Mini Tracks – Calls for Papers

Technology and Competitive Intelligence
Information Security Evaluation in SMEs Engaged in e-Commerce
Information Management and Business Communications: An Evaluation Perspective
e-Government Strategies, Policies and Evaluation
Large scale information systems problems

Read the author guidelines

Call for Papers: Mini track on Technology and Competitive Intelligence

Track chair: Professor Tiko Iyamu, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa

It is inevitable that organisations will continue to respond to the rapidly growing and changing competitive environment. The responses are primarily aimed at enhancing decision-making process. Companies rely on competitive knowledge and changes in business strategies, which require techniques such as Competitive Intelligence (CI) and Innovation to support business decisions. Competitive intelligence supports strategic and continuity processes in the organizations. It helps with the analysis of materials for competitive advantage. Few studies have been done on Technology and CI practices, especially in the areas of process and structure, analysis and deployment. 

To ensure competitiveness in the interface between CI and IT, it is necessary to ensure ongoing research by both Tertiary Institutions and Industry. All levels of business units and corporations will benefit from such ongoing research and the ability to implement the research results. Exercising and maintaining a competitive edge in the economy is a pre-requisite for survival of any business unit. Applying various tools to reach and maintain the competitive edge require a lot of skills, manpower and business knowledge. 

This mini track invites papers on topics relevant to the theme of technology and competitive intelligence, including:

• Evaluation and Readiness Assessment of Competitive Intelligence;
• Comparative analysis of Competitive Intelligence tools;
• Technology and Competitive Intelligence;
• Competitive Intelligence information retrieval and Deployment models; and
• Case Studies and Applications of Technology and Competitive Intelligence

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Tiko Iyamu

Call for Papers: Mini track on Information Security Evaluation in SMEs engaged in e-Commerce

Track chair: Dr Michael Kyobe, University of Cape Town, South Africa

SMEs make a great contribution to the GDP of many nations (developed and under-developed).They are a major source of employment and income generation. Governments & economists are encouraging them to adopt IT to address poverty, facilitate networking between buyers and sellers, improve market intelligence and increase productivity. However, the level of electronic abuse committed in this sector threatens SME economic growth, and market competitiveness, not to mention potential legal liabilities for non-compliance with national regulations which could be costly.

SMEs are struggling to maintain security and compliance with regulatory requirements and one major contributing factor has been their inability to effectively evaluate IT investments and potential risks. This problem is also compounded by the fact that existing evaluation methods or framework have several limitations and many are developed for large organizations and may not be suitable for SMEs given their structural and resource limitations. Many of these tools have also been found to be inconsistent, complex and costly and often fail to address e-commerce issues in SMEs.

This mini-track will seek to present new research contributing to our understanding of information security evaluation challenges in SMEs. It will also present frameworks; approaches; or methods SMEs can adopt in order to address the above challenges. Proper evaluations should enable effective control of projects, better change management, communication improvement, better resource allocation, enhanced motivation and effective systems planning.

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Call for Papers: Mini track on Information Management and Business Communications: An Evaluation Perspective

Track chair: Dr Yousef Shahwan, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, UAE

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is one technology that has enabled B2B E-Commerce to speak to each other electronically in order to transmit information from sender to receiver in the format the receiver wants. B2B E-Commerce is no longer synonymous with EDI (Pathak & Baldwin, 2008). Since 1990, the rapid growth in the use of EDI has greatly changed the way businesses communicate and interact with externals like customers and suppliers. Investigating EDI usage and its limitations world wide represent a continuation to previous research work that aims to cope with the higher volatility of current day systems’ requirements.

The growth of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) as a business technology in last decade has greatly changed the traditions of the society in which today business is being conducted. EDI has produced a revolutionary new way for business communications. Investigating EDI usage and exploring challenges and opportunities surrounding its applications represent a continuation to previous research work that aims to cope with the higher volatility of current day systems’ requirements (Shahwan, 2008). International companies are fast jumping into the extensive use of electronic technologies and as such this mini track aims to provide evidences that may support putting more efforts and capital investments into place for business applications.

This mini track invites papers on relevant topics including, but not limited to:

§  Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

§  Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

§  E-Business and Business Applications

§  Systems Acquisition, Development, and Project Management

§  Security, Privacy, and Contingency Planning

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Yousef Shahwan

Call for Papers: Mini track on e-Government Strategies, policies and evaluations

Track chair: Farid Shirazi, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

The Internet has become a favourable topic for numerous studies in the recent years including e-Government strategies, policies and performance. The main idea of e-Government is to move beyond passive information-giving to active service delivery and citizen participation in the decision-making process through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). While some governments were successful in using ICT tools and services such as the Internet as the means of transparency and new style of leadership, others were not able to deliver effectively and efficiently the promises made and the opportunities provided by the new technology.
Topics include, but are not limited to:

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Farid Shirazi

Call for Papers: Mini track on Large scale information systems problems

Track chair: Shawren Singh, University of South Africa, South Africa

When information systems go wrong they often go wrong in a big way causing the loss of large amounts of money and resulting in considerable organisational trauma. The organisational trauma caused by the malfunctioning information systems can result in the loss of clients, high turnover in staff and sometimes even the failure of the business. There are many examples of these failures both in the private and in the public sector.

Why such failures occur in the 21st century with more than 50 years experience behind the information systems community is difficult to understand. Research has not adequately delivered with regards to being able to identify information systems projects which have high risks of failure, nor has research provided insights as to how to manage such projects when they start to go wrong.  In addition there is inadequate research on the topic of how information systems projects are articulated and solved.

Research on how to minimise large scale information systems problems is welcome for this mini track. The research may be theoretical reviews, empirical studies, case studies, action research, literature reviews, etc.

This mini track invites papers on relevant topics including, but not limited to:

§  Why are information systems subject to these types of problems?

§  How to identify the potential for large scale information systems problems?

§  Why are these types of problems so persistent?

§  Has risk management a role in this area and if so what is it?

§  The phases of problem identification and articulation in an IS environment

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Shawren Singh

Papers presented at the conference will be published in the conference proceedings, subject to author registration. Selected papers will also be considered for publication in a special issue of the Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation. The latest issue is now available on the journal website. You can see a full list of the conference and journal accreditations by clicking the star in the right hand side bar.