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IT: what's it good for?
Abstract
Demonstrating the business value of information technology (IT) strategies is a major concern for most organizations. Previous research in this area has yielded mixed results, further confounding the issue. Much of the previous literature has focused on the return on investment in hardware and software as the definition of business value. We take a different approach to the IT business value problem by examining whether organizations that deploy IT with differing strategies enjoy better business value efficiencies. This paper describes an eight-year longitudinal study of a homogeneous set of credit unions to determine if different IT deployment strategies (interactive Web site, informational Web site, or no Web site) result in greater credit union efficiency. Data envelopment analysis by Cooper et al. (2000) and Charnes et al. (1978) was used to calculate efficiency scores. Our results indicate that credit unions who use the strategy of interactive Web sites have greater overall and asset efficiency than credit unions with informational or no Web sites. Credit unions with informational Web sites have greater asset efficiency than those without Web sites, but do not show a difference in overall efficiency. Our analysis shows no statistical difference in personnel and operational cost efficiencies between the three different groups of credit unions. This result contradicts conventional wisdom that a business benefit of IT is cost reduction.
... There are even examples of situations where the perception of what a benefit is has changed during a study. Nelson and Nelson (2003), while implementing an information system for credit unions, started off with the perspective that benefits are produced by reducing costs, and ended up demonstrating the creation of benefits through improved efficiency for customers. Bytheway (2014) emphasizes that benefits are improvements in efficiency, and argues that they help to improve and develop an organization. ...
In our daily work life, we use a wealth of information, including a category of information produced as a part of products and their life-cycle phases, named digital technical information (DTI). Manufacturing organizations focus more often on the product than on DTI, because DTI’s impact seems almost invisible, despite its crucial role to the product and its life-cycle phases, development, production, maintenance, and destruction. Hence, the aim of this thesis is to describe DTI’s benefits and the research questions: “What are the benefits of the DTI?” and “What are the perceptions of how to measure benefits of DTI?”
The thesis contains five studies related to identifying and
measuring DTI’s benefits. The empirical material is based on semi -structured interviews and group interviews within five organizations and a survey among manufacturing organizations in Sweden.
I used three characteristics of the DTI and two pairs of previously known
benefit categories to analyse the benefits. The analysis shows that the benefits are recognized in the particular product’s life cycle phase where the DTI is published. However, the DTI continues to offer benefits in the product’s other life cycle phases. In relationship to the product, the benefits evolve from supporting an individual product to supporting more general product lines or all products and a more complex product is said to increase DTI’s benefits. DTI’s structure adds benefits as synthesized or aggregated DTI, where the DTI is synthesized or aggregated automatically or manually. The categorization predetermined benefits related to the change are less numerous than the emerging benefits. The predetermined benefits are strategic by nature, and the emerging ones are mainly used to achieve operational goals.
Measuring DTI’s benefits is of importance for a formal comparison of its
development and is of special interest for managers. Perceptions from the initial stages on how to measure show that to establish common
interpretations among the stakeholders of the measurement process is of importance, especially when it comes to what is viewed as a benefit. The benefits are viewed as intangible by the respondents, which creates
difficulties when one is evaluating, using conventional measurement
methods. The only perceived way to measure is when DTI reduces coworker’s workload and efficiency is achieved.
The thesis’s contribution to academia consists of the analysis of DTI’s benefits, showing details of the relationships between the DTI and its benefits. For practice, the contributions focus on the systematic evaluation process, which can be used for further development of the DTI and comparison of the evolvement of the DTI itself and relating to other resources. One proposal for future research is to use the analysed benefits and compare various approaches to digitizing DTI, e.g. Industry 4.0. Another proposal is to list, in detail, various ways on how to measure DTI’s benefits and their usefulness. The latter can positively impact on any intangible benefits due to the general approach we have established of how to measure those benefits.
Computers are the catalyst for bigger changes.
Traditional return on investment analysis techniques like discounted cash flow (DCF) and net present value (NPV) fall short of providing adequate decision support in today’s turbulent environment. New techniques, grouped under the concept called “business value analysis” (BVA), show promise. These techniques include intellectual capital, real options valuation, business model dynamics, and synthetic markets. They extend DCF to include intangibles and other factors common to the digital economy. These techniques are just now emerging from research, and they are undergoing further development, refinement, and testing on the way to becoming widespread in practice. It’s unlikely any of these techniques will be a “silver bullet” that makes investments a sure thing, but they can improve business performance and the chances of success.
