCA as new categories

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138 Roses, L. K., Brito, J. C. B., Lucena Filho, G. J. de

related to conversational competences, as shown in Table 6, according to those managers’ statements.

Table 5 – Statements related to previously defined categories Statements

Manager

Strategic Conversations

- More dialogues are necessary between Business and IT managers; and - Business and IT managers do not use a common language, which makes it difficult for Business managers to understand what is said.

- Conversations are few and difficult to access; and - Lack of knowledge sharing and synchronism.

Commitments

- Conversations between IT and Business managers take place in a negotiation context of requests to IT area, when commitments are made by this area to Business areas; and

BM

ITM

ITM

- IT difficulties to give proper support to Business in the meeting of deadlines.

- Business areas do not set more realistic deadlines for IT; and - Business areas do not discuss between them what their priorities are.

BM

Effective Listening

Productive explanations and questions

Effective Communication

- Managers impose their opinions, there is no convergence; and - IT managers are more inclined to take their perception of the Business needs into consideration than prioritizing the considerations of the Business areas themselves.

- Business areas prioritize their needs, but do not worry about how IT will meet their demands; and

BM

ITM

- IT managers do not know the Business areas.

- IT managers must take a helpful position towards Business managers, understanding their problems and needs; and

BM

- A mutual integration between Business and IT managers is necessary.

- Change in IT position towards understanding of Business demands, specifications and needs; and - IT managers take a defensive position, blaming the Business area for not being clear and objective in their demands.

ITM

Table 6 – Statements related to conflict resolution and judgments Statements

Manager

Conflict Resolution

- It’s all or nothing.

- There is controversy between managers when they try to understand one another; and - Business and IT managers must recognize their own limitations and together make commitments aligned with their organization´s strategic objectives.

- IT is focused on the search for what is ideal and perfect, whereas Business does not have basic functions addressed; and

Judgments

Conversational competences

- When they related to one another, there are not points of balance; and

BM

ITM

BM

- Supplier versus client relationship basis.

- Companies do not understand the real meaning of planning; - Business managers blame IT area for the cause of many of their unsuccessful cases; and - Business Areas do not discuss between them what their priorities are.

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ITM

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Business managers declare that in their conversations with IT managers the conflicts are caused by misunderstandings, which in many cases cannot be resolved.

They say that the IT position is, sometimes, inflexible and that communication takes place on a “all or nothing” basis, creating competitive work environments, whose conversations are developed as ritual and unhealthy (Gratton and Ghoshal, 2002). This type of conflicting relationship between managers is referred to as a direct consequence of the “interdependence between IT and Business”, as the two of them “work in isolation, distant from one another”. Admission of co-responsibility in conflict resolution between areas constitutes an important tool to overcome communication gaps (Kofman, 2001) and, therefore, the development of strategic conversations. This situation enables the following hypothesis: H4 – Conflict resolution between Business and IT managers has a positive influence on strategic conversations between them.

Judgments are the verdict of certain actions or manifestations, that is, they are inherent to the human nature and occur throughout a conversation, whether explicit or not (Echeverria, 2008). They are two sided for the strategic conversation process: they may hurt a relationship between participants, if they are based on rigid and unquestionable assumptions, whenever they are mistakenly regarded as affirmative statements; and they may give rise to different points of view, when they improve information exchange between the speakers.

Expressing judgments is directly related to the observation of the past and of recurring attitudes, as, in general, judgments are regarded as naturally conservatives (Echeverria, 2008). Then, the assumptions presented by judgments must be accepted with caution so that they do not give rise to evasive and preconceived argumentations, excluding and prejudiced attitudes. Therefore, the following hypothesis is developed in this study: H5 – Judgments between Business and IT managers have a positive influence on strategic conversations between them.

A way to support conflict resolution between Business and IT areas, as well to reduce the existence of negative judgments between them, is found in the effective communication between their managers. Thus, the following hypotheses are established in this study: H3e – Effective communication between Business and IT managers has a positive influence on conflict resolution between them; and H3f – Effective communication between Business and IT managers has a positive influence on the judgments between them.

4.5

CONVERSATIONAL COMPETENCES MODEL

Figure 2 shows the final conversational competences model of this study for Business and IT managers aiming at the strategic alignment between their areas. The results of the quantitative analysis confirmed the positive influence of strategic conversations on the Business-IT alignment from the perspective of IT (H1a) and of Business (H1b), which suggests a single construct for these two perspectives and, hence, a single hypothesis of positive influence of the strategic conversations on it (H1); of conversational competences on strategic conversations, through commitments (H2a) and of effective communications (H3c); and of effective communication on commitments (H3d). On the dotted lines, the new constructs identified in the

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140 Roses, L. K., Brito, J. C. B., Lucena Filho, G. J. de

qualitative analysis (conflict resolution and judgments) receive a positive influence from effective communication (H3e and H3f, respectively) and have a positive influence on strategic conversations (H4 and H5, respectively), suggesting the extension of the conversational competences model initially proposed in this study for Business-IT alignment.

Figure 2 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Conversational competences model in the Business-IT strategic alignment

5

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

This study identified the required conversational competences from Business and IT managers for the strategic alignment between their areas, from the social dimension perspective of this alignment. Initially, four conversational competences were described, based on the elements of a strategic conversation: effective listening and productive explanations and questions, which compose effective communication; and commitments, which is characterized by requests, offers and promises. These competences had a direct influence on the strategic conversations and an indirect one on the Business-IT alignment, from the perspective of these both areas. New conversational competences emerged in the content analysis: conflict resolution and judgments.

The final model of the research shows that, in the scope of conversational competences of IT and Business managers, an effective communication had a direct impact on the commitments made between Business and IT and on their strategic conversations, as well. As a consequence, strategic conversations, being influenced by effective communication and commitments, had a direct impact on the Business-IT alignment. It is possible to infer that conversational competences indirectly have an influence on Business-IT alignment. Evidence showed the validity and reliability of the research model through statistical techniques applied. In addition, the qualitative analysis confirmed the categories previously defined in the theory presented in this study.

This study offered theoretical contributions in the scope of Business-IT alignment, with an approach geared towards conversational competences. The JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 125-144

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intellectual dimension of this alignment has been favored in the research. This study explored its social dimension, highlighting the role of strategic conversations between Business and IT managers with conversational competences. From a pragmatic point of view, this research offers important results for the full development of Business and IT managers regarding conversational competences they must have for better alignment between their areas.

A limitation in this study relates to the fact that only four macro conversational competences were described, among other existing ones. This is justified by the definition of the research scope and by the decision of not burdening respondents with so many questionnaire items to answer. Thus, the most relevant competences to the communication between Business and IT managers were explored, in accordance with the theoretical framework here developed. Another limitation regards to the fact that the sampling was a non-probability one, which does not permit the generalization of results beyond the studied population.

As future research suggestions are the validity of the final model of this research by means of a survey research, due to the identification of new categories and hypotheses; the identification of other conversational competences, which may directly or indirectly influence the Business-IT strategic alignment; and the involvement of a larger scope of respondents and/or organizations, not only taking into account the managers, but also Business and IT teams, when conversations at both operational and tactical levels of these areas can be analyzed, as well their impact on the alignment between them.

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Urbanavicius, V. J., & Lima, E. (2014). Conversa Estratégica e Equipes de Direção de Micro e Pequenas Empresas (Mpes). In: VIII Encontro de Estudos em Empreendedorismo e Gestão de Pequenas Empresas (EGEPE) Anais... Goiânia (GO): FACE/UFG. Von Krogh, G., & Roos, J. (1995). Conversation management. European Management Journal, 13(4), 390-394.

Yayla, A., & Hu, Q. (2009). Antecedents and drivers of IT-Business Strategic Alignment: Empirical validation of theoretical model. Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Information Systems, Verona (Italy), June 8-10.

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JISTEM - Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 145-164 ISSN online: 1807-1775 DOI: 10.4301/S1807-17752015000100008

CRITICAL FACTORS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS OF INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS Ademir Antonio Ferreira University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil Márcio Shoiti Kuniyoshi University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil ___________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT This study is the result of research whose purpose was to study the implementation process of integrated management systems, called ERP Enterprise Resource Planning in the business environment. This study, more specifically, tried to identify the variables in this process and that, somehow, made it easy or caused some type of difficulty implementing the system. Based on the mixed method approach (Creswell, 2003), the study was performed by means of the content analysis of technical and scientific publications about this theme and by means of a field research for data collection from primary sources. The content analysis was based on the per mile procedure by Bardin (1977), making it possible to identify critical factors that may be found in the implementation of ERP system projects. Primary data was collected from structured interviews with the managers in charge of the implementation of the system, in each of the 12 companies in different sectors of the economy and based in Brazil. Based on this information, it was possible to test the factors extracted from the content analysis and then develop a list of factors that may effectively influence the implementation process of the system. In order to recognize the possible relations between the selected factors, the Spearman (rsp) correlation coefficient was applied and the multiple regression analysis was performed by means of the stepwise procedure. The purpose of the regression analysis was to determine the relation of the “Assessment of the Implementation” dependent variable with other dependent variables in the selected categories. The results of these analyses showed that the support of the top management, the communication process for the clear evidence of this support, the technical support of the ERP program provider together with the project team expertise, training and qualification processes of the team in the system operation are significantly correlated and relevant factors for a successful implementation of the project.

Keywords: integrated management systems; ERP; Implementation; projects.

___________________________________________________________________________________________ Manuscript first received/Recebido em: 13/09/2013 Manuscript accepted/Aprovado em: 09/01/2015 Address for correspondence / Endereço para correspondência

Ademir Antonio Ferreira, Professor at the Administration Master´s Degree Program of the Vice Dean´s Office of Research and Extension Courses of the University of São Paulo, Senior Professor in the FEA/USP Administration Department, Av. Prof Luciano Gualberto, 908 - Cidade Universitária – 05508-900, São Paulo, SP, Brasil E-mail: adefer@usp.br Márcio Shoiti Kuniyoshi, Professor at the Administration Post-Graduation Program University of São Paulo, Rua Alfeu Tavares, 149 - Campus Rudge Ramos, CEP: 09641-000 Rudge Ramos - São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo – SP, Brasil, E-mail: marcio.kuniyoshi@metodista.br Published by/ Publicado por: TECSI FEA USP – 2015 All rights reserved.

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1.

INTRODUCTION

The implementation of the integrated management systems from different origins and based on the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) technology have become a reality, increasingly present in the business environment. In addition to the increased competitiveness and recognition of the strategic value of information, many other reasons justify the growth of purchases and implementation of these integrated systems in companies at the end of the last century. . Some of them mentioned their executives´ fear and the related caution about problems that could have happened to the existing systems upon the arrival of the year 2000 , a phenomenon commonly known as the Y2K bug, incurring costs to redefine or adjust information systems already in use by companies.

In addition to these reasons for the growth of integrated management systems, there are others such as the benefits that a system of this large size may offer regarding the information systems existing at that time, that is, the companiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; executives were likely to work with information from integrated management processes and operations, instead of information reports from the various nonintegrated systems existing within the companies. Besides these aspects, the emergence of many providers of integrated management systems based on ERP technology and the consequent promotion and offer of a product that aimed to meet the possible needs of directors, executives and managers of major companies gave rise to a large and potential market and greatly boosted their purchase and implementation within companies.

Finally, it must be highlighted the fact that many subsidiaries of foreign companies operating in Brazil were encouraged by their head offices abroad, which had already implemented this type of system, to purchase and implement an ERPtechnology based system, with the purpose of integrating their international operations.

Recent research on the ERP system has aimed to evaluate the influence of the ERP system on organizational strategic activities (Ferreira et al, 2012 and Martins et al, 2013); to identify the contribution from Enterprise Resource Planning systems for the management of information and knowledge (Souza et al, 2013); to identify success factors in the use of ERP systems for the competitiveness of the hotel industry (Azevedo et al, 2014); to evaluate ERP-system user satisfaction at medium-sized clothes manufacturers in the State of Fortaleza (Teles & Silva, 2014); and to understand the implementation and updating of the ERP system through comparison analysis, taking success critical factors described in the pertinent literature into consideration (Valentim et al, 2014), among other studies.

The decision to purchase and implement an integrated management system, based on ERP technology, requires that the executives in charge of this decision making consider a series of variables related to the internal and external environment of the company, where the system will be implemented. It is a fact that the purchased integrated system was, originally, developed from a set of business management processes and operations which are set and incorporated within themselves. Every provider who offers products to the market comes from different business environments.

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makers. Belloquim (1998, p.39) states that “one of the major problems of the integrated management packages, a general name with which integrated management systems that use the ERP technology are referred to, has always been that fact that the company needs to adapt to the packages and not the packages adapt to the company.”

Although the systems enable some adaptations (parameterizations) to be made in order to accommodate business processes which are actually put in practice in the company, such adaptations and adjustments are subject to limitations. The good practice for implementation suggests that the processes in practice in the company be redesigned by means of process engineering so that they fit the format of the ones already incorporated in the acquired system. In this regard, the concept that ERP systems are commercial packages developed from standard models of business processes are highlighted by other authors such as Souza & Zwicker, (1999, p. 3), who state the following: “...like all other commercial packages, integrated systems based on ERP technology are not developed for a specific client and they aim to meet general requirements of the highest number of companies possible, precisely to explore gain of scale in its development. In order to be developed, it is necessary, however, to use business process models. These business models are sourced from the experience gained by the companies that provide them, in repeated implementation processes in companies, or they are developed by consultancies and by research on best practices regarding the execution of business processes.”

Therefore, one of the crucial variables to be considered in the decision to purchase or implementation of an integrated system is the analysis of the adherence of the features of the integrated systems available on the market with business processes.

Also, according to Souza & Zwicker, (1999 p. 4), there would be the need of a parameterization process, which consists in the adaptation of the features of the many ERP system modules through the definition of the parameter values already available on the system itself.

The implementation of the integrated management systems implies, necessarily, the allocation of the company´s team of technicians and managers, authorized and licensed by the systems´ provider, who will monitor the whole implementation process.

