INFORMATION SYSTEMS ACTION RESEARCH INTEGRATED SERIES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS Series Editors Professor Ramesh Sharda Prof. Dr. Stefan Voß Oklahoma State University Universität Hamburg Other published titles in the series: E-BUSINESS MANAGEMENT: Integration of Web Technologies with Business Models/ edited by Michael J. Shaw VIRTUAL CORPORATE UNIVERSITIES: A Matrix of Knowledge and Learning for the New Digital Dawn/ Walter R.J. Baets & Gert Van der Linden SCALABLE ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS: An Introduction to Recent Advances/ edited by Vittal Prabhu, Soundar Kumara, Manjunath Kamath LEGAL PROGRAMMING: Legal Compliance for RFID and Software Agent Ecosystems in Retail Processes and Beyond/ Brian Subirana and Malcolm Bain LOGICAL DATA MODELING: What It Is and How To Do It/ Alan Chmura and J. Mark Heumann DESIGNING AND EVALUATING E-MANAGEMENT DECISION TOOLS: The Integration of Decision and Negotiation Models into Internet-Multimedia Technologies/ Giampiero E.G. Beroggi INFORMATION AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR PRODUCT CUSTOMIZATION/ Thorsten Blecker et al MEDICAL INFORMATICS: Knowledge Management and Data Mining in Biomedicine/ edited by Hsinchun Chen et al KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND MANAGEMENT LEARNING: Extending the Horizons of Knowledge-Based Management/ edited by Walter Baets INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY INFORMATICS FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY: Information Sharing and Data Mining/ Hsinchun Chen ENTERPRISE COLLABORATION: On-Demand Information Exchange for Extended Enterprises/ David Levermore & Cheng Hsu SEMANTIC WEB AND EDUCATION/ Vladan Devedžić INFORMATION SYSTEMS ACTION RESEARCH An Applied View of Emerging Concepts and Methods edited by Ned Kock Ned Kock Texas A & M International University Laredo, Texas, USA Library of Congress Control Number: 2006931352 ISBN-10: 0-387-36059-X (HB) ISBN-10: 0-387-36060-3 (e-book) ISBN-13: 978-0387-36059-1 (HB) ISBN-13: 978-0387-36060-7 (e-book) Printed on acid-free paper. © 2007 by Springer Science+Business Media, LLC All rights reserved. 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Printed in the United States of America. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS David Avison David Avison is Distinguished Professor of Information Systems at ESSEC Business School, near Paris, France after being Professor at the School of Management at Southampton University for nine years. He is also visiting professor at Brunel University in England. He is joint editor (with Guy Fitzgerald) of Blackwell Science’s Information Systems Journal now in its 16th volume. He has authored over twenty books, including the best sell- ing book “Information Systems Development: Methodologies, Techniques and Tools” (also with Guy Fitzgerald) published by McGraw-Hill (4th edi- tion 2006) and “Research in Information Systems: A Handbook for Research Supervisors and their Students” (edited with Jan Pries-Heje) Butterworth Heinemann (2005) as well as a large number of papers in learned journals, edited texts and conferences. He is Vice Chair of the International Federa- tion of Information Processing (IFIP) Technical Committee 8, previously Chair of its working group 8.2 on the impact of IS/IT on organizations and was past President of the UK Academy for Information Systems. He is joint program chair of International Conference in Information Systems (ICIS) 2005 in Las Vegas and has chaired several other international conferences. C. Richard Baker C. Richard Baker is Professor of Accounting in the School of Business at Adelphi University, Garden City, New York. Prior to joining Adelphi Uni- versity, he was Professor and Chair of the Accounting Department at the vi University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He also has held professorial posi- tions at Columbia University and Fordham University in New York City. His research interests concentrate on the regulatory, legal and ethical aspects of professional accounting and auditing. He is the author of over 90 academic papers and other publications. He holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Management at UCLA and he is a Certified Public Ac- countant in New York State. Richard L. Baskerville Richard L. Baskerville is professor of information systems and chairman in the Department of Computer Information Systems, Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University. His research specializes in security of information systems, methods of information systems design and develop- ment, and the interaction of information systems and organizations. His in- terest in methods extends to qualitative research methods. Baskerville is the author of “Designing Information Systems Security” (J. Wiley) and more than 100 articles in scholarly journals, professional magazines, and edited books. He is an editor for The European Journal of Information Systems and serves on the editorial boards of The Information Systems Journal, Journal of Information Systems Security, and the International Journal of e-Collaboration. Baskerville’s practical and consulting experience includes advanced information system designs for the U.S. Defense and Energy De- partments. He is president of the Information Systems Academic Heads International, former chair of the IFIP Working Group 8.2, a