Credit unions are small, cooperative, not-for-profit institutions—facts which usually distinguish them from other financial intermediaries. Whilst respecting the unique organizational and institutional features of credit unions, the present study also accepts the need for rigorous efficiency assessment. Using a sample of 233 Australian credit unions the study uses non-parametric techniques to measure efficiency, followed by parametric techniques to attribute variation in efficiency. The results indicate that a large number of credit unions are best-practice efficient, and any efficiencies found appear to flow from X-inefficiencies rather than from the selection of an inappropriate scale of operations. All other things being equal, credit unions formed on the basis of a community bond, with a large asset base, and an orientation towards commercial loans will be relatively more efficient.
Our work represents one of the first attempts to assess the impact of IT (information technology) on both process output and quality. We examine the optical character recognition and barcode sorting technologies in the mail sorting process at the United States Postal Service. Our analysis is at the application level, and thus does not involve the aggregation of IT impact over multiple processes. We use data from 46 mail processing centers over 3 years to study the IT impact. We also use a set of factors in our model to account for differences in input characteristics. Our results show that mail sorting output significantly increases with higher use of IT. In addition, IT improves quality which in turn enhances output. We also find that input characteristics exert considerable influence in determining the output and quality of the mail sorting operation. For example, while absenteeism tends to decrease output and quality due to its disruptive consequences, a higher fraction of barcoded mail seems to enhance both performance measures.
The “productivity paradox” of information systems (IS) is that, despite enormous improvements in the underlying technology, the benefits of IS spending have not been found in aggregate output statistics. One explanation is that IS spending may lead to increases in product quality or variety which tend to be overlooked in the aggregate statistics, even if they increase output at the firm-level. Furthermore, the restructuring and cost-cutting that are often necessary to realize the potential benefits of IS have only recently been undertaken in many firms.
Our study uses new firm-level data on several components of IS spending for 1987–1991. The dataset includes 367 large firms which generated approximately 1.8 trillion dollars in output in 1991. We supplemented the IS data with data on other inputs, output, and price deflators from other sources. As a result, we could assess several econometric models of the contribution of IS to firm-level productivity.
Our results indicate that IS spending has made a substantial and statistically significant contribution to firm output. We find that the gross marginal product (MP) for computer capital averaged 81% for the firms in our sample. We find that the MP for computer capital is at least as large as the marginal product of other types of capital investment and that, dollar for dollar, IS labor spending generates at least as much output as spending on non-IS labor and expenses. Because the models we applied were similar to those that have been previously used to assess the contribution of IS and other factors of production, we attribute the different results to the fact that our data set is more current and larger than others explored. We conclude that the productivity paradox disappeared by 1991, at least in our sample of firms.
An empirical study that explored business and information strategy alignment in the information-intensive and competitive Australian banking industry is featured in this paper. The aim of the study was to identify organizational practices that contribute to and enhance such alignment. Multiple sources of information were used to collect data about business and information strategies from the major firms dominating Australian banking. Sources included written and interview-based information, strategic planning documentation, and annual reports. Evidence was sought for the alignment of business and information strategies through the use of information and information technology that provided a comparative advantage to an organization over its competitors. The firm-wide strategy-formation processes of the banks, rather than their information systems (I/S) methodology, was central to the alignment of business and information strategies. The interdependence of firm-wide processes and I/S factors are emphasized in a strategic alignment model that summarizes the findings of the study. The paper concludes with a discussion of the management implications and requirements for action in both firm-wide strategy and I/S areas. The results of this study in the banking industry are pertinent to other industries where information technology and systems are playing an increasingly strategic role.
This article designs a framework for evaluating the causes, consequences, and future implications of financial services industry consolidation, reviews the extant research literature within the context of this framework (over 250 references), and suggests fruitful avenues for future research. The evidence is consistent with increases in market power from some types of consolidation; improvements in profit efficiency and diversification of risks, but little or no cost efficiency improvement on average; relatively little effect on the availability of services to small customers; potential improvements in payments system efficiency; and potential costs on the financial system from increases in systemic risk or expansion of the financial safety net.