Significant investments are also involved in relation to resources and hours worked by the team of technicians and managers in the process, parameterizations (or formatting processes) of the program, team training, and purchase of the required equipment, among others, causing significant changes in the management and operations of the companies that adopted the systems. As a matter of fact, the expected final result is an implemented integrated management system operating at full capacity in all its existing modules. This means that the integrated management system must be capable to provide reliable information, available whenever and wherever the company´s managers need it to support their decision-making processes.

Certainly, this is an organizational change program and, therefore, the factors that may be disruptive or resist to this change need to be recognized by the agents of change, and minimized in the negative influence they may result in the process. Every organization may be understood and analyzed from three aspects: structure, technology and behavior.

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The structure involves the management hierarchy, internal work systems and processes, communication flows and the establishment of mission, objectives and organizational policies. The technology refers to the operational systems adopted, equipment, process and product engineering, R&D, and work methods, among others.

Behavior is related to human resources policies, to knowledge, skills and attitudes of the people who participate in it, to interpersonal relationships and values, individual and collective principles fostered by the organizational culture. These three elements are highly interdependent and in constant interaction under the influence of common forces, thus, any change in any of them may affect the other elements. (Ferreira et al.,1997, p.69) Therefore, the behavioral change process is at the same level of importance and magnitude as the technological change being implemented and, in order to be effective, it needs to recognize how these three elements relate to one another and try to change the three of them as far as possible (Stoner, 1988, p. 263).

The search to identify these factors, the interrelation or interdependence between them, as well as the attempt to evaluate the level influence and contribution to the implementation process, to be successful, compose the specific problem of this research and the purpose of this study. In order for the readers to follow the steps of the research, this paper describes below a brief introduction to the field of information systems and, in particular, to the origins and purposes of an ERP system.

In chapter 3 conceptual assumptions of the research are presented and chapter 4 shows the methodology used and a chart of the methodological steps, with details about the activities performed by each of them. Chapter 5 describes the analysis techniques used in the research: the content analysis by Bardin (1977) for the identification of critical factors, the Spearman correlation coefficient and the multiple regression analysis performed by means of the stepwise procedure. Chapter 6 contains the results achieved, analysis and interpretation of the indexes calculated by applied technical statistics and a summary of the behavior of the factors identified for each of the 8 selected categories. Chapter 7 shows the authors´ conclusions and recommendations for further studies.

2.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Many authors regard trustworthy information owned by companies as a competitive edge between them. Aware of the value of information, companies have long had information systems. Laudon & Laudon (1997, p. 06) regard information systems as: ”a set of interrelated components working together to collect, retrieve, process, store, and disseminate information for the purpose of facilitating planning, control, coordination, and decision making in businesses and other organizations”.

Based on this initial concept, management information systems have been upgraded and highly improved as information technologies have been developed with the advent of faster computers, more complex programs and languages, faster networks and more suitable databases accessed by multiple users.

The evolution of information systems happened, and has happened, mainly due to the need of companies´ managers who constantly require information that may be accessed in real time from different places whether internal and external to the environment of the companies. Depending on the nature of the information required JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 145-164

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by the top and middle management levels of the companies, the IT team in charge of the development of systems has created many types of management information systems with a focus on specific functional areas such: marketing, human resources management, production management, finance and controlling, and costs, among others. Knowledge development in IT has made it possible for more comprehensive information systems to be expanded to the organizations’ strategic level.

According to Bancroft, Seip and Sprengel (1998) apud Valentim et al (2014, p.112), management system program codes used to be developed internally by the IT team and modified depending on the company´s needs and, often times, developed upon request from a department. Lack of planning and, in some cases, of technical competences of the team members created systems dedicated to each department and in an isolated manner, which hindered the effective integrated business control.

As a result of this development of system concepts and of the information technology itself, companies started to use, as of the early 90s, the EIS – Executive Information Systems. These systems provided information to the managers, directors and presidents involved in the strategic decision-making process of a company, Information was given by means of texts, charts, tables, and flowcharts, making it possible to evaluate the respective types of performance: operational, economic and financial of the company while competing with their competitors in the marketplace.

A retrospective view of the evolution of these computer systems developed between 1960 and 1990, and still used by many companies, under a critical perspective, was offered by Souza & Zwicker (1999, p.2), stating that: Many of the computer systems developed in the 70s, 80s and early 90s were built based on rather inflexible technologies and to meet the needs of the different departments in an isolated manner. As a result, it is the impossibility of using them for an integrated and effective business control. Although the idea of integrated information systems had existed since the early 80´s, with the emergence of structured analysis and software engineering, the presence of a series of unaddressed operational and technological difficulties did not allow this view to be implemented in most companies.”

In the mid 90s, a new concept of integrated management systems emerged in the business environment, based on ERP technology. As they are systems integrated with all the departments of an organization, enabling managers to access consolidated information about the results achieved and about the operational and financial performance of their decision; they were then known as integrated management systems.

According to Stamford (2008) apud Valentim et al (2014), ERP provides a single information flow, which is continuous and consistent across the company under a single database. It is a tool for the improvement of business processes, guided by these processes, with online and real time information and not by the functions and departments of a company. ERP allows all transactions made by the company to be viewed, drawing a big picture of business processes.”

2.1.

Emergence and expansion of the integrated systems

Regarding the origin of ERP technology, there is a consensus among integrated management systems scholars, who regard it as a natural evolution of the planning and control systems of production resources and materials: systems known as MRPs and JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 145-164

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adopted by companies in all regions of the industrialized world over the last decades of the last century. Authors such as Kalakota & Robinson (2002, p. 231) agree that the ERPs represent a natural evolution of the planning and control systems of materials, stating that: “the historical origin of ERP is in inventory management and control software packages that dictated system design during the 1960s. The 1970s saw the emergence of Material Requirements Planning (MRP)….. During the 1980s, the misnamed MRPII systems emerged to extend MRP’s traditional focus on production processes to other business functions, including order processing, manufacturing, and distribution. As the MRPII contributions became visible, executives aimed at similar benefits through the integration of the processes of other functions to cover areas of Finance, Human Resources, and Project Management. MRPII is a misnomer, as it provided automated solutions to a wide range of business processes, not just those found within a company’s manufacturing and distribution functions. As a result, MRP II was renamed as ERP.” Integrated management systems must be understood from the concept of systems and ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning- technology, that is, a Company´s Resource Planning. By taking the development of computer systems as a basis, authors such as Souza & Zwicker (1999 pp. 2 and 3) explain the function of integrated systems: “...”ready-to-use” integrated computer systems, developed by specialized companies, are capable of generating information from performed operations through most of or the entirety of business processes. They were initially known as integrated management systems, or simply “integrated packages”. They are composed of various modules, they communicate and update the same base or central database.

Information input by a module is instantly provided to the other modules on which it depends. Integrated systems based on ERP also enable the use of planning tools that may analyze the impact of decision making in manufacturing, supplies, finance, or human resources, across the company.

There is also the consensus that integrated management systems emerged when companies coexisted in a global business context, where they expanded their activities to many countries and they needed to coordinate their subsidiaries’ operations all over the world. Therefore, they needed information that would help them integrate the distinctive contributions of each branch within the scope of their global business strategy.

Many companies became aware of the fact that for them to expand their business to a global level, they needed to implement a system capable to collect, process, generate, store, and disseminate integrated information from the various transactions and multiple business processes which are developed continuously, simultaneously and in parallel in all units of the company, with business units in various states in the same country or, as it is common in transnational companies, in different countries. The system integration by the different ERP modules helps managers understand what is happening in the most remote areas where business is conducted by the head office and by its subsidiaries across the country or across the world.

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business environment, a common characteristic since the beginning of the third millennium, 3. CONCEPTUAL ASSUMPTIONS In theoretical and operation terms, the main relevant aspects and indexed to the study are conceptualized as follows:  Implementation of Integrated Management Systems: it is an act of change that implies the introduction of a new information technology to the business environment, as an integrated management system capable to provide integrated information that serves as a support to managers in management and operational decision-making processes of the company.  Critical Factors in the implementation process: a set of variables clustered in categories that explain motions, forces, actors and existing and active acts in the internal or external environment of the company in which the implementation process of integrated management systems is executed, capable to facilitate, promote, speed up or leverage the process or, on the other hand, hider and make the successful execution of the process impossible.  Successful Implementation Process of Integrated Management Systems: in technical terms, as a successful implementation process is defined as the one in which the integrated management system introduced to the company is capable of operating all its modules, generating and providing reliable and updated information to the company´s managers, also easy to be accessed by the company´s authorized users at management and operational levels.  Intensity of individual contribution of each factor in the implementation process: in technical terms, intensity of individual contribution of each factor (that is, the set of variables clustered in categories) is defined as the force and power that it has to influence (or contribute) so that an ERP project implementation is successful.

At the operational level, critical factors are all the categories of variables that were recognized and selected by means of the results from the application of the content analysis research method. Through face-to-face interviews, the managers in charge of the implementation of the integrated management systems in the researched companies classified the intensity of the contribution of each factor as a facilitator or a hindrance in a successful ERP project implementation.

It is assumed that it is possible to identify factors (that is, the set of variables clustered in categories) that influence the implementation process of integrated management systems in companies, based on the ERP technology, regarded as successful or unsuccessful in the end. It is accepted that the managers in charge of the implementation of the integrated management systems in their companies are the most qualified people to provide an assessment of the process, whether it was successful or not in the end. This assumption is based on the fact that these managers have fully had the experience of conducting the process and are capable to assess whether it was successful or not in the end.

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The research methodology was based on the mixed method approach: qualitative and quantitative. According to Creswell (2003), the mixed method approach is applicable in order to take advantage of both approaches, qualitative and quantitative.

The research methodology was based on two different methods that combine aspects of exploratory qualitative and qualitative approaches. It was conducted based on primary and secondary data from companies operating in Brazil, which experienced the implementation process of integrated management systems, based on ERP technology. The two research approaches refer to the content analysis of publications about this theme and to the traditional field research based on data collection from primary sources. ď&#x201A;ˇ Content Analysis: an investigation was performed, based on the publication of scientific papers, dissertations and theses about the implementation of the integrated management system over the last 5 years. The objective of this research method consists of identifying and analyzing the content in scientific publications in order to identify indicators that help to see a reality that is not always clear in the texts (Bardin, 1977). With the use of this content analysis method, it was possible to identify factors (that is, a set of variables clustered in categories) that are capable of facilitating or hindering a successful implementation process of integrated management systems projects. ď&#x201A;ˇ Primary data collection by means of a structured interview with open and closed questions, in 12 companies willing to be interviewed face-to-face, out of a group of 36 previously contacted companies. The interviews in these companies were conducted with the managers in charge of the system implementation. The purpose of the interviews was to consider the validity of a list of identified factors, as an introductory process, by the content analysis, group them in organizational variables and evaluate, from the intervieweesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perceptions, the influence of these factors in the ERP implementation process. With these interviews, it was possible to test factors extracted from publications and make a definitive list of factors that effectively prove to be strong enough to facilitate or hinder the successful implementation process according to the scope of the company. Chart 1 summarizes the tree steps of the methodological development of the research.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Creating the categories

Validating the categories

Results and conclusions

Bibliographic analysis of the implementation of ERP Integrated Management Systems

Content Analysis performed in order to create the categories

Development of the data collection instrument to validate the categories

Data collection from the 12 companies ,selected by classification

Treatment and statistical analysis of the collected data

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Presentation of the research results

Conclusions and Recommendatio ns

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Chart 1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Diagram of the methodological steps of how the research is conducted Source: developed by the authors 5. PRESENTATIONS, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS The content analysis process is composed of the following steps: pre-analysis, in-depth analysis of the material, treatment and interpretation of the results presented.

The pre-analysis organizes the initial ideas in order to conduct the research through an accurate conceptual framework, which makes it possible to explore by means of the content analysis of the available information, relevant factors that will be subject to the validity of research with the companies that have had similar experiences. The analysis units were composed based on real cases from scientific papers, dissertations and theses that addressed the theme related to the implementation of ERP-technology based integrated management systems, published over the last 10 years.

From this material, it was possible to identify external and internal factors to the implementation process that facilitated or hindered the implementation process.

These factors were grouped in accordance with their similarity and the categorization used for this purpose was based on the per mile procedure by Bardin (1977, p. 119).

The per mile procedure is recommended by experts when the categories are defined afterwards, that is, the categories are not previously established, providing more diversified and abundant themes.

The word â&#x20AC;&#x153;mileâ&#x20AC;? means the repetitions of occurrences of a given phenomenon described in the content of a scientific text or a speech. In other words, it means that the phenomenon was very frequently found in a text, resulting in a relevant increased score. From this score, the name of the category is previously defined, which groups a set of variables which describe it.

In the first stage of the categorization, variables related to the implementation process of integrated management systems, based on ERP technology, were grouped by similarity, that is, they were grouped according to their purpose and their relation with internal and external factors. From there, it was possible to identify the main categories that describe the central points addressed by this research. Chart 2 shows the 26 variables identified and the 8 categories that were grouped and that comprised the critical factors, the purpose of this study.

5.1. Statistical Analysis In addition to the use of descriptive statistics to perform the different analyses, and with the purpose of recognizing possible relations between the selected factors, the non-parametric statistics technique was applied, also known as the Spearman (rsp) correlation coefficient and the multiple regression analysis by means of the stepwise procedure.

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VARIABLES IDENTIFIED

CATEGORIES

1.

Stated IT Strategy

2.

Location and how to implement

3.

Clear objectives, focus and scope

4.

Implementation Model of the ERP system

5.

Understanding of the organization´s culture

6.

Budget invested in the ERP System

7.

Support of the top management

8.

Decision-making process structure

1) Organizational strategy and culture

2) Support of the top management

9.

Training and education (internal team and end 3) Qualified users users) team involved in implementation 10.

Interdepartmental relations 11.

Hardware infrastructure

12.

Software infrastructure

13.

Customer/ Software Provider Relationship

14.

Technical support of the provider

15.