Chartered En- gineer under the British Engineering Council, a member of The British Com- puter Society and Certified Computer Professional. Baskerville holds degrees from the University of Maryland (B.S. summa cum laude, Manage- ment), and the London School of Economics, University of London (M.Sc., Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems, Ph.D., Systems Analysis). Simon Bell Simon Bell is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems in the Systems Department at the UK Open University. He has wide ranging experience in working with diverse communities on developing information systems and products valued by these communities. As co-author of three books on the Multiview approach and three books on the Imagine approach, he has worked with diverse ethnic and cultural groups on information systems de- velopment in many countries including Nigeria, Nepal, Bangladesh, Leba- non, Bulgaria, China and the UK. As a consultant and a co-researcher he has vii worked on projects funded by the World Bank, the European Union and the UK Department for International Development for over twenty years. Re- cently he has been invited to talk about the methods he has developed in Finland France and the USA. Peter Checkland Peter Checkland gained a first in chemistry at Oxford in the 1950s. He joined 1CI when it was developing a new industry: making synthetic fibres from nylon and polyester polymers. Working first as a technologist then as a manager, Peter remained with ICI for fifteen years. When he left to start a second career in university teaching and research, he was manager of a 100-strong research and development group. Joining the postgraduate Department of Systems Engineering at Lancas- ter University, Peter Checkland led what became a thirty-year programme of action research in organizations outside the university. Initially the research theme was to determine the possibility of using the well-developed methods of systems engineering in management problem situations rather than in the technically defined problem situations in which the methods had been re- fined. This attempt at transfer failed, and the action research moved in a dif- ferent direction. The work finally established Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) as an approach to tackling the multi-faceted problems which manag- ers face; in doing this, it also established the now well-recognised distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ systems thinking. SSM is now taught and used around the-world. Its development through action research is described in many papers and in four books: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice (1981); Soft Systems Methodology in Action (with J. Scholes, 1990); Systems, In- formation and Information Systems (with Sue Holwell 1998) and SSM: A 30-Year Retrospective (1999). Peter Checkland’s work has been recognized in a number of awards: he holds 6 honorary doctorates from City University, the Open University, Erasmus University (The Netherlands), and Prague University of Econom- ics, A Most Distinguished and Outstanding Award from the British Com- puter Society, and the Gold Medal of the UK Systems Society. Paulo Rupino da Cunha Paulo Rupino da Cunha is Assistant Professor at the University of Coim- bra, Portugal. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.Sc. in Informatics Engineering. His main research interests are Information Systems Design, Quality Manage- ment and Information Systems, Design of Business Models and Strategy, Enterprise Application Integration and IT Investment Valuation. He is the viii Vice-President of Instituto Pedro Nunes, an Innovation and Technology Transfer organization providing specialized consulting, training and business incubation. For a period of three years, he was the elected Coordinator of the Informatics Engineering Chapter for the centre region of Portugal of the Por- tuguese Engineering Association, and for a two year term he held the Vice- Presidency of the Department of Informatics Engineering of the University of Coimbra. Robert Davison Robert Davison received the BA and MA degrees from the University of Nottingham, UK, and the Ph.D. degree in Information Systems from the City University of Hong Kong. He is an Associate Professor of Information Sys- tems at the City University of Hong Kong. His work has appeared in the In- formation Systems Journal, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Information Technol- ogy & People, Information & Management, MIS Quarterly, Group Decision & Negotiation and the Communications of the ACM. Dr. Davison’s research interests span the academic and business communities, examining the impact of GSS on group decision making and communication, particularly in cross- cultural settings, as well as the ethical values of IT professionals. He also actively applies an action research perspective to research in organisational contexts. He has recently completed editing special issues of the Communi- cations of the ACM (Global Applications of Collaborative Technologies) and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (Cultural Issues and IT Management). Dr. Davison is the Editor in Chief of the Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries. Antonio Dias de Figueiredo Antonio Dias de Figueiredo is Full Professor of MIS at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, since 1984. He obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Manchester, U.K., in 1976. He created and was the first chair of the Department of Informatics Engineering of the University of Coimbra, and was vice-president for Western Europe of the Intergovernmen- tal Informatics Program of UNESCO, Paris. He has participated in various European projects and acted on various occasions as a consultant to the European Commission in matters regarding strategies for information tech- nologies in education. He was awarded an Honoris Causa by the Portuguese Open University and the Sigillum Magnum by the University of Bologna, Italy. He is the author of over 200 papers, has contributed to several books, and is a member of the editorial board of various national and international ix journals. His current research interests centre on the philosophy of engineer- ing and technology, IS research methods, action research, e-collaboration, context design in socio-technical systems, and virtual learning contexts. Bob Dick In the distant past Bob Dick has been shop assistant, electrician, drafts- person, recruitment officer, and industrial psychologist. For the past 30 years he has been academic, publisher, consultant, and facilitator. He enjoys his consultancy and facilitation, which primarily help people learn action re- search, qualitative evaluation, change management, and the communication and facilitation skills which are a foundation for these. In this work he uses highly participative methods to help others to improve their practice while also trying always to improve his own. In his spare time he reads, thinks and writes. He lives in the leafy western suburbs of Brisbane with his partner of 31 years, Camilla, in a house frequently overrun by grandchildren. R. Brent Gallupe R. Brent Gallupe is Professor of Information Systems, Director of the Queen’s Executive Decision Center, and Associate Dean – Faculty at the School of Business, Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada. He also holds an on-going Visiting Professor appointment at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His current research interests are in computer support for groups and teams, the management of international information systems, and knowledge management systems. His work has been published in such jour- nals as Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Academy of Management Journal, Sloan Management Review, and Journal of Applied Psychology. Christopher Gronski Christopher Gronski is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in information sys- tems at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. He is a BA and MBA graduate of the University of To- ronto/Rodman School of Management and holds a post graduate diploma in information technology. Prior to returning to academia, Christopher spent over a decade in various technologically oriented roles, flavoring his aca- demic work to date decidedly towards the practitioner. His current research focus is the firm level use of information systems for competitive advantage. He has presented his work as part of the conference proceedings of the Ad- ministrative Sciences Association of Canada. x Varun Grover Varun Grover is the William S. Lee (Duke Energy) Distinguished Profes- sor of Information Systems in the Department of Management at Clemson University. He holds a degree in electrical engineering from I.I.T., New Delhi, an MBA, and a Ph.D. in MIS from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Grover has published extensively on the effective use and impact of in- formation systems with over 150 publications in refereed journals such as MIS Quarterly, Journal of MIS, and Information Systems Research, among others. He has consistently been ranked as one of the top 3 most productive IS researchers based in publications in major journals. He currently serves as the Senior Editor of MIS Quarterly, Journal of AIS and Database. Ola Henfridsson Ola Henfridsson is a research manager of the Telematics Group at the Viktoria Institute, Göteborg, Sweden. He is also an associate professor in Informatics at the School of Information Science, Computer and Electrical Engineering, Halmstad University. Dr. Henfridsson holds a Ph.D. in Infor- matics from Umeå University, Sweden, since 1999. He has published his research in DATA BASE, Information Systems Journal, Information Tech- nology & People, Information and Organization, MIS Quarterly and other journals. Dr. Henfridsson serves at the editorial boards of MIS Quarterly and Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems. Ellen D. Hoadley Ellen D. Hoadley is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at Loyola College in Maryland. Her research areas include business process reengineering, requirements determination in systems analysis, and the use of color in the human/computer interface. Dr. Hoadley has published in Communications of the ACM, Journal of Business and Economic Per- spectives, and Journal of Knowledge and Process Management among oth- ers. Dr. Hoadley is currently the Director of the Lattanze Center @ Loyola College that seeks to provide opportunities for academics, stu- dents, and practitioners to share problems and knowledge for the benefit of the field. Sue Holwell Sue Holwell has been a member of the Open Systems Research Group at the Open University since 2002. She teaches postgraduate and undergraduate