This paper surveys 130 studies that apply frontier efficiency analysis to financial institutions in 21 countries. The primary goals are to summarize and critically review empirical estimates of financial institution efficiency and to attempt to arrive at a consensus view. We find that the various efficiency methods do not necessarily yield consistent results and suggest some ways that these methods might be improved to bring about findings that are more consistent, accurate, and useful. Secondary goals are to address the implications of efficiency results for financial institutions in the areas of government policy, research, and managerial performance. Areas needing additional research are also outlined.
In this paper we analyze the operating efficiency of a group of university-affiliated credit unions in 1990. We use free disposal hull (FDH) techniques, which generalize data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques by dispensing with the convexity assumption imposed in DEA, to measure the operating efficiency of university-affiliated credit unions and to compare their efficiency with that of credit unions not affiliated with a university. The purpose of the analysis is to test the hypothesis that university-affiliated credit unions, by virtue of the superior educational attainment of their members, some of whom sit on boards of directors that monitor managements, are thereby better managed and so perform better. In the second stage of the analysis we use seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) techniques to identify exogenous factors that might explain variation in operating efficiency among the university-affiliated credit unions.
In this article, authors discuss that a popular commercial use of the Web is for business advertising. The Web is fast emerging as a major player in the relationships between producers and consumers. These relationships can be described in terms of channels, or the paths that products or services take as they move from source to destination. A major trend in channel management is the recent emergence of electronic commerce. Channels can be of different types, ranging from advertising channels, order processing channels, to customer support channels. The Web is currently being used as a medium for these types of channels in the supply chain. A good experience on the Web site leads to brand awareness and increase in consumer loyalty. In this article, they use activity theory to suggest a framework that can be used to enhance the business value of a firm's Web site by maximizing its channel potential. The article also uses phenomenological insights to understand the nature of experiences needed for successful channels in the context of a virtual community.
Determining whether investments in information technology (IT) have an impact on firm performance has been and continues to be a major problem for information systems researchers and practitioners. Financial theory suggests that managers should make investment decisions that maximize the value of the firm. Using event-study methodology, we provide empirical evidence on the effect of announcements of IT investments on the market value of the firm for a sample of 97 IT investments from the finance and manufacturing industries from 1981 to 1988. Over the announcement period, we find no excess returns for either the full sample or for any one of the industry subsamples. However, cross-sectional analysis reveals that the market reacts differently to announcements of innovative IT investments than to followup, or noninnovative investments in IT. Innovative IT investments increase firm value, while noninnovative investments do not. Furthermore, the market's reaction to announcements of innovative and noninnovative IT investments is independent of industry classification. These results indicate that, on average, IT investments are zero net present value (NPV) investments; they are worth as much as they cost. Innovative IT investments, however, increase the value of the firm.
We show how the financial market valuation of firms can be used to estimate the intangible costs and benefits of computer capital and we present several new empirical results based on this model. Using eight years of data for 820 non-financial firms in the United States, we find that an increase of one dollar in the quantity of computer capital installed by a firm is associated with an increase of about ten dollars in the financial markets' valuation of the firm. Other forms of capital do not exhibit these high valuations. Our model suggests that adjustment costs and intangible assets may provide an explanation for the high market valuation found for computers in this study as well as the high returns found for computer capital in firm-level productivity studies. Costly investments in software, training and organizational transformations that accompany computer investments can be regarded as creating intangible assets. These intangible assets do not appear on firms' conventional balance sheets but they can produce both higher market valuations and apparent "excess" returns. The empirical evidence suggests that the vast majority of the costs and benefits of computerization are embodied in otherwise unobserved intangible assets. We thank Brownyn Hall, Robert Hall, Lorin Hitt, Stephen Oliner, and participants of NBER Productivity Seminar for valuable comments. The National Science Foundation, the MIT Center for Coordination Science, the Stanford Computer Industry Project, NationsBanc Montgomery Securities and IBM Research provided generous financial support and International Data Group and Computer Intelligence Corporation provided valuable data. The authors are responsible for any remaining errors. This paper subsumes a previous version that was presented at the Internat...
In a relatively short period of time Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has grown into a powerful quantitative, analytical tool for measuring and evaluating performance. DEA has been successfully applied to a host of different types of entities engaged in a wide variety of activities in many contexts woridwide. This chapter discusses the fundamental DEA models and some of their extensions.