Project Management

16.

Project Team

17.

Performance assesment and monitoring

18.

Presence of the “Champion”

and the

4)Hardware and software infrastructure 5) Customer – Provider Relationship 6) Management of the project implementation

19.

Project Manager with a suitable profile to the implementation 20.

Experience of external consultants in the 7) Presence of the external implementation process consultants 21.

Test and solution of ERP software problems

22.

Change Management

23.

Communication Management

24.

Expectations Management

25.

Minimum Standardization 26.

Customization

8) Change Management in the business process

and

High

BPR (Business Process Reengineering) Chart 2. Categories identified in the literature about the implementation of ERP Source: developed by the authors According to Stevenson (1981, p.382),

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“Spearman´ rank correlation coefficient is a non-parametric measure to evaluate the relationship of two monotonically related variables, when data are arranged in ranks. [...] The purpose of the calculation of the correlation coefficient in these cases is to determine up to what extent the two sets of ranks agree or disagree.

This technique can also be extended to other types of measurement, as long as they can be converted into ranks.”

Spearman´ rank correlation coefficient (rsp) may range from -1.00 to +1.00, such as Pearson´s r. When rsp is close to 1.00, this means that two sets of ranks are very similar, and if rsp is close to -1.00, the sets of ranks are very different. If there is agreement in some items and disagreement in others, rsp gets close to 0 (zero), which suggests the absence of a relationship between the two sets.

On the other hand, the multiple regression analysis is a statistical technique that makes it possible to evaluate the functional relationship between two or more variables and to make projections. According to Hair (2005, p.137), “ the goal of regression analysis is to predict a single dependent variable from the knowledge of one or more independent variables.”

In this case, the dependent variable corresponds to the final assessment of the implementation process and the independent variables correspond to the categories of selected factors. In order to perform calculations and application of the selected statistical techniques correlation and regression, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version13) was used.

6. RESEACH RESULTS The companies that formally conducted the evaluation process showed the following percentage, related to the interviewees´ perception of the level of success of the system implementation:  18.02% considered that, after experiencing the whole implementation process of the integrated management system, the evaluation of the results achieved shows that the implementation of the new systems is entirely successful.  72.72% considered that, after experiencing the whole implementation process of the integrated management system, the process was very successful due to the results achieved and the manner it was executed.  9.1% considered that, after experiencing the whole implementation process of the integrated management system, the change made did not meet expectations and, although they did not take the failure of such a change into consideration, they admitted that the new system did not show any satisfactory results.

6.1. Summary of conclusions of the category analysis After being classified by the content analysis, the factors listed in chart 2 were submitted to the interviewees’ analysis, who should rate them on a scale of 7 levels of agreement, from “very facilitative” to “very hindering” and point 4 on the scale meaning “Indifferent”, that is, it did not influence the process.

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Through the interviews, it was possible to see that no respondent regarded any of the researched factors as hindering in the implementation process of the system.

This means that the assumptions previously presented in the content analysis were confirmed by the interviewees and the positive variables for the execution of the process were present in the researched organizations.

CATEGORIES

SUMMARY OF THE ANALYSES -54.5% of the researched companies agreed that the previous analysis to assess them facilitates the implementation process.

- 58.4% made a plan to monitor the implementation process.

1) Organizational strategy and culture

- 54.55% agreed that the allocated budget is a very important factor - 72.8% agreed the decision-making process must be established from the beginning, being a very important factor for the implementation of the project.

2) Support of the top management 3)Qualified users and team involved in the implementation

- For 88,3% of them, it is an essential factor for the implementation of the ERP project.

- 55.55% fully agreed that it is important to engage all the employees in the decision of acquiring the integrated management system.

- 66.7% agreed that there is the need to provide training to the employees: project team members and employees.

4)Hardware and software infrastructure

-81.81% of the researched companies agreed that hardware and software structure is important for the implementation of the system.

5) Customer/ Software Provider Relationship

-72.73% of the companies had support of providers and agreed that this is an essential service for a successful implementation of the system.

- 66.67% of the executives fully agreed that having an IT team, future users and external consultants leads to the successful implementation of the project

6)Management of the project implementation

-.83.4% believe that an integrated and engaged project team facilitates the implementation process of the system. A cooperative relationship, strong communication and participation of the many departments of the company and, more specifically, the project team serve to complement in the integration of the business processes of the organization.

- 41.67% of the respondents that agreed that the internal team´s knowledge (mastery) of ERP features is a factor that facilitates the implementation process.

- 66.7% of the executives interviewed fully agreed or strongly agree that a competent project team is a factor that facilitates the successful implementation of the system.

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-83.34% of the executives interviewed said that the existence and use of external consultants is very important or highly important in order to ensure the successful implementation of the integrated management system.

-70% of the respondents fully and strongly agreed that change management is a factor that facilitates the successful implementation of the ERP system.

8) Change Management in the business process

-72.4% of the executives interviewed fully or strongly agreed that an open and transparent communication policy is a factor that facilitates the successful implementation of the ERP system.

- 72.72% of them answered that, after experiencing the implementation process of the system, the respondents regarded the process as successful.

Chart 3 - Summary of conclusions of the category analysis Source: developed by the authors What is possible to infer from this situation is that the lack of recognition of the importance and influence of any of these factors in a change project of this size may effectively hinder the development of the implementation of the process and curb expectations related to the performance of the system and expected benefits.

The figures presented and commented on so far, based on the statistical tables of frequency distribution of the collected data and generated by the SPSS software, compose the first identification focus and analysis of the influential factors in the implementation process of an integrated management system, according to the interviewees’ perception. With the purpose of indentifying which of all the categories of the indentified and analyzed factors are the ones that contribute the most to the successful implementation of an integrated management system, a statistical treatment of the data by means of the application of two more statistical techniques was performed: the Spearman correlation coefficient and the multiple regression analysis.

6.2. Application of a non-parametric statistical treatment technique of the Spearman correlation coefficient With the purpose of finding possible relations between the factors, that is a set of variables clustered in categories, previously analyzed, the Spearman correlation coefficient was adopted in order to verify how the factors influence and are influenced during the implementation process.

The results from the application of the Spearman correlation coefficient.(where the Spearman correlation coefficient is significant to the p>0.01 level) proved to be highly meaningful and that there is a strong relation between the following factors:  “Support of the top management” and “communication management in the process of the implementation” are strongly correlated (0.738), that is, they are highly dependent on one another.

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 “Support of the provider” and “knowledge of the program and its features by the project implementation team” showed a correlation level of 0.857.  “External consultants” and “support of providers” are correlated at a coefficient of 0.820.  “Assessment of the implementation of the ERP project” and “training of users” showed a correlation of 0.885.

These indicators of strong correlations between factors enable the following researcher´s interpretations:  the support of the top management is a critical factor for a successful implementation of the ERP project and the communication process is essential to clearly show this support and also to show the necessary transparency in the decisions made by top managers about the conditions offered and the situations faced in the implementation of the system, as well as to ensure the engagement of all in the development of the change process.  Technical support of the ERP program provider and the expertise of the project team are critical factors to enable the execution of the implementation phases and, as a consequence, as the elements that ensure the higher likelihood of the success in this endeavor. In order to achieve an optimal level, it is essential that the relationship between the implementation team and the software provider be continued, productive and cooperative. This type of relationship is essential for the exchange of knowledge and experiences that will certainly contribute to the successful implementation in a decisive manner.  Training and qualification processes of the team in the system and their features are relevant factors for a successful implementation. Thus, the correlation between the training of the end user and the assessment of the result of the implementation help to interpret the fact that a positive assessment of the implementation process of the system is strongly related to the proper preparation of the people who will participate in their operation or who will use it. The knowledge of the purposes, characteristics and technology being adopted must be shared with all the people who will be integrated into the new system.

As for the planning factor, regarded as highly relevant by the literature for being a facilitator in the implementation processes of ERP projects, the Spearman correlation coefficient test in the field research did not show a high correlation with the other categories, making it possible to consider that, for the interviewees, planning was not made as it should have been made or it may not be fully followed during the execution phase, due to the significant changes in the original plan.

Another possible explanation for the conclusion process may be found in the fact that in complex change projects, typical of the implementation of an ERP integrated management system, it is very difficult to plan in advance all the incidents that may change the course, resources and deadlines previously specified. Therefore, planning, though necessary, is hardly ever executed as planned, due to the countless contingencies and unpredicted situations faced on the daily basis in the course of the project, On the other hand, through the field research it was clear that no interviewee regarded the presence of any of the selected factors as a hindrance in the development JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 145-164

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of the implementation process of the system. This means that all the previous assumptions found by the available literature about this theme were taken into consideration by the interviewees and the active variables were present in the researched organizations. It is important to highlight the fact that when analyzing the Spearman correlation coefficient for a small sample (n=12), it seems to be safe to use level 0.001 to accept H0.

6. 3. Regression Analysis In this process of analysis of the research results, the purpose of the use of the multiple regression statistical technique was to measure the relationship between a dependent variable – Assessment of the Implementation – with the other independent variables (categories and selected factors).

Considering the fact that the number of cases in this quantitative research does fulfill the minimum requirements related to the size of the sample, at least five cases/observations for each variable, in order to apply regression analysis, it is important to highlight that there is no intention to justify or infer the cause and effect relationship in this analysis, but, rather, there is an attempt to understand which variables better explain the dependent variable, according to the interviewed executives from the researched companies.

Through the Stepwise method (default) of sequential search of the linear regression of the SPSS software, version 13, each independent variable, which best contributes to the dependent variable, are analyzed and selected by the program, which also excludes those that are least important The achieved results from the application of this method and generated by the program showed that Training of Users and Decision-Making Process variables are the ones that best explain the Assessment of the Implementation Process dependent variable, according to the parameters in Table 1 below. Significance tests for regression coefficients provide researchers with an empirical evaluation of their “real” impact. Although this is not a validity test, it determines whether the impacts represented by the coefficients are generalizable to the other samples of these populations.

Model

Method

1

Stepwise Training of Users

Probability-of-F-to-enter <= .050, Probability-of-F-to-remove >= .100

Decisionmaking process

Stepwise Probability-of-F-to-enter <= .050, Probability-of-F-to-remove >= .100).

Table 1 – Independent variables that best explain the dependent variable Fonte: SPSS (Versiom 13) JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 145-164

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6.3.1 Coefficient of Determination (R2) Table 2 shows the indicators generated by SPSS software for analysis of the relationship between these two variables. The regression (R2) coefficient of determination has a coefficient of 0.893. This value indicates that the use of variables, Training of Users and Decision-Making Process, reduces errors at 89.3%, that is, these variables represent 89.3% of the explanatory power and quality of adjustment.

The Standard Error of Estimate (Table 3) is another precision measure of the analysis and represents a standard deviation estimate of the real dependent values in relation to the regression (022725).

Model

R

R

R2 adjusted

1

.945(a)

.893

.857

2

Standard Error .22725

Table 2 - Summary of the Linear Regression Model Source: SPSS (version 13) 6.3.2 Variance Analysis Test F measures the global performance of the regression line, trying to find, in general, whether the regression was relevant or whether the explained variation by the regression method is greater than the variation given by means (that is, that R2 is greater than zero). In this case, the significance was 0.001 and it shows that the regression is relevant, that is, it confirms that two independent variables explain the dependent variable, according to Table 3.

Sum of the Squares

df

Mean Square

F

Significance

Regression

2.579

2

1.290

24.970

.001

Residue

.310

6

.052

Total

2.889

8

Model

1

df = number of estimated coefficients (degrees of freedom), Table 3 – Variance Analysis (test F) Source: SPSS, version 13 The result of F = 24.970 means that it is possible to explain the variation 24.970 times more than we use the means and this is not likely to occur at random (less than 5%).

6.3.3 Test “t” .Test t measures the significance of the partial relation for the variables reflected in the regression coefficient. For this research, it was established a confidence level of 0.05 and the variables, Training of Users (0.00171) and Decision-Making JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 145-164

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Process (0.04504), show lower coefficients than this confidence interval. Therefore, they are significant at this level to justify the regression performed. Table 5 shows the partial t value of variables in the equation measures the partial correlation of the variable reflected in the regression coefficient.

Test t helps determine whether any variable should be eliminated from the equation whenever a variable is added. In this case, it is noticed that both variables are relevant to the regression; however, the other independent variables of the research, when compared with these two variables, prove to be not very significant to the regression. Table 4 shows the indexed resulting from the application of test t for these two variables.

Non-standardized coefficients

Model

Standardized Coefficient

T

Significance

1.49417

0.18575

B

Standard Error

Constant

0.72535

0.48546

Training of Users

0.64789

0.12061

0.76237

5.37164

0.00171

0.20423

0.08091

0.35823

2.52413

0.04504

Beta

1 1

Decisionmaking process

Table 4 - Analysis of the regression variables in the equation (test t) Source: SPSS, version 13 As for beta (Ă&#x;) coefficient, it is noticed that Training of Users (0.76237) is the variable with the highest level of relative importance in the statistics of the regression and the Decision-Making Process (0.35823) is the variable that shows a lower level of relative importance.

Other factors did not show a functional relationship with the dependent variable and were rejected by the program. Nevertheless, in the descriptive part of the research results, all selected factors were regarded as, at a high or low level of importance, facilitator of the implementation process of the system. As noted before, the number of cases studied was not enough to perform a consistent application of this analysis technique and then we can only consider that these two variables are the ones that best explain the success of the implementation process of the system and that other factors analyzed are conditioning to facilitate this change process.

7. CONSIDERATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS From the analysis found in the literature about the implementation of integrated management systems, a list of 8 categories of factors was created, which best explain the successful ERP implementation projects. Factors in each category, which facilitate or hinder the implementation process of integrated management systems based on ERP technology, were identified in the internal and external environment of the company. It JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 145-164

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was found, through the research, the presence and level of influence of these factors in the implementation process of the system experienced by the companies. No factors researched were regarded as a hindrance to the development of the process.

By considering the fact that the implementation of an ERP project is a costly, slow and complex change process, all the factors identified in this research may be regarded as relevant and critical for the ERP to be successful. However, the existence of a set of factors that per se result in a successful implementation of the ERP project does not represent a consensus among the many scholars and interviewed executives.

One of the reasons for this lack of consensus about the set of factors, that is, variables grouped in categories, is explained by the fact that an implementation project, although it has to follow through all the basic and common phases to everyone interested in it, it is also involved by the characteristics and by the culture of the organization, usually reflected in the behavior of the people there working.

Referring to the existing disagreement among this theme´s managers, researchers and scholars, Bergamaschi (1999) states that: “...one of the reasons for the lack of consensus about the set of factors, that is variables grouped by categories, is explained by the fact that an implementation project must be dynamic and, therefore, it has different needs and challenges in the different phases to be addressed during the implementation process.”

Based on the descriptive and statistical analyses of the research results and conclusions, some recommendations are made to the organizations that intend to adopt an ERP-technology based integrated management system in order to plan more securely all the phases of the change and implementation process of a new management model, as well as foreseeing potential areas of conflicts and problems that can be minimized by a priori or immediate actions. It is recommended that all business efforts to implement an integrated management system take into consideration the following criteria and arrangements:  the implementation project should comprise and explain the mission, objectives and critical dates, budget and a communication program. Communication is a critical factor and must be composed of a permanent and continuous program during the implementation phase. The communication program, besides containing all the above mentioned elements, it also should inform and show to the people involved in it, in a clear and defined manner, what the focus of the project is and the requirements that must be complied with, regarding deadlines and costs.  the clear support of the top managers during the implementation is necessary, as an effective way to use all resources and show support and a transparent commitment to the project. This encourages other team members to follow the example and feel the support coming from above.  to hire the services of external consultants that, in addition to being recognized for the professional competence and licensed by the provider and experienced in the implementation of the integrated management systems, they also need to devise a planned change management program, or be part of the change management program of the company, evaluate the organizational climate and recognize individual behavioral characteristics and organizational culture.

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 to consider, in the definition of the system to be implemented, besides the evaluation of the technical specifications and product offered, the necessary technical support that the system provider is committed to giving during the implementation and then future maintenance, when all the work systems of the company are being processed by this new model.  to put together and develop a team in charge of the implementation project and change, led by a competent project manager capable of leading and coordinating the activities performed by the multidisciplinary members of the team, by the external consulting and the users involved in the process  ; to promote qualification and previous training courses to team members in all technical and managerial aspects of the new system, as well as the activities related to change management. Before the effective introduction of the new system, to provide training programs and qualification of final users related to the working and operational features in each specific module,  to recognize the need to develop and discuss with the project team, the basic rules in order to plan an efficient decision-making process that enables the resolution of problems during the implementation process, mainly when it comes to the aspects related to discrepancies between processes incorporated into the ERP system and processes adopted by the organization.

Though limited by a sample of 12 organizations, within a universe composed of hundreds of organizations, this research´s results may be useful and significant to many companies that plan to adopt or are experiencing the early phases of implementation. In addition to these considerations and recommendations, there is a very delicate and important aspect, which could be addressed by future research: the effective benefits drawn by the organization that adopted ERP. In practical terms: is it possible to evaluate qualitatively and quantitatively the gains from decision making, in the readiness and reliability of the information generated by the system, in the contribution to business planning, in meeting the needs of stakeholders, in projecting the costs of the processes and other particular issues.?

Although it was not meant to be objective of this research, a short introduction to this field, during the interviews with managers, proved to be innocuous and evasive, suggesting that there was not data or information that could answer these questions.

Naturally, the high cost of this system requires, at a certain stage, a cost-benefit evaluation or analysis of the amount spent on this acquisition.

On the other hand, the difficulty obtaining this type of information may exist due to the lack of a formal evaluation by organizations; that is, an analysis of the costs against possible and/or real revenues, or due to the necessary confidentiality of the information that the company wants to keep. However, it is a relevant aspect to further the studies about this theme.

REFERENCES Azevedo, P. S.; Romão, M., Rebelo, E. (2014) Success factors for using ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems to improve competitiveness in the hospitality industry. Tourism & Management Studies, (Special Issue), p. 165-168.

Bardin, L. (1977) Análise de conteúdo. Edições 70. Lisboa.

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Bergamaschi, S. (1999) Um estudo sobre projetos de implementação para gestão empresarial. Dissertação de Mestrado. FEA/USP. Belloquim, A. (1998) ERP: a Nova Solução Definitiva Para Todos os Problemas.

Disponível em http://www.developersmagazine.com.br. Acesso em 30/04/2008.

Creswell, J. W. (2003) Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. 2 ed. Sage Publications. Thousands Oaks. CA. Ferreira, G. K. A.; Neves, J. T. R.; Vasconcelos, M. C. R. L.; Carvalho, R. B. (jan./jun.

2012) Gestão estratégica da informação: influência do sistema ERP (sistema integrado de gestão) nas ações estratégicas organizacionais sob a ótica dos consultores da TOTVS S.A. Gestão Contemporânea, ano 9, n. 11, p. 61-90. Porto Alegre.

Hair, J. F. Jr., Anderson, R. E.; Tatham, R.L.; Black, W. C. (2005) Análise Multivariada de Dados. 5ª ed. Bookman. Porto Alegre.

Kalakota, R. & Robinson, M. (2002) E-business - Estratégias Para Alcançar o Sucesso No Mundo Global, 2ª ed. Bookman, Porto Alegre.

Laudon, K. C. & Laudon, J. P. (1999) Sistemas de Informações, 4ª ed., LTC – Livros Técnicos e Científicos S.A. Rio de Janeiro.

Martins, H. C.; Martins, M. D.; Muylder, C. F.; Gonçalves, C. A.; Dias, A. T.(Jun. 2013) Configuração das Imagens Ideativas, Planejamento e Redução de Riscos: a implantação do Sistema ERP em um a Instituição Pública de Ensino. Rev. Adm. UFSM, v. 6, número 2, p. 353-372. Santa Maria Souza, C. A. & Zwicker, R. (1999) Um Modelo de Ciclo de Vida de Sistemas ERP: Aspectos Relacionados à Seleção, Implementação e Utilização. In SEMEAD, Seminário de Estudos em Administração, Departamento de Administração da FEA/USP, p.1-13.

Souza, P. M.; Vasconcelos, M. C. L. R.; Tavares, M. C.; Carvalho, R. B. (out. 2013) Contribuições dos Sistemas Enterprise Resource Planning para a Gestão da Informação e do Conhecimento: Um Estudo em uma Empresa de Pequeno Porte na Área Gráfica. Perspectivas em Gestão & Conhecimento, v. 3, Número Especial, p.

109-127. João Pessoa.

Stamford, P. P. (2008) ERP: prepare-se para esta mudança. KMPress. Disponível em: <http://www.kmpress. com.br>. Acesso em: jul. 2014.

Stevenson, W. J. (1981) Estatística aplicada à administração. São Paulo. Harper & Row do Brasil. São Paulo.

Teles, F. & Silva, R. M. (abr./jun. 2014) Avaliação da Satisfação dos Usuários de Sistemas ERP nas Médias Empresas de Confecção do Vestuário de Fortaleza. Revista Produção Online, v.14, n. 2, p. 533-559. Florianópolis, SC. Valentim, O. A.; Politano, P. R.; Pereira, N. A.; Araujo Filho, T. (2014) Análise comparativa entre a implementação e atualização do sistema ERP R/3 da SAP considerando os fatores críticos de sucesso descritos na literatura: um estudo de caso em uma empresa do segmento de bebidas. Gestão & Produção, v. 21, n. 1, p. 111-124, São Carlos. SP. Stoner, J. F., (1988) Administração. Prentice Hall, São Paulo JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 145-164

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JISTEM - Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 165-186 ISSN online: 1807-1775 DOI: 10.4301/S1807-17752015000100009

A PESQUISA DESIGN SCIENCE NO BRASIL SEGUNDO AS PUBLICAÇÕES EM ADMINISTRAÇÃO DA INFORMAÇÃO DESIGN SCIENCE RESEARCH IN BRAZIL ACCORDING TO INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PUBLISHING José Osvaldo De Sordi Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas (FMU), Brazil Marcia Carvalho de Azevedo Federal University of São Paulo UNIFESP Osasco/SP, Brazil Manuel Meireles Faculdade Campo Limpo Paulista FACCAMP Araçariguama /SP, Brazil ___________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT This paper performs a literature review of research papers published by the Brazilian Academy of Information Management, with the purpose of analyzing how much the main design science (DS) research principles are applied and how they are put in practice. The research sample was extracted from 257 papers published in this area of study, from the annals of the EnANPAD, between 2008 and 2012. The expressed interest of the researchers in DS was noticed, taking into account the fact that there are research papers published related to the development of new artifacts. Such papers, however, did not address central aspects of DS, such as the association of an artifact with problems in the business environment, substantiating the use of an artifact by means of tests with variables associated with the problem.

Keywords: Design science; artifact; science of the artificial; research method; utility.

______________________________________________________________________________________ Manuscript first received/Recebido em: 21/05/2013

Manuscript accepted/Aprovado em: 17/04/2014

Address for correspondence / Endereço para correspondência

José Osvaldo De Sordi, Doutor em Administração pela FGV-EAESP, docente-pesquisador do programa de mestrado profissional em Administração da FACCAMP e consultor nas áreas da gestão da informação e gestão por processos. Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas (FMU), Brasil, E-mail: osdesordi@gmail.com Marcia Carvalho de Azevedo, Doutora em Administração pela FGV-EAESP, docente do curso de Administração da UNIFESP-Osasco. Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP- Osasco) Docente do curso de Administração Endereço: rua Angélica, 100, Osasco/SP, Brasil, 06132-380 E-mail: marciacarvalhoazevedo@gmail.com Manuel Meireles, Doutor em Engenharia pela POLI-USP, docente-pesquisador do programa de mestrado profissional em Administração da FACCAMP. Faculdade Campo Limpo Paulista (FACCAMP) Docente-pesquisador do programa de mestrado profissional em Administração Endereço: rua Guatemala, n° 167, Campo Limpo Paulista/SP, Brasil, 13231-230 E-mail: profmeireles@uol.com.br Published by/ Publicado por: TECSI FEA USP – 2015 All rights reserved.

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RESUMO Este artigo realiza uma revisão da literatura das pesquisas publicadas pela academia brasileira de administração da informação com o objetivo de analisar o quanto se aplica e como se pratica os princípios da pesquisa design science (DS). A amostra da pesquisa foi extraída de 257 artigos publicados por esta área, nos anais do EnANPAD, no período 2008-2012. Observou-se o interesse manifesto dos pesquisadores pela DS, considerando que há publicações referentes ao desenvolvimento de novos artefatos. Estas pesquisas, porém, não observaram aspectos centrais da DS, como: associação do artefato a problemas do ambiente de negócios e evidenciação da utilidade do artefato por meio de testes com variáveis associadas ao problema.

Palavras-chave: Design science, artefato, ciência do artificial, método de pesquisa, utilidade.

1.

INTRODUÇÃO

Embora frequentemente associada a métodos de pesquisa das áreas de medicina e engenharia, a pesquisa design science aplica-se a diversas outras áreas da ciência, como a arquitetura, a ciência da computação, sistemas de informação, planejamento urbano, contabilidade, educação e administração (Baldwin & Clark, 2000).

A administração por ser uma área aplicada, com muita inserção de entidades artificiais, aqui denominadas de artefatos, é uma das áreas da ciência com grande potencial para aplicação da pesquisa design science (Van Aken & Romme, 2009). No campo da Administração, as pesquisas design science concentram-se fortemente na área da gestão de sistemas de informação (Truex, Cuellar, & Takeda, 2009; Orlikowski & Iacono, 2001).

A definição e fundamentação da pesquisa design science datam da década de 1960 do século XX. A primeira definição do termo ocorreu nos trabalhos de Fuller e McHale (1963). Em 1968, publicou-se a primeira edição do livro Ciência do Artificial, de Herbert Simon (1996), que divulgou o estudo científico do artificial, como uma postura distinta da ciência predominante, direcionada ao estudo do natural.

O trabalho de Simon (1996) motivou o desenvolvimento da metodologia científica design science direcionada a projetos de artefatos relevantes, sistemáticos e formalizados para as muitas disciplinas e profissões orientadas ao conceito de projetos de artefatos. Epistemologicamente, a pesquisa design science incorpora características típicas de paradigmas de pesquisa pragmáticos: centradas em problemas, voltadas para consequências e orientadas para prática do cotidiano, do fazer.

Ao comparar a estruturação e aplicação de abordagens de pesquisa associadas ao tradicional paradigma de pesquisa positivista, com abordagens associadas aos demais paradigmas de pesquisa como o pragmático, o construtivista e o reivindicatório-participante, observa-se que estas últimas abordagens estão em fase de desenvolvimento, estruturação e divulgação (Creswell, 2007). A pesquisa design science, de natureza pragmática, é uma dessas recentes abordagens científicas; pouco conhecida e, consequentemente, pouco praticada pelos pesquisadores. Apesar das publicações referentes às pesquisas brasileiras da área de administração não mencionarem a pesquisa design science (De Sordi, Meireles, & Sanches, 2011), os JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 165-186

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autores desta pesquisa entendem que a essência da pesquisa design science deva estar presente em muitas das publicações, ou seja, voltam-se ao desenvolvimento e divulgação de artefatos úteis aos praticantes da área de administração, dos gestores organizacionais de empresas com fins lucrativos ou não e de quaisquer portes. Esta percepção foi o motivador da presente pesquisa que objetiva investigar o quanto se aplica e como se pratica os princípios da pesquisa design science nas pesquisas publicadas pela academia brasileira de administração da informação.

Para fins de obter a amostra, foram definidos os artigos publicados nas bases de dados do Encontro da Associação Nacional de Pós-graduação e Pesquisa em Administração (EnANPAD), mais especificamente os 257 artigos publicados nos anais da área de Administração da Informação, durante o período de 2008 a 2012.