Data envelopment analysis is used in this study to provide measures of the efficiency of individual credit unions in the Australian state of Victoria in the period 1992–5. The resulting measures are consistent with those reported in comparable studies. There is no evidence that over the period of the study, the ‘average’ credit union moved closer to the efficient frontier. Efficiency measures are analysed according to the bond of association and the results are consistent with the proposition that a tighter bond will tend to reduce operating costs. In the period of the study there were a large number of exits by merger, including exits by small credit unions with high efficiency measures. Possible explanations in terms of the expected benefits to the members of acquiring and exiting credit unions are suggested and evaluated.
This paper provides a formal statistical basis for the efficiency evaluation techniques of data envelopment analysis (DEA). DEA estimators of the best practice monotone increasing and concave production function are shown to be also maximum likelihood estimators if the deviation of actual output from the efficient output is regarded as a stochastic variable with a monotone decreasing probability density function.
While the best practice frontier estimator is biased below the theoretical frontier for a finite sample size, the bias approaches zero for large samples. The DEA estimators exhibit the desirable asymptotic property of consistency, and the asymptotic distribution of the DEA estimators of inefficiency deviations is identical to the true distribution of these deviations. This result is then employed to suggest possible statistical tests of hypotheses based on asymptotic distributions.
In management contexts, mathematical programming is usually used to evaluate a collection of possible alternative courses of action en route to selecting one which is best. In this capacity, mathematical programming serves as a planning aid to management. Data Envelopment Analysis reverses this role and employs mathematical programming to obtain ex post facto evaluations of the relative efficiency of management accomplishments, however they may have been planned or executed. Mathematical programming is thereby extended for use as a tool for control and evaluation of past accomplishments as well as a tool to aid in planning future activities. The CCR ratio form introduced by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes, as part of their Data Envelopment Analysis approach, comprehends both technical and scale inefficiencies via the optimal value of the ratio form, as obtained directly from the data without requiring a priori specification of weights and/or explicit delineation of assumed functional forms of relations between inputs and outputs. A separation into technical and scale efficiencies is accomplished by the methods developed in this paper without altering the latter conditions for use of DEA directly on observational data. Technical inefficiencies are identified with failures to achieve best possible output levels and/or usage of excessive amounts of inputs. Methods for identifying and correcting the magnitudes of these inefficiencies, as supplied in prior work, are illustrated. In the present paper, a new separate variable is introduced which makes it possible to determine whether operations were conducted in regions of increasing, constant or decreasing returns to scale (in multiple input and multiple output situations). The results are discussed and related not only to classical (single output) economics but also to more modern versions of economics which are identified with "contestable market theories."
A substantial body of recent work has opened the way to exploring the statistical properties of DEA estimators of production frontiers and related efficiency measures. The purpose of this paper is to survey several possibilities that have been pursued, and to present them in a unified framework. These include the development of statistics to test hypotheses about the characteristics of the production frontier, such as returns to scale, input substitutability, and model specification, and also about variation in efficiencies relative to the production frontier.
The paper illustrates ‘business value linkage impact analysis’, a new method for measuring the business value of information technology (IT), in the context of a case study of electronic banking operations at Meridian Bancorp, a large commercial bank. Management science models were constructed to gauge the impact of automated teller machines (ATMs) on branch teller labour productivity and retail deposit market share, and the potential for substitution of labour by ATMs is shown. Econometric estimation of the models yielded the following results: the efficiency of teller labour was found to decline in the presence of a branch ATM; a bank's ATM network decision was shown to be an important determinant of the relative size of the retail deposit market it could capture in south-east Pennsylvania; membership in the regionally dominant MAC ATM network leveraged retail deposit market share when a clear majority of local branches and ATMs were members of a regionally smaller, competing network; and high-density ATM deployment did not lead to increases in the overall size of the deposit market.