A escolha desta base foi em função de ser o registro do maior e o mais importante congresso brasileiro da área da administração. Além disso, essa base disponibiliza todos seus artigos em mídia digital, o que permite a aplicação do software SearchInform Desktop para busca (query) eletrônica das palavras-chave.

Quanto à escolha da área de Administração da Informação, ocorreu em função de ser a mais próxima da área de informática: uma das áreas originárias e de maior aplicação da pesquisa design science.

A próxima seção apresenta os conceitos da pesquisa design science, com a descrição de diretrizes e fases para sua aplicação segundo seus principais praticantes e conceituadores. A terceira seção apresenta o método da pesquisa, descrevendo os procedimentos quantitativos e qualitativos utilizados, respectivamente, para discussão do “quanto se aplica” e “como se pratica” a pesquisa design science nas pesquisas brasileiras da área de administração da informação que abordam artefatos. A quarta seção apresenta as análises e discussões e, concluindo o texto, a quinta seção apresenta as conclusões.

2.

CONCEITO DA PESQUISA DESIGN SCIENCE

A pesquisa design science volta-se para resolução de problemas a partir da aplicação de novos conhecimentos científicos, essencialmente pragmática. Enquanto muitos paradigmas de pesquisa científica objetivam descobrir “o que é verdade”, a ciência do design busca identificar o “o que é eficaz” (Hevner et al., 2004). “As questões fundamentais abordadas pela pesquisa design science são: “quão útil é este novo artefato?”, isto é, “o quanto o artefato atende a uma necessidade relevante?” e “o que demonstra esta utilidade?” (Hevner et al., 2004, p.91)". Evidências devem ser apresentadas para resolver estas questões.

O novo conhecimento projetado para resolução de problemas, o design, tem de ser aplicado na resolução de problemas específicos, daí o emprego do termo artefato para o conhecimento gerado pela pesquisa design science. São muitas as formas possíveis de artefatos a serem desenvolvidos no campo da administração. Pode ser um método, um processo, um questionário, uma fórmula analítica, uma escala para classificação, entre outros. A diversidade de formas possíveis para o artefato está explicitada pelo emprego do termo design para denominar a abordagem. O Manual de Oslo, que aborda a inovação nas organizações, apresenta uma nota técnica que define bem a grande amplitude do termo design (Organisation, 1997, p.23):

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De Sordi, J. O., Azevedo, M. C. de, Meireles, M. A palavra design, na língua inglesa, pode ter diferentes interpretações, além da mais conhecida pelos brasileiros ligada a estilo, moda, layout do produto. As demais acepções dessa palavra aparecem neste Manual e são traduzidas pelos seus sentidos. Empregam-se assim, além da palavra “design”, as palavras “concepção”, “desenho”, “delineamento” e “formulação”.

Segundo Simon (1996), o “espaço do problema” é definido pela ciência do artificial (science of design) como a diferença entre a “situação presente” e a “situação desejada”. A ciência do artificial postula que utilidade e decisões estatísticas sejam empregadas para definir o “espaço do problema”, assim como as “técnicas de pesquisa” sejam as ações necessárias para diminuir a diferença entre “situação presente” e a “situação desejada”. Destarte, a fundamentação da pesquisa design science para construção dos artefatos são as técnicas de pesquisa científica.

Hevner et al. (2004) sistematizaram um conjunto de sete diretrizes que se tornaram referência para pesquisadores, revisores, editores e leitores no que concerne à compreensão do método de pesquisa design science. Tais diretrizes devem ser criteriosamente observadas pelos pesquisadores que pratiquem a pesquisa design science. As sete diretrizes são descritas a seguir.

2.1. Diretrizes para prática da pesquisa design science DIRETRIZ 1: O objeto de estudo deve ser um artefato.

Artefato é tudo o que não é natural, algo construído pelo homem (Simon, 1996). Os princípios da design science têm suas raízes na engenharia das coisas artificiais. Os sistemas de informação (SI) são um perfeito exemplo de sistemas artificiais, implementados dentro das organizações com o objetivo de incrementar a eficiência desta. Tais sistemas não obedecem às leis naturais ou às teorias comportamentais, pelo contrário, a criação deles confia num núcleo de teorias que são aplicadas, testadas, modificadas e expandidas por meio da experiência, criatividade, intuição e capacidade de resolver problemas do pesquisador (Markus, Majchrzak, & Gasser, 2002; Walls, Widmeyer, & Sawy, 1992).

Orlikowski e Iacono (2001) apontam a área de SI como uma das mais envolvidas com artefatos tecnológicos. São exemplos de artefatos, especialmente no campo de SI: constructos, modelos, métodos e geradores de instâncias (“instantiations”). Instantiations em design science são exemplos concretos, como modelos ou protótipos.

DIRETRIZ 2: O problema abordado pelo artefato deve ser relevante aos praticantes.

A fundamentação e declaração de um problema de pesquisa para pesquisa design science é distinta da encontrada em outras abordagens. Difere muito, por exemplo, do modelo de deficiências, amplamente empregado por pesquisadores da área de ciências sociais (Ellis & Levy, 2008). Um problema para pesquisa design science precisa ser motivador, interessante e a sua solução tem de ser útil aos usuários (Hevner et al., 2004). A design science volta-se para soluções de base tecnológica que, no campo da Administração, pode ser atrelada a importantes problemas e desafios empresariais. Neste contexto, um problema pode ser definido como a diferença entre um objetivo-meta e o corrente estado do sistema (Simon, 1996). Resolver o problema, JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 165-186

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dessa forma, consiste em desenvolver ações para reduzir ou eliminar as diferenças.

Além da organização ser um artefato complexo, há o desafio contínuo do alcance de metas. Metas devem ser alcançadas respeitando as condições necessárias de atuação, impostas pelos grupos de interesse, que são: Clientes (qualidade, preço); Empregados (salários, empregos); Governo (impostos, condições de trabalho). Estes objetivos da organização engendram, consequentemente, problemas empresariais e oportunidades frequentemente relacionados a custo e renda. Para isso, os artefatos passam a ser utilizados para contribuir para tais objetivos. Tais problemas relacionados ao aumento de eficácia, à elevação da eficiência, à redução de custos ou de prazos passam a ser relevantes porquanto estão associados à sobrevivência da empresa.

DIRETRIZ 3: A Avaliação da utilidade do artefato deve ser rigorosa.

A utilidade, qualidade e eficácia da design science devem ser demonstradas rigorosamente por meio de métodos precisos para avaliação do resultado produzido (Hevner et al, 2004). Avaliação é um componente crucial do processo de pesquisa. A avaliação do resultado da design science é frequentemente fundamentada nas exigências empresariais, de forma geral, associadas ao contexto da utilidade, qualidade e beleza (estilo) do artefato produzido.

A avaliação inclui também a integração do artefato com a infraestrutura técnica do ambiente do negócio. De acordo com Johansson et al. (2003), no ambiente da Tecnologia da Informação, os artefatos podem ser avaliados em termos da sua funcionalidade, da perfeição, da consistência, precisão, desempenho, confiabilidade, facilidade de uso, ajuste à organização, entre outros atributos de qualidade pertinentes.

Quando métricas analíticas são apropriadas, os artefatos projetados podem ser avaliados matematicamente. Como exemplo, os resultados dos algoritmos de busca podem ser avaliados rigorosamente em termos da precisão, comparando o que se retorna (resultados) com o que há para se explorar na base (princípio da revocação) (Salton, 1988).

DIRETRIZ 4: Deve haver contribuição efetiva para a área de conhecimento do artefato.

Uma questão fundamental em qualquer tipo de pesquisa é: “quais são as contribuições inovadoras e interessantes que a pesquisa proporciona?”. No ambiente de SI, os artefatos têm que representar o negócio. A síntese disso é que a pesquisa deve demonstrar uma clara contribuição para o ambiente empresarial, resolvendo um problema importante, até então em aberto. Segundo Hevner et al. (2004), a design science tem potencial para produzir três tipos de contribuições na área de SI:  projeto do artefato. Uma das contribuições da design science é a criação do próprio artefato (Hevner et al., 2004). O artefato deve ser uma solução para um problema até então não solucionado. Pode constituir-se numa expansão da base do conhecimento ou a aplicação de conhecimento existente sob uma ótica inovadora.

A pesquisa em SI abrange a aplicação em ambiente apropriado. Metodologias para desenvolvimento de sistemas, projetos de ferramentas e protótipos de sistemas são exemplos de artefatos;  ampliação dos fundamentos. Os resultados da design science possibilitam que sejam feitas adições à base de conhecimentos existente. Os resultados da design science podem ser definição de constructos, métodos ou extensões de técnicas que melhorem as teorias, as estruturas (frameworks), os instrumentos, conceitos, modelos, métodos e protótipos existentes, ou

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incrementem a base de conhecimentos referentes a técnicas de análise de dados, procedimentos, medidas e critérios de validação; e  desenvolvimento de novas metodologias. O criativo desenvolvimento e uso de métodos de avaliação possibilitam a contribuição da pesquisa design science para o desenvolvimento de novas metodologias. Hevner et al. (2004) consideram que medidas e métricas para avaliação são componentes cruciais da pesquisa, constituem-se, também, em contribuição da design science para a expansão da base de conhecimento existente.

DIRETRIZ 5: Pesquisa rigorosa.

Pesquisa por meio de design science requer a aplicação de métodos rigorosos, tanto na construção como na avaliação do projeto do artefato. O rigor é avaliado frequentemente pela aderência da pesquisa a uma apropriada coleção de dados e a análises técnicas corretas. Neste aspecto, a design science segue os mesmos princípios que norteiam as demais abordagens de pesquisa científica.

DIRETRIZ 6: Uso eficiente de recursos.

Empregam-se recursos disponíveis para se alcançar os fins, satisfazendo todas as leis do ambiente pertinente ao problema, sem efeitos colaterais. Uma pesquisa bem conduzida requer conhecimento tanto do domínio de aplicação quanto do domínio da solução. O artefato ou seu processo de criação é a melhor solução num dado espaçotempo. A natureza interativa do processo de projeto permite contínuo feedback entre as fases de construção, para incrementar a qualidade resultante do sistema objeto de estudo.

DIRETRIZ 7: Comunicação dos resultados aos praticantes.

Os resultados da pesquisa design science são divulgados a diversas audiências com detalhes adequados a cada uma. As apresentações consideram detalhes específicos de acordo com o público-alvo. Os praticantes, aqueles que utilizarão o artefato, estão entre as audiências centrais das divulgações acerca do artefato objeto da pesquisa design science. Neste aspecto, observam-se as mesmas recomendações de outra abordagem pragmática, o Estudo de Caso, que recomenda a elaboração de um texto específico - a “versão popular” - para comunicar os resultados da pesquisa além do público acadêmico-científico, abrangendo os praticantes, no caso da administração, os gestores. Yin (2001, p.163) faz a seguinte recomendação: “o resultado é um estudo de caso interessante e informativo, cuja versão popular – publicada em um periódico profissional do local – é divertida e fácil de ler”. Quanto à forma de comunicar as inovações obtidas pela pesquisa design science, duas abordagens são possíveis, a descritiva e a prescritiva, explicadas em maiores detalhes no subtópico a seguir.

2.2. Fases da pesquisa segundo a pesquisa design science Gab et al. (2012) pesquisaram as taxionomias epistemológicas propostas para classificar o tipo de conhecimento gerado pela pesquisa design science. Eles identificaram duas taxionomias como sendo as centrais: a de Kuechler e Vaishnavi (2008), abrangendo dois tipos, e a de Iivari (2007), que apresenta estrutura similar à anterior, porém com um tipo a mais. Os três tipos de conhecimento gerado pela pesquisa design science, segundo estas taxionomias, são:  Conhecimento Descritivo - proveniente das ciências naturais e das ciências sociais, serve como entrada para design science por sugerir técnicas ou novas abordagens para resolução de problemas (Iivari, 2007; Kuechler&Vaishnavi, 2008); JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 165-186

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 Conhecimento Prescritivo - fornece prescrições explícitas de como fazer algo. Além das características do artefato, fornece as normas tecnológicas e as regras que determinam como alcançar um resultado desejado, em uma situação particular, com a utilização do artefato (Iivari, 2007; Kuechler, &Vaishnavi, 2008);  Conhecimento Conceitual - inclui conceitos, classificações e estruturas conceituais (framework) a respeito de determinado problema ou oportunidade para aplicação da pesquisa design science (Iivari, 2007).

Os aspectos comuns das taxionomias de Gab et al. (2012), que se ocupa da forma - prescritiva ou descritiva - como o conhecimento é apresentado, e de Iivari (2007), Kuechler e Vaishnavi (2008), que se ocupam das normas tecnológicas e das regras que determinam como alcançar um resultado desejado, indicam dois momentos do ciclo de desenvolvimento do artefato tecnológico: sua proposição na forma de proposta (descritiva) e sua apresentação na forma de como operacionalizá-lo (prescritiva).

As diretrizes de Hevner et al. (2004) para pesquisa design science agregam um terceiro estágio para o artefato: sua validação rigorosa com comprovada utilidade no contexto da área fim na qual o artefato se propõe a colaborar. Neste ponto é importante observar que há diferentes finalidades de testes: para construção e validação da lógica do artefato, por exemplo, a encontrada na proposição de uma escala, e o teste de utilidade do artefato, que deve estar associado a uma variável pertinente a um problema ou oportunidade do ambiente de negócios.

A figura 1 descreve estes diferentes momentos do ciclo de desenvolvimento do artefato; os testes para construção e validação do artefato estão declarados como “artefato funcional”, enquanto que os testes para análise de utilidade estão descritos como “artefato testado”.

Figura 1 – Fases da pesquisa design science e os diferentes momentos do ciclo de desenvolvimento do artefato tecnológico

3.

PROCEDIMENTOS OPERACIONAIS DA PESQUISA

Esta pesquisa analisa aspectos quantitativos e qualitativos das pesquisas brasileiras da área de Administração da Informação que abordam artefatos. Estes aspectos estão destacados pelos termos “quanto se aplica” e “como se pratica” presentes na redação do objetivo da pesquisa. Para definição do conjunto de atividades JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 165-186

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e das técnicas de pesquisas a serem aplicadas, os seguintes objetivos específicos foram definidos: a) identificar a base de artigos científicos representativa da produção brasileira na área de administração; b) identificar a partir da base de artigos científicos, as pesquisas que objetivaram apresentar um artefato à academia (primeira diretriz de Hevner et al.

(2004)); c) para as pesquisas voltadas para artefatos, verificar o estágio do artefato apresentado, se uma proposta de artefato, se testado funcionalmente ou se amplamente testado por profissionais e/ou no contexto da área fim; d) para as pesquisas voltadas para artefatos, analisar as que associam o artefato ao ambiente de negócios vinculando-o com uma ou mais variável relacionada ao problema ou oportunidade do ambiente de negócios (segunda diretriz de Hevner et al. (2004)); e) para as pesquisas voltadas para artefatos, analisar as que buscaram comprovar a utilidade do artefato com testes envolvendo evidências associadas às variáveis do problema ou oportunidade do ambiente de negócios (terceira diretriz de Hevner et al. (2004)); f) para as pesquisas voltadas para artefatos, verificar a forma de apresentação do mesmo, se o novo conhecimento é apresentado de forma prescritiva ou descritiva (taxionomias analisadas por Gab et al. (2012)); g) para as pesquisas voltadas para artefatos, verificar a divulgação destas para público distinto do acadêmico-científico, ou seja, publicação da “versão popular” voltada para praticantes, no caso os gestores (sétima diretriz de Hevner et al. (2004)).

Os dois primeiros objetivos específicos (“a” e “b”) auxiliaram a definir a amostra da pesquisa e, consequentemente, respondem pela parte quantitativa do objetivo da pesquisa: “quanto se aplica”, ou seja, quantas pesquisas intencionaram realizar uma pesquisa pragmática na forma de apresentação de um artefato à academia.

Os demais objetivos específicos abordam a parte qualitativa, o “como se aplica”: o assunto estágio de desenvolvimento do artefato (uma proposta de artefato, artefato já funcional ou artefato testado) tratado pelo objetivo específico “c”; a percepção e comprovação da utilidade do artefato a partir de testes associados a variáveis de problemas ou oportunidades do ambiente de negócios, assunto tratado pelos objetivos específicos “d” e “e”; a forma de apresentação do artefato, se ocorre de forma prescritiva ou descritiva, assunto tratado pelo objetivo específico “f”, e a divulgação do artefato aos praticantes, tratado pelo objetivo específico “g”.

3.1.Procedimentos operacionais quantitativa (“quanto se aplica”)

para

análise

da

parte

Para o primeiro objetivo específico, de definição da base de artigos científicos representativa da produção brasileira na área de administração, optou-se por trabalhar com a base de dados do Encontro da Associação Nacional de Pós-graduação e Pesquisa em Administração (EnANPAD), mais especificamente os 257 apresentados na área temática de Administração da Informação durante o período de 2008 a 2012.

A escolha desta base foi em função do EnANPAD ser o maior e mais importante congresso brasileiro da área da administração. Quanto à escolha pela área JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 165-186

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temática Administração da Informação, se deu em função de ser a mais pertinente com a área de Gestão de Sistemas de Informação, que é a área da Administração que concentra a maior quantidade de pesquisas empregando a pesquisa design science (Truex, Cuellar, & Takeda, 2009).

Para o segundo objetivo específico, de identificar as pesquisas que objetivaram apresentar um artefato à academia, realizaram-se três atividades. A primeira atividade, de análise da base de artigos do EnANPAD, envolveu a realização de uma pesquisa do tipo scanning que teve como critério de pesquisa a existência no corpo de texto dos artigos do termo ARTEFATO ou ARTIFACT. O software utilizado para esta análise foi o SearchInform Desktop. Ao final desta etapa foram pré-selecionados 15 artigos para análise intensiva. Na segunda etapa da pesquisa, ainda como pré-seleção de textos para leitura intensiva, aplicou-se a leitura do tipo skimming no título, resumo e introdução de todos os 257 artigos do universo definido. Esta análise agregou outros 11 artigos aos 15 já pré-selecionados da primeira etapa, totalizando 26 artigos.

A terceira atividade envolveu a leitura intensiva dos 26 artigos com aplicação da técnica de análise de conteúdo, tendo como códigos de análise: a descrição do artefato e o público-alvo ao qual o artefato se destina. Nesta atividade observou-se que algumas pesquisas apenas discutiam e testavam artefatos de terceiros, ou seja, não apresentavam novos artefatos. Ao término desta terceira atividade a amostra da pesquisa foi reduzida a 17 artigos.

3.2.Procedimentos operacionais qualitativa (“como se pratica”)

para

análise

da

parte

Para os quatro primeiros objetivos específicos pertinentes à parte qualitativa, do “como se aplica”, aplicou-se a técnica de análise de conteúdo aos 17 artigos da amostra, resultantes dos procedimentos operacionais para análise da parte quantitativa.

Esta segunda aplicação da técnica da análise de conteúdo objetivou identificar evidências associadas aos seguintes códigos de análise:  estágio do artefato (objetivo específico “c”) – conteúdos que denotem o estado do artefato em destaque pela pesquisa, se apenas uma proposição de artefato a ser desenvolvido, se trata-se de um artefato já desenvolvido e com os testes necessário para tal, ou se artefato já está com a utilidade testada por profissionais e/ou no contexto da área fim;  vínculo do artefato ao ambiente de negócios (objetivo específico “d”) – conteúdos que associem o artefato com uma variável que denote problema ou oportunidade junto ao ambiente de negócios;  utilidade do artefato (objetivo específico “e”) – conteúdos que demonstrem evidências da utilidade do artefato no sentido de explorar a oportunidade ou dirimir o problema;  forma de apresentar o artefato ao leitor (objetivo específico “f”) - se o tempo verbal empregado direciona para ação, de forma a compor ações prescritivas, ou se apenas limita-se a descrever o artefato.

Todos os códigos analisados foram trabalhados individualmente por três pesquisadores da equipe. Os resultados dessas análises foram, na sequência, consolidados e os pontos de divergências identificados e discutidos pela equipe de JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 165-186

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pesquisadores. Praticou-se nesta pesquisa a utilização de múltiplos analistas, também denominada de triangulação de pesquisadores (Patton, 1987 apud Yin, 2001, p. 121).

Para o objetivo específico “g” a pesquisa concentrou-se não no texto dos artigos da amostra, mas em derivações desses, mais especificamente na divulgação dos achados da pesquisa aos praticantes, por intermédio da publicação da “versão popular”. Para isto, realizaram-se pesquisas nos currículos (Lattes do CNPq) de cada um dos autores das 17 pesquisas da amostra. As pesquisas concentraram-se na identificação de textos similares ao título do artigo e ao nome do artefato.

O objetivo desta ação foi identificar a comunicação do artefato a praticantes, por intermédio da publicação em canais distintos daqueles utilizados pelo público acadêmico-científico como revistas técnicas, revistas de associação de classe, revistas especializadas em comunidades de profissionais e demais revistas comerciais. Além da pesquisa ao currículo dos autores, repetiram-se os mesmos critérios de pesquisa para o conteúdo disponível na Internet, utilizando-se das ferramentas de pesquisa avançada do software Google.

4.

ANÁLISES E DISCUSSÕES

Os 17 artigos identificados pelas análises, como publicações de pesquisas associadas a artefatos, estão descritos na figura 2. Ao longo das análises, estes artigos da amostra são referenciados pelo código do artigo, conforme consta nos anais das cinco edições do congresso e declarado na segunda coluna da figura 2.

Quantitativamente, esses 17 artigos correspondem a 6,6% do total de 257 artigos analisados. Isto demonstra que há a intenção manifesta dos pesquisadores brasileiros da área de administração da informação pelo desenvolvimento de artefatos em suas pesquisas. Embora as publicações de pesquisas com desenvolvimento de artefatos tenham sido encontradas em todas as edições analisadas do congresso EnANPAD (2008-2012), observa-se maior presença destas nas duas últimas edições: 5 pesquisas publicadas em 2012 e 5 em 2011, conforme observa-se na figura 2.

Não se pode atribuir esta leve tendência de crescimento de publicações envolvendo artefatos ao cenário internacional da pesquisa design science, caracterizado pelo crescente aumento de publicações e divulgação da mesma (Van Aken & Romme, 2009), considerando que nenhum dos 17 artigos da amostra faz menção explícita à pesquisa design science. O nome do método de pesquisa indicado pelos autores das pesquisas da amostra está descrito na última coluna da figura 2.

Em alguns artigos há a declaração apenas da técnica de pesquisa, nestes casos se declarou a técnica. A não citação à pesquisa design science, nas publicações analisadas, está coerente com pesquisa recente que não encontrou nenhuma citação a essa abordagem nas publicações das principais revistas brasileiras da área de administração (De Sordi, Meireles, & Sanches, 2011).

Figura 2 – Pesquisas abrangendo desenvolvimento de artefatos e publicadas nos anais do EnANPAD referentes ao período de 2008 a 2012

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T i p o

C ó d i g o A n o

d o

d e

Descrição do Artefato

A r t i g o

A D I 2 6

2 0 1 2

2 0 1 1

A D I 1 0 3 1 A D I 1 0 5 3 A D I 1 2 0 3 A D I 1 7 0 7 A D I 1 8 1 A D I 4

procedimentos para análise das dimensões origem e natureza do insumo/conteúdo utilizado

C o n h e c i m e n t o

P

175

E s t á g i o D e s e n v . d o A r t e f a t o

Método / Técnica Declarado pelos Autores

1

bibliográfico com análises nãoparamétricas

N a t u r e z a d o A r t e f a t o

Público-alvo (profissional)

P

knowledge workers que coletam conteúdo em campo, analisam e publicam (analistas, pesquisadores, jornalistas...)

1

qualitativa com uso de diagramas de fluxo

aplicativo web (especificado e desenvolvido) para gerenciar versões (releases) de software

D

S

gestores de informática que necessitam controlar versões conforme recomendações da ITIL

abordagem parar avaliar acessibilidade de web pages empregando lógica fuzzy

D

Q

gestores de qualidade de web sites

3

quali-quanti com uso da lógica fuzzy

Q

gestores de recursos humanos e gestores públicos responsáveis pela inclusão digital

3

survey (n=246)

2

survey (n=165)

3

simulação com algoritmos genéticos

1

método de análise hierárquica (ahp)

instrumento para mensurar o nível de inclusão digital individual

D

instrumentos para identificação de fatores influenciadores na aquisição e implantação de sistemas de informação nas micro e pequenas empresas (MPEs)

D

Q

gestores de informática que contratam e/ou implantam sistemas de informação nas MPEs

algoritmo para gestão da carteira de clientes e gerenciamento do schedule diário da força de vendas bancária via web

D

S

gestores da área comercial com vendedores em campo visitando clientes

S

técnicos e gerentes de regulação de áreas portuárias privatizadas

metodologia para hierarquização de áreas com fins de rateio de investimentos em questões de arrendamento de área portuária

D

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2 0 1 0

2 0 0 9

2 0 0 8

A D I 1 5 1 8 A D I 1 9 5 6 A D I 2 4 1 2 A D I 2 7 0 1 A D I 4 4 1 A D I A 2 3 4 1

instrumento para análise de percepção sobre usabilidade de web sites

D

Q

gestores de qualidade de web sites

1

survey (n=21)

ferramenta para cálculo de retorno de investimento de projetos da área de tecnologia da informação

D

P

gestores de projetos

2

observação não participante

modelo de referência para avaliação de portais turísticos com suporte da gestão do conhecimento

D

Q

gestores de qualidade de web sites

2

pesquisa triangular

matriz de identificação e controle de riscos associados à informação

D

P

administradores da informação

1

estudo de caso

sistemática para melhoria do valor da empresa através da influência do clima organizacional nos intangíveis

P

P

gestores da ala administração ou gestores de capital intelectual

1

exploratória descritiva

escala para avaliar o nível de valoração da informação na organização e o nível de estruturação do processo de informação estratégica

D

E

administradores da informação

1

análise fatorial

escala para mensurar os impactos das variáveis culturais na segurança da informação

D

E

administradores da informação

1

survey (n=80)

aspectos a serem considerados na elaboração de uma avaliação de acessibilidade web sites

P

Q

gestores de qualidade de web sites

1

estudo de múltiplos casos (n=3)

método para definição de requisitos de negócios orientados por processos

D

P

analistas e gestores de processos

3

pesquisa-ação, exploratória

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A D I método para avaliação da tecnologia da A gestores que comandam observação informação para empresas em processo de P P 3 2 fusões organizacionais participante fusão e aquisição 6 7 5 Legendas: Tipo de conhecimento - (D) descritivo, (P) prescritivo, (C) conceitual Natureza do artefato -(S) software, (P) procedimento operacional, (Q) questionário (E) escala Estágio de desenvolvimento do artefato - (1) proposta de artefato sem testes, (2) artefato com teste funcional (caso ou casos), (3) artefato com teste prático em campo com profissionais e/ou no contexto da área fim

Foram identificadas quatro variedades de artefatos nos 17 artigos da amostra: software, procedimento operacional, questionário e escala analítica.

A figura 2 traz essa informação na coluna “natureza do artefato”. As quantidades de artefatos identificados, segundo sua natureza, foram: três softwares, seis procedimentos operacionais, seis questionários e duas escalas analíticas.