This paper reports the results of a simulation study to evaluate the performance of Banker's (1993) new asymptotic DEA tests for inefficiency differences between two groups. Their performance is evaluated relative to the performance of conventional parametric corrected ordinary least squares (COLS) tests and the Welch and Mann-Whitney tests used earlier in the DEA literature. We consider five different underlying production functions, four different inefficiency distributions and four different sample sizes in our study.Our results include the following: 1.(1) The new asymptotic DEA tests outperform COLS-based tests even when the parametric functional form employed for COLS estimation is identical to the underlying production function.2.(2) The asymptotic DEA tests are robust in that they perform well for different underlying production functions and inefficiency distributions.3.(3) Welch's mean and Mann-Whitney tests perform worse than both the new asymptotic DEA tests and the COLS-based tests.4.(4) The performance of COLS-based tests is improved when Banker's (1993) new test statistics are employed using COLS estimates of production inefficiencies.5.(5) No marked differences in Type II error are found between the various tests with one-output, two-input production technologies.
But, the Welch's mean and MannWhitney tests and COLS-based tests perform slightly better than the asymptotic DEA tests in terms of proportion of Type II errors with one-output, five-input production technologies.
Modeling and measurement issues have been considered the heart of information technology (IT) productivity paradox problem. By collecting data from seven mortgage firms, this research attempts to shed light on the causal relationships and complementarity properties among IT and performance variables. The result is a multi-level business value model that connects the use of IT to a firm’s profit. It is concluded that although there exists a causal relationship between IT and profit, this relationship is indirect and complex. Due to the complementary nature of the relationships, such a complexity is not reducible. All complementary factors must be in favorable conditions for a positive return of IT investments.
In recent years, the relationship between information technology (IT) and productivity has become a source of debate. In the 1980s and early 1990s, empirical research on IT productivity generally did not identify significant productivity improvements. More recently, as new data are identified and more sophisticated methodologies are applied, several researchers have found evidence that IT is associated not only with improvement in productivity, but also in intermediate measures, consumer surplus, and economic growth. Nonetheless, new questions emerge as old puzzles fade. This survey reviews the literature, identifies remaining questions, and concludes with recommendations for applications of traditional methodologies to new data sources, as well as alternative, broader metrics of welfare to assess and enhance the benefits of IT.
A nonlinear (nonconvex) programming model provides a new definition of efficiency for use in evaluating activities of not-for-profit entities participating in public programs. A scalar measure of the efficiency of each participating unit is thereby provided, along with methods for objectively determining weights by reference to the observational data for the multiple outputs and multiple inputs that characterize such programs. Equivalences are established to ordinary linear programming models for effecting computations. The duals to these linear programming models provide a new way for estimating extremal relations from observational data. Connections between engineering and economic approaches to efficiency are delineated along with new interpretations and ways of using them in evaluating and controlling managerial behavior in public programs.
Information systems are strategic business tools, frequently essential to a firm and central to its competitive strategy. Their importance is now acknowledged. But information technology-equipment and services-is available to all firms, and most applications can be duplicated. The copying firm often enjoys the advantages of newer and better technology, learns from the experience of the innovator, and thus can offer comparable services at lower costs. When can an information technology-based strategy confer sustainable competitive advantage? The answer may lie with the role of strategic resources in explaining the allocation of economic benefits from an IT innovation. Specifically, information technology can lead to sustainable competitive advantage when it is used to leverage differences in strategic resources. This may be true even in cases where duplication is relatively easy and there are few dynamic effects, like first-mover advantages, to protect the innovation. An important characteristic of IT is its ability to manage interactions among economic activities; the economic theory can be used to establish a link between this characteristic of IT and shifts in resource values. This allows us to identify and examine some opportunities for deploying IT to leverage structural resource differences among firms, including differences in vertical integration and diversification as well as differences in the quality and organization of key resources.
Modern organizations are investing heavily in information technology (IT) with the objective of increasing overall profitability and the productivity of their knowledge workers. Yet it is often claimed that the actual benefits of IT are disappointing at best and that IT spending has failed to yield significant productivity gains-hence the productivity paradox. Evidence is fragmented and somewhat mitigated. This paper argues that the current state of empirical research results from a failure to understand the interplay between IT and managerial work. It addresses this issue by analyzing patterns of association between IT usage and the nature of managerial work in different organizational contexts. Fifty-nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with middle line managers in three large companies: a Bank, a Telecommunications company, and a Utility. In addition, daily activities and IT usage were logged. The data indicate that the relationship between the level of IT usage and the nature of managerial work was stronger in the two organizations that were reorienting their strategies (Bank, Telecommunications) than in the one pursuing ifs existing strategy (Utility). It was also found that the pattern of the relationship between IT usage and the nature of managerial work depended on the kind of strategic reorientation implemented by the firm. For instance, in the Bank, the level of IT usage was associated with the amount of time spent by managers on information-related activities (e.g., reading reports, gathering information) and on disturbance handling activities (e.g., resolving conflicts, managing crises). In the Telecommunications company, IT usage was associated with more time spent on information-related activities and less on negotiation-related activities (e.g., discussions with colleagues on resource sharing, discussions with subordinates on performance standards). This finding suggests that heavy IT users paid greater attention to and spent more time on the relies they performed best with the technology (information-related activities) and may in fact have been embarking on an over-specialization trajectory.