Observa-se que o “público-alvo (profissional)” destes artefatos é composto predominantemente por profissionais da área de gestão de sistemas de informação, como administradores da informação e gestores de qualidade de web sites. Entre os 17 trabalhos, nove foram voltados para profissionais da área de sistemas de informação, os oito restantes foram para áreas bastante diversificadas. As quatro variedades de artefatos e os diferentes profissionais da área de gestão de sistemas de informação auxiliam a compreender a predominância desta área como a maior praticante da pesquisa design science dentre todas as subáreas da administração (Truex, Cuellar, & Takeda, 2009). É importante destacar o trabalho minucioso e necessário de análise da descrição do artefato, a fim de distinguir a pesquisa que apresenta novo conhecimento científico na forma de artefato, das pesquisas com outros propósitos, que aplicam ou testam artefatos já existentes. No limiar das fronteiras entre o novo e a aplicação de artefatos já existentes, encontra-se o novo artefato, composto pela junção e adaptação de artefatos já existentes, conforme identificado no artigo (ADI530): O instrumento de coleta contém 62 perguntas que foram aplicadas em cada um dos sites da amostra por cada um dos avaliadores. As perguntas foram baseadas em artigo de Santinho (2001) e publicação de Nielsen e Mack (1994), juntamente com o referencial teórico extraído dos fundamentos que suportam a usabilidade, principalmente aqueles advindos da norma técnica NBR 9241-11 (2002) e de autores da área da usabilidade (BASTIEN e SCAPIN, 1993; DIAS, 2007; CYBIS, 2007; KALBACH, 2009). (ADI530, p.9)

Das 17 pesquisas descritas pelos artigos da amostra, cinco delas desenvolveram teste de utilidade do artefato junto ao contexto e profissionais da área fim. Este fato está descrito na coluna “Estágio de Desenvolvimento do Artefato” da figura 2. Dos 17 artigos analisados, nove pesquisas apresentaram uma proposta de artefato e três apresentaram um artefato funcional, abrangendo teste para construção e validação da lógica do artefato.

Doze pesquisas (71%) não se preocuparam em testar a utilidade do artefato junto ao contexto e profissionais da área fim. Embora isto seja uma deficiência pensando em termos de pesquisa pragmática com pesquisa design science, não pode ser considerada uma deficiência das pesquisas analisadas, considerando que nenhuma JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 165-186

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delas declarou a aplicação da pesquisa design science, conforme pode se constatar na última coluna da figura 2.

Outro aspecto de análise qualitativa dos 17 artigos da amostra é quanto à determinação do tipo de conhecimento associado ao artefato descrito pela pesquisa: se prescritivo ou descritivo (Gabet al., 2012). Para esta análise definiu-se como código de interesse os verbos de ação e as instruções aos leitores do artigo, em especial, aqueles com objetivo de orientar o leitor quanto ao uso do artefato. Conforme indicado na coluna “Tipo de Conhecimento” da Figura 2, identificaram-se quatro conhecimentos prescritivos e 13 conhecimentos descritivos. A figura 3 apresenta as evidências das análises realizadas, mais especificamente, extratos de textos das quatro pesquisas associadas aos conhecimentos identificados como prescritivos.

O exercício da segunda e terceira diretrizes da pesquisa design science demanda dos pesquisadores especial atenção a dois aspectos (Hevner et al., 2004): a) associar o artefato a pelo menos uma variável do ambiente de negócios, que denote problema ou oportunidade, e b) apresentar evidências (dados ou informações) associadas a esta(s) variável(veis) do ambiente de negócio, a fim de comprovar a utilidade do artefato no sentido de explorar a oportunidade ou dirimir o problema.

Estas diretrizes são centrais da pesquisa design science, considerando que as outras cinco diretrizes são encontradas em diversas outras abordagens científicas. Estes dois aspectos foram definidos como códigos para análise de conteúdo dos 17 artigos da amostra, a fim de subsidiar a análise do quanto as pesquisas brasileiras da área de administração da informação, que desenvolvem artefatos, estão aderentes ou próximas das diretrizes específicas da abordagem design science.

Figura 3 – Evidências das quatro pesquisas da amostra identificadas como prescritivas Código do Artigo ADI 26 ADI 441

ADI A2675

ADI 1956

Extratos de textos que evidenciam o caráter prescritivo do conhecimento gerado Identifique a fonte de insumo que se pretende declarar (p.14); Analise a natureza do insumo fornecido pela fonte (p.14); Identifique o objeto e o objetivo da informação da qual a fonte [...] (p.14); Analise a origem do insumo fornecido pela fonte (p.14).

Escolher validadores automáticos com [...] (p.14); Corrigir erros detectados antes [...] (p.14); Registrar os problemas de acessibilidade [...] (p.14); Avaliar a necessidade de deslocar [...] (p.14). [...] a metodologia está composta da seguinte forma: a) Fase 1 – Pré-Avaliação: consiste no mapeamento das atividades [...] (p.8); [...] deve avaliar se a estratégia de TI está alinhada e suportando adequadamente a organização a que ela pertence. Torna-se importante também analisar se o planejamento está adequado com a perspectiva futura da[...] (p.9).

Etapa 2 – Determinar as dimensões relativas ao clima organizacional. Para identificar as dimensões relativas ao clima organizacional, a equipe de trabalho deverá analisar os diversos modelos [...] (p.8); Etapa 3 – Levantar os ativos intangíveis da empresa. Para identificar os ativos intangíveis da empresa, a equipe de trabalho entrevistará os gestores de cada área [...] (p.8).

A figura 4 apresenta o resultado da análise de conteúdo para a segunda e terceira diretrizes. Cinco pesquisas apresentaram artefatos de acordo com a segunda e terceira diretrizes. No outro extremo, oito pesquisas não atenderam nenhuma destas duas diretrizes. Uma pesquisa atendeu apenas à segunda diretriz, enquanto que outras três atenderam apenas à terceira diretriz. Os parágrafos a seguir analisam casos típicos de artigos que apresentam aderência às duas diretrizes, apresentando extratos do texto

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como evidências, bem como as análises dos que não atenderam, comentando como foi feita a justificativa para estas pesquisas.

Figura 4 – Observância das pesquisas a segunda e terceira diretrizes da pesquisa design science segundo Hevner et al. (2004)

A observância à segunda diretriz requer que o pesquisador associe o artefato a um problema de ambiente de negócio. Tomando como exemplo os cinco artigos que atenderam às duas diretrizes, as seguintes variáveis foram identificadas na justificativa do artefato: artigo (ADI181), variáveis distância percorrida e custo; artigo (ADI1053), variáveis usabilidade do web site e acessibilidade do web site; artigo (ADI1203), variável nível de inclusão digital do indivíduo; artigo (ADI2341), variáveis prazo do projeto e custo do projeto; artigo (ADI2675), variável custo de integração tecnológica.

Como exemplo, segue extrato do artigo (ADI181) em que tais variáveis são associadas ao problema de negócio ao qual o artefato se propõe a colaborar: [...] o principal problema de empresas na área de logística associada ao transporte é o roteamento de veículos cujo objetivo é encontrar um conjunto de rotas que partem de um único depósito para vários pontos de entrega com a característica de minimizar a distância total percorrida. [...] O objetivo é definir uma sequência de rotas que cada veículo deve seguir a fim de se atingir a minimização do custo de transporte.

(ADI181, p.2, grifo nosso)

A observância à terceira diretriz requer que o pesquisador demonstre a utilidade do artefato a partir da análise qualitativa e/ou quantitativa de evidências associadas às variáveis declaradas na justificativa do artefato. Tomando como exemplo o artigo (ADI181), o resumo das análises realizadas citando as variáveis foram assim apresentados: O resultado apresentado pelo sistema apresentou um ganho de 10 quilômetros rodados e além disso os dois clientes que deveriam ser visitados estavam na rota do gerente de conta. Ou seja, o modelo proposto possibilitou tanto uma econômica de recursos financeiros, uma vez que houve redução no total de quilômetros rodados [...] (ADI181, p.11, grifo nosso) JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 165-186

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O apêndice A apresenta extratos de textos associados às análises dos cinco artigos da amostra que atendem às segunda e terceira diretrizes da pesquisa design science segundo Hevner et al. (2004).

Quanto à divulgação dos resultados da pesquisa, do artefato útil e relevante para públicos distintos do acadêmico-científico, conforme sugerido pela sétima diretriz de Hevner et al. (2004), constatou-se que apenas um dos artefatos descritos nos 17 artigos científicos da amostra foi comunicado parcialmente à comunidade de praticantes. O artefato desenvolvido pela pesquisa descrita no artigo (ADI1053), uma abordagem para avaliar acessibilidade de web pages empregando lógica fuzzy, foi divulgado parcialmente na revista eletrônica Webinsider, voltada para profissionais que interagem com projetos de tecnologia, propaganda e novas mídias. A comunicação é de março de 2012 e está disponível no endereço Internet (URL): http://webinsider.uol.com.br/2012/03/12/o-comportamento-da-terceira-idade-no-consumo-online/

A contagem simples da observância e não observância dos artigos da amostra para segunda, terceira e sétima diretrizes da pesquisa design science já é significativa em termos de análises.

Para a segunda diretriz, que prescreve que o artefato deve estar associado a pelo menos uma variável importante do ambiente de negócio, apenas seis dos artigos analisados observaram tal característica da abordagem.

Para a terceira diretriz, que prescreve que o artefato deva ser útil, com testes abrangendo variáveis associadas ao problema, oito dos 17 artigos atenderam a este preceito.

Quanto à observância concomitante das segunda e terceira diretrizes, apenas cinco pesquisas (29%) o fizeram.

Para a sétima diretriz, divulgação dos resultados da pesquisa para públicos distintos do acadêmico-científico, apenas uma pesquisa a exercitou parcialmente. Estes números indicam que, embora os artigos da amostra abordem artefatos, em sua maioria, não exercitam importantes preceitos da pesquisa design science.

5.

CONCLUSÕES

Os procedimentos da pesquisa para responder à parte quantitativa do objetivo da pesquisa – “o quanto se aplica” – resultou na identificação de17 artigos associados a pesquisas que trabalharam com o desenvolvimento de artefatos. Isto corresponde a 6,6% do total de 257 artigos que constituíram o universo da pesquisa. Este número é relevante por demonstrar a intenção dos pesquisadores da área de administração da informação em desenvolver artefato e, principalmente, por mostrar que os pesquisadores que realizaram estas pesquisas não utilizaram uma abordagem específica e adequada para tal.

A análise do método de pesquisa declarado e praticado nas pesquisas evidenciou a não aplicação da pesquisa design science nas pesquisas publicadas em anais de congressos brasileiros da área de administração da informação. A não utilização de abordagem específica para artefatos, como seria o caso da aplicação da design science, torna as 17 pesquisas identificadas mais fidedignas e representativas em termos de motivação própria de seus autores em trabalhar no desenvolvimento de artefatos. A amostra trabalhada está isenta de um possível viés, do desejo de alguns

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dos autores em exercitar uma nova abordagem, ou seja, o foco na pesquisa design science e não no artefato em si.

A análise qualitativa dos 17 artigos associados às pesquisas que trabalharam com o desenvolvimento de artefatos permitiu responder à outra parte do objetivo geral: “o como se pratica” os princípios centrais da pesquisa design science nas pesquisas publicadas pela academia brasileira de administração. Neste ponto, observa-se que as práticas de pesquisa utilizadas estão bastante distintas dos principais postulados da pesquisa design science. Aspectos centrais desta abordagem não foram observados pelos autores das pesquisas analisadas como: associar o artefato a problemas ou oportunidades importantes do ambiente de negócios; evidenciar a utilidade do artefato, trabalhando nos testes com variáveis associadas ao problema ou oportunidade do ambiente de negócio; e divulgar o resultado da pesquisa, - o artefato -, aos praticantes que o utilizarão para resolução de problemas.

Destarte, das intenções declaradas no objetivo da pesquisa, constatou-se a prática do desenvolvimento de artefatos na academia brasileira de administração da informação, porém sem a observância a aspectos essenciais da pesquisa design science.

Caso, nas pesquisas analisadas, houvesse sido praticado preceitos da pesquisa design science para o desenvolvimento dos artefatos, provavelmente, as diretrizes 2, 3 e 7, teriam sido observadas, porquanto, esta metodologia direciona a atenção dos pesquisadores para tais aspectos. Isto auxiliaria na definição do “espaço do problema”, bem como das ações associadas ao artefato (constituído por técnicas de pesquisa), capazes de diminuir a diferença entre “situação presente” e a “situação desejada”, ou seja, artefato relevante, comprovadamente útil e divulgado aos seus potenciais usuários (Simon, 1996).

Em termos de qualidade da pesquisa científica isto representa um conjunto de valores bastante amplo para a Administração: pesquisa aplicada com utilidade comprovada e de impacto no contexto organizacional.

O desenvolvimento de artefatos, segundo os princípios da abordagem design science, é um dos meios que a academia contemporânea utiliza para responder às críticas recorrentes quanto à qualidade da produção científica: muito fragmentada, consequentemente difícil de ser aplicada a problemas concretos da sociedade, tornando-a pouco relevante (Van Aken&Romme, 2009).

A pesquisa design science tem sido intensamente utilizada em países reconhecidamente inovadores, apresentando-se como um formato interessante ao desenvolvimento de pesquisas aplicadas. A adoção deste tipo de abordagem pode fomentar a produção de conhecimento direcionado a questões práticas e mais facilmente aplicado a problemas organizacionais e sociais.

A abordagem design science é recente em termos de aplicação no campo da Administração (March & Storey, 2008) pelo que se pode inferir como uma justificativa para sua pouca difusão no contexto analisado.

Outro aspecto a ser analisado em novos estudos é a aparente forte aderência dos preceitos da pesquisa design science com os anseios de consolidação e desenvolvimento dos programas stricto sensu de mestrado profissional no Brasil.

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Truex, D.,Cuellar, M., &Takeda, H. (2009).Assessing Scholarly Influence: Using the Hirsch Indices to Reframe the Discourse. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 10 (7), 560-594.

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Apêndice A– Extratos de textos associados às análises dos cinco artigos da amostra que atendem à 2ª e 3ª diretrizes da pesquisa design science segundo Hevner et al.