The Bank of America literally changed the banking industry during the 1950s by means of its ERMA and IBM 702 computer systems. These innovations in information technology resulted in a dominate design that helped keep the Bank of America in the lead for over a decade and a half. They were the collective work of a leader, Clark Beise, a maestro, Al Zipf, and a group of supertechs, ail of whom became the prototypes for these crucial roles. Bank of America was the first organization, among a selected few, to successfully negotiate the innovation cascade leading from crisis to a dominant IT design. Due in large part to IBM's failure to deliver a fully operational operating system for its 360/65, however, coinciding with the leadership's attention toward international markets, in the late 1960s the Bank of America lost its lead. After several decades ''in the trough,'' as a result of aggressive investment and leadership, the bank re-emerged as a strong competitor. This story of achieving alignment in strategy and structure by means of technological innovation, of the almost tragic breaking of that alignment, and of fervent efforts made to gain realignment illuminates some of the most important lessons of IT management that can be learned from the field's relatively recent, but dramatic, history.
An important management question today is whether the anticipated economic benefits of Information Technology (IT) are being realized. In this paper, we consider this problem to be measurement related, and propose and test a new process-oriented methodology for ex post measurement to audit IT impacts on a strategic business unit (SBU) or profit center's performance. The IT impacts on a given SBU are measured relative to a group of SBUs in the industry. The methodology involves a two-stage analysis of intermediate and higher level output variables that also accounts for industry and economy wide exogenous variables for tracing and measuring IT contributions. The data for testing the proposed model were obtained from SBUs in the manufacturing sector. Our results show significant positive impacts of IT at the intermediate level. The theoretical contribution of the study is a methodology that attempts to circumvent some of the measurement problems in this domain. It also provides a practical management tool to address the question of why (or why not) certain IT impacts occur. Additionally, through its process orientation, the suggested approach highlights key variables that may require managerial ttention and subsequent action. Copyright © 1995, Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.
A sample of sixty-three Australian credit unions is used to compare the financial performance measures provided by accounting-based financial ratios, and production performance as measured by efficiency indices. Whilst the evidence found supports the posited association between financial ratios and efficiency indices, the usefulness of such information is contingent upon which set of a priori behavioural assumptions have been used. More particularly, the results question the applicability of a traditional profit-based, physical production approach to a not-for-profit, cooperative setting.
A two-stage procedure is employed to evaluate non-bank financial institution cost efficiency. In the first stage, data envelopment analysis is used to calculate technical, allocative and cost efficiency indices using a sample of two hundred Australian credit unions. The results indicate that a typical credit union’s costs in 1997 were thirty percent above what could be considered efficient on the basis of observed best practice. The major source of overall cost inefficiency would appear to be allocative inefficiency, rather than technical inefficiency. The second stage uses limited dependent variable regression techniques to relate credit union efficiency scores to financial statement information. The results indicate that commercial lending activities, expenditures on information technology and marketing and promotion, the proportion of non-interest income, and association membership are a significant influence on the level of cost efficiency. The results are found to be invariant to alternative model specifications where input prices are first assumed to be different for each credit union and then assumed to be identical across the sample.
This paper estimates a stochastic cost frontier forU.S. corporate credit unions using call report datafor 1992–1997. The results indicate that corporatecredit unions were 91 percent cost efficient, onaverage, over this period and that institutionspassing a larger percentage of their investments toU.S. Central Credit Union are more cost efficient. However, the economic magnitude of estimatedefficiency gains from investment concentration isfound to be modest. We conclude that the currentthree-tier hierarchical structure for the U.S. creditunion industry is likely to endure.
Bank of America: The Crest and Trough
- Copeland
Copeland, "Bank of America: The Crest and Trough
The ?Right? Spending
- P A Strassmann