(2004) C ód ig o A rti go

Diretriz 2 – associação do artefato a um problema de ambiente de negócio

Diretriz 3 – utilidade do artefato a partir de evidências

Artefato: Algoritmo para gestão da carteira de clientes e gerenciamento do schedule diário da força de vendas bancária via web Variável(veis) associada(s) ao problema:  distância percorrida  custo A DI 18 1

Extratos do texto associados á(s) variável(veis): [...] o principal problema de empresas na área de logística associada ao transporte é o roteamento de veículos cujo objetivo é encontrar um conjunto de rotas que partem de um único depósito para vários pontos de entrega com a característica de minimizar a distância total percorrida. [...] O objetivo é definir uma sequência de rotas que cada veículo deve seguir a fim de se atingir a minimização do custo de transporte. (p.2, grifo nosso)

Extratos do texto que demonstram evidências da utilidade do artefato: O resultado apresentado pelo sistema apresentou um ganho de 10 quilômetros rodados e além disso os dois clientes que deveriam ser visitados estavam na rota do gerente de conta. Ou seja, o modelo proposto possibilitou tanto uma economia de recursos financeiros, uma vez que houve redução no total de quilômetros rodados [...] (p.11, grifo nosso)

Artefato: Abordagem parar avaliar acessibilidade de web pages empregando lógica fuzzy Variável(veis) associada(s) ao problema:  usabilidade do web site  acessibilidade do web site Extratos do texto associados á(s) variável(veis):

A DI 10 53

[...] os idosos estão ativos e mais conscientes da sua importância econômica. Entretanto, inserir esses potenciais usuários no mundo digital, ou seja, adequar as interfaces para esse grupo, normalmente inexperiente, é um desafio (p.2, grifo nosso) [...] os idosos não possuem familiaridade com as novas Tecnologias de Informação, [...]

Além disso, necessitam suprir suas falhas psicomotoras e cognitivas, que começam a surgir em virtude da idade. (p.2, grifo nosso) [...]

Um projeto Web mal planejado pode significar um negócio fracassado ou ainda, a perda de potenciais consumidores.

Assim a usabilidade e acessibilidade passam a ser relevantes na garantia do sucesso da divulgação de um conteúdo de determinada organização, e na inclusão de usuários, que mesmo com algum tipo de limitação [...] (p.2, grifo nosso)

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Extratos do texto que demonstram evidências da utilidade do artefato: A avaliação de acessibilidade de um site está associada a fatores humanos de percepção e traz como retorno dados imprecisos. Logo, propõe-se o uso de lógica Fuzzy como apoio para criação de uma abordagem que possa atender a este cenário. (p.8, grifo nosso) [...] Para representar as avaliações imprecisas e subjetivas feitas pelos avaliadores, foram escolhidos conjuntos Fuzzy triangulares e trapezoidais [...] (p.9, grifo nosso) A abordagem proposta foi aplicada ao site da Receita Federal, o qual apresentou deficiência no aspecto acessibilidade. (p.14, grifo nosso)

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A pesquisa design science no Brasil segundo as publicações em administração da informação

185

Artefato: Instrumento para mensurar o nível de inclusão digital individual

A DI 12 03

Variável(veis) associada(s) ao problema:  nível de inclusão digital do indivíduo

Extratos do texto que demonstram evidências da utilidade do artefato:

Extratos do texto associados á(s) variável(veis):

Após a coleta dos dados, foi realizada a validade de critério, através de testes de confiabilidade de consistência interna, que serve para avaliar a escala. Para esse teste foi utilizado o Alfa de Cronbach (HAIR Jr. et al.,2007). Também foi verificada a validade por constructo, ou seja, a formação de constructos que avaliem o nível de inclusão digital, para tanto foi realizada a análise fatorial, teste sugerido por Hair Jr. et al.

(2007). (p.5, grifo nosso)

[...] a introdução de novas tecnologias construtivas geraram nas organizações uma ruptura nos saberes dos trabalhadores, criando-se uma lacuna entre o conhecimento técnico operacional (anterior à introdução de novas tecnologias) e o conhecimento técnico operacional e digital, atualmente exigido (conhecimento técnico com o uso de novas tecnologias). (p.2, grifo nosso) [...] será considerado sinônimo de nível de inclusão digital individual o conhecimento incorporado sobre tecnologias digitais. (p.2, grifo nosso)

Artefato: Método para definição de requisitos de negócios orientados por processos Variável(veis) associada(s) ao problema:  nível de atendimento dos requisitos/necessidades do cliente  prazo do projeto  custo do projeto

Extratos do texto que demonstram evidências da utilidade do artefato: Desta forma, alguns dos benefícios almejados com a aplicação do método foram percebidos

A DI 23 41

Extratos do texto associados á(s) variável(veis):

pela própria organização, resultando em um conjunto de requisitos mais aderentes aos

[...] 16.2% dos projetos são finalizados dentro dos prazos e custos. Soma-se a isto o fato de que, em média, apenas 61% dos requisitos iniciais são implantados ao final do projeto e, em muitos casos, a solução entregue não atende às necessidades dos usuários, que por sua vez ficam insatisfeitos. (p.1, grifo nosso).

processos organizacionais. (p.14, grifo nosso) [...] já é possível observar, conforme destacado anteriormente, benefícios da aplicação do método e uma aparente maior precisão e adequação da solução adquirida às necessidades reais dos processos organizacionais. (p.14, grifo nosso).

A DI

Artefato: Método para avaliação da tecnologia da informação para empresas em processo de fusão e aquisição

JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 165-186

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186 26 75

De Sordi, J. O., Azevedo, M. C. de, Meireles, M.

Variável(veis) associada(s) ao problema:  custo de integração tecnológica

Extratos do texto que demonstram evidências da utilidade do artefato:

Extratos do texto associados á(s) variável(veis):

Para a aplicação da metodologia foram escolhidos dois processos de avaliação de empresa a serem fundidas ou adquiridas. A metodologia pode ser utilizada na sua totalidade nesses dois processos. [...] (p.13, grifo nosso)

A falta de uma eficaz participação da área de TI nos estágios avançados dos processos de F&A pode acarretar em perdas significativas, derivadas da não identificação de valores que poderiam ser abatidos ou negociados do valor final de compra. O apoio dado pela área de TI também pode ser calculado através da redução do custo total de propriedade (TCO), derivada da melhor sinergia entre as operações das empresas compradoras e adquirida (VIELBA e VIELBA, 2006). A TI pode gerar benefícios significativos no que diz respeito à sinergia em processos automatizados de negócios em F&A. No entanto, não é incomum a existência de erros de avaliações, que estimam custos operacionais excessivamente baixos, devido a identificação inadequada de padrões, ferramentas e soluções ou até mesmo de equipes capacitadas para suportar a integração da TI. (p.4, grifo nosso)

JISTEM, Brazil Vol. 12, No. 1, Jan/Apr., 2015 pp. 165-186

O resultado da aplicação da metodologia na empresa E4 apresentado no Figura 4 pode demonstrar que a empresa em questão tinha um problema sério em relação a licenciamento de seu ERP. (p.13, grifo nosso) [...]O resultado da aplicação da metodologia na empresa E5 como apresentado na Figura 5 pode demonstrar que a empresa em questão tinha um problema sério em relação a sua infraestrutura de WAN. No entanto, assim como no caso da empresa E4, o risco envolvido nesse critério de avaliação não exercia força suficiente para que a TI pudesse gerar algum fator determinante na negociação de compra. (p.13, grifo nosso)

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JISTEM Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação Vol.12, No.1, Jan/Apr, 2015, pp. 187 ISSN online: 1807-1775

Congresso / Conference

12th CONTECSI International Conference on Information Systems and Technology Management May 20-22, 2015 USP/São Paulo/SP FEA USP São Paulo, Brazil The 12th International Conference on Technology and Information Systems Management CONTECSI is an event focusing Technology and Information Systems Management under a multidisciplinary view. CONTECSI aims at putting together academics and professionals involved in IT and Systems management for a state-of-the-art discussion. International researchers are expected to contribute for the integration between the academic and the professional communities.

The Conference welcomes papers submission for presentation and panel discussions. Major topics on interest include, but are not limited to: Information Society, Open Systems, Systems Interfacing and Integration, Wireless Computing, Entrepreneurship in IT and IS, Accounting Information Systems, E-Commerce / E-Business, Software Engineering, ERP Systems, Financial Management in Information Systems, IT Strategic Management. All papers will be subject to a blind review process and full papers will be published (CD) in the Conference Proceedings.

More information: http://www.tecsi.fea.usp.br/eventos/contecsi Coordination: Prof. Edson Luiz Riccio. PhD – FEA USP and TECSI Contact: contecsi@usp.br

Submission Papers Deadline: January 15th , 2015

12º CONTECSI Congresso Internacional de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação 20 a 22 de Maio de 2015 USP/São Paulo/SP FEA USP São Paulo, Brasil O 12º Congresso Internacional de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação CONTECSI visa reunir acadêmicos e profissionais envolvidos com a temática de gestão para discussão do Estado-da-arte deste campo. Atualmente este campo encontrase disperso em áreas específicas, carecendo de uma visão holística e integrada do assunto. O CONTECSI contará com a presença de palestrantes de renome, bem como estará aberto para a recepção de trabalhos para serem apresentados em sessões paralelas e painéis.

Assim como compareceram nos anos anteriores, são esperados personalidades, professores e pesquisadores do Brasil e do exterior, principalmente de Universidades da França, Inglaterra, Espanha, México, Portugal, Chile, Argentina, Colômbia, Uruguai, Venezuela entre outras. Os foco de interesse deste congresso inclui todas as abordagens referentes à gestão de Tecnologia e dos Sistemas de Informação nas instituições publicas e privadas e na sociedade em geral.

Mais informações no site: http://www.tecsi.fea.usp.br/eventos/contecsi Coordenação: Prof. Dr. Edson Luiz Riccio – FEA USP e TECSI Contato: contecsi@usp.br Data final para envio de trabalhos: 15 de Janeiro de 2015

JISTEM Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Revista de Gestão da Tecnologia e Sistemas de Informação ISSN online: 1807–1775

Every four months/Quadrimestral

1) Paper Submission Guidelines Register at "Online Submissions" and submit your paper accordingly to JISTEM guidelines at www.jistem.fea.usp.br a) Manuscript style Articles must be submitted in English, Spanish, Portuguese or French in MS-Word format.

Authors must translate the final version of the article to English.

Fill the submission form with: title of the article, author's full name, affiliation, full address, telephone, email, fax and brief curriculum vitae. Limit of 3 co-authors per article.

First page must present: title of the article, abstract in the original language of the article of about 100 words, title, area and 5 keywords (if accepted an abstract in English and keywords will be required), Articles must be limited to 30 pages in double-space, Arial or times new roman, 12 points; Authors must include figures and graphics in high-resolution 300 dpi (jpg or gif). They must be numbered (Arabic) and with the complete title. References to each table or figure have to be made in the text.

Authors must submit the questionnaires and research results to the editor and review purposes.

Acknowledgments to institutions regarding financial support can be included only in the final accepted version.

We do not accept articles published elsewhere, except Conference proceedings. b) Structure Style Articles should clearly present the Abstract, Introduction, Objectives, Justification, Question, literature review, research method, results, conclusion, recommendation and limitation, plus references; References are to follow the American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines. More detailed explanations and examples of these guidelines can be found at the following locations: http://www.apastyle.org/faqs.html or Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed., 2010) American Psychological Association (APA).A list of reference must be presented in alphabetical order.

A glossary can be included in the end of the article if needed.

2) Book Review Book review should be sent by Prof. Edson Luiz Riccio at jistem@usp.br

Vol. 12, No.1, Jan/Apr. 2015, pp. 188-189

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Contributions / Submissão de Artigos

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1) Instruções para submissão de artigo a) Quanto à Formatação Os artigos submetidos para publicação, em inglês, espanhol, português ou francês, devem ser enviados em formato MS-Word. Após aceito, os autores devem traduzir o artigo para o idioma inglês.

Incluir no sistema de submissão online: título, subtítulo (se houver), tema, nome, instituição, departamento, endereço, telefone, fax e e-mail do autor e co-autores (máximo de 3 co-autores) e breve curriculum que indique sua formação, instituição/empresa a que pertence e sua área atual de trabalho.; Na primeira página do artigo deve constar: título, subtítulo (se houver), tema e resumo na língua original do artigo, com 100 palavras aproximadamente e 5 (cinco) palavras-chaves. Se o artigo for aceito para publicação será solicitado o envio do título, abstract e palavras-chave em inglês; Os artigos deverão ter no máximo 30 páginas em espaço duplo, fonte arial ou times new roman, tamanho 12; As figuras e gráficos devem estar em alta qualidade com resolução de 300 dpi (figuras) e extensão jpg e/ou gif no artigo. Cada ilustração deve conter numeração e legenda. Deve ser feita referência à figura ou tabela no corpo do texto.

Questionários e resultados da pesquisa devem ser enviados para a avaliação do Editor e pareceristas.

Agradecimentos a órgãos de financiamento da pesquisa devem ser incluídos apenas na versão final do artigo, após o aceite.

A JISTEM só aceita artigos inéditos. b) Quanto à Estrutura Os artigos enviados devem conter em seus tópicos os seguintes itens: Resumo, Introdução, Objetivos, Justificativa, Problema/Questão, Revisão da Literatura, Metodologia, Resultados, Conclusão, Recomendações, Limitações e Referência Bibliográfica; As citações e referências devem seguir o estilo da APA (http://www.apastyle.org/l) As referências deverão ser apresentadas no corpo do texto, incluindo o sobrenome do autor, a data de publicação e o número de página (se for o caso), conforme normas da APA. Referências bibliográficas completas do(s) autor (es) citados deverão ser apresentadas em ordem alfabética, no final do texto, de acordo com as normas da APA. Para maiores informações: American Psychological Association (APA). (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC Poderá ser incluído um glossário ao final do artigo, caso o autor julgue necessário; 2) Sugestões de livros para Resenha Resenhas devem ser enviadas para o Prof. Edson Luiz Riccio pelo e-mail: jistem@usp.br Vol. 12, No.1, Jan/Apr. 2015, pp. 188-189

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