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IOIS ADOPTION AND DIFFUSION: A REVIEW OF PORT AND CARGO COMMUNITY SYSTEM LITERATURE
Abstract
We investigate how Port and Cargo Community System (CS) adoption research has been operationalized with a Structured Literature Review approach to test whether CS adoption research has a different thematical and methodological focus than overall IS, specifically Inter-organizational Information System (IOIS) research. Despite drastic contextual changes, the dominant research paradigm and subsequently models used to investigate IS innovations' adoption and diffusion mechanisms originated in the early times of computers and the internet. CS research’s different focus allows us to uncover that three underlying assumptions of the dominant paradigm should be challenged in increasingly complex environments, viz. the deterministic view on dependent variables, the independence of explanatory variables, and the independence of innovations from previous, related innovations. Our novel framework, which integrates these insights, can be used in future research and by practitioners to account for the increasing complexity of IS adoption and diffusion processes.
... For example, we added terms relating to upcoming technologies relevant for creating effective e-commerce presences, such as augmented and virtual reality, which were inspired by key studies and their related key words (e.g., Alimamy and Gnoth, 2022). This search string was the basis for the literature searches within three databases that are frequently used for systematic reviews with comparable research questions and scopes: 1) Web of Science (Koukouvinou and Holmström, 2022;Schellinger et al., 2022), 2) EBSCO (Fischer-Pressler and Bonaretti, 2022;Nagel and Kranz, 2021;Tessmann and Elbert, 2022) and 3) Sciencedirect (Jagals and Karger, 2021;Schmidt et al., 2021). We followed previous systematic reviews (Fischer-Pressler and Bonaretti, 2022;Schellinger et al., 2022;Tessmann and Elbert, 2022) and used several databases to make the search results more robust. ...
... This search string was the basis for the literature searches within three databases that are frequently used for systematic reviews with comparable research questions and scopes: 1) Web of Science (Koukouvinou and Holmström, 2022;Schellinger et al., 2022), 2) EBSCO (Fischer-Pressler and Bonaretti, 2022;Nagel and Kranz, 2021;Tessmann and Elbert, 2022) and 3) Sciencedirect (Jagals and Karger, 2021;Schmidt et al., 2021). We followed previous systematic reviews (Fischer-Pressler and Bonaretti, 2022;Schellinger et al., 2022;Tessmann and Elbert, 2022) and used several databases to make the search results more robust. ...
This literature review systematically analyses recent studies on the effective design of e-commerce presences in order to provide a state-of-the-art overview on this important topic. To do so, our review focuses on the level of webshop elements (i.e., the building blocks to design webshops), which we cluster in eight categories (e.g., color usage, music usage, rich media usage), derived from previous website
quality frameworks (e.g., SITEQUAL, WebQual) and prior reviews. The basis of our comprehensive literature review are 91 articles grouped into the webshop element categories and additionally analyzed along three key study criteria, namely the applied research methods, theories, and key dependent variables. Based on the findings from this bibliographic analysis, we formulate an agenda for future
research avenues to guide researchers in further exploring the field of e-commerce presences and to support practitioners in their decision-making on the implementation of webshop elements.
Ports are natural bottlenecks in the transport chain, yet they are logical places to carry out customs controls. Port Community Systems have played a major role in facilitating the more efficient movement of goods while allowing Customs and other government departments to maintain effective controls. This article traces the history of one such system from the early days of planning through to the current day, in order to provide an insight into the benefits that can be achieved by both Government and the trade, transport and logistics communities. In so doing, the role that such systems can play in terms of implementing a comprehensive Single Window is highlighted.
****** Published in Internationales Verkehrswesen (https://www.internationales-verkehrswesen.de/internationales-verkehrswesen-ausgabe-1-2021/) ****** Port Community Systems (PCS) are locally-bound digital platforms to connect the port community. Using a multiple case study, we compare recent developments in service offer, involved stakeholders, service development strategy and data governance aspects of four PCS. The studied PCS show diverging business model developments. The Ports of Singapore and Antwerp choose an open, app-store like innovation platform approach, creating a one-stop trade and logistics ecosystem. Other ports such as Rotterdam or Le Havre choose to keep PCS more closed off, limiting their range of available functions.
Although multi-sided platforms (MSPs) and their diffusion in B2C contexts received heightened attention in recent literature, there is still a dearth of research on MSP diffusion inhibitors in competitive B2B networks. Using the air cargo hub in Frankfurt, Germany, as highly competitive B2B network which struggles with the acceptance of an MSP for over 10 years, we applied a grounded theory approach to identify key inhibitors to MSP diffusion. Based on several interviews with a diverse set of stakeholders and a systematic coding procedure, we identified 21 factors inhibiting MSP diffusion. The majority of these factors slows down or even thwarts positive network effects, typically occurring on MSPs. Furthermore, we derive a classification showing that the inhibiting factors primarily hamper cross-side network effects in highly competitive B2B networks, and to a lesser degree also same-side and mixed-side network effects. Finally, implications of these results and future research directions are discussed.
Inter-organizational information systems (IOIS) offer many potential benefits to organizations, and IOIS adoption has increased in the last few decades. However, IOIS adoption varies significantly across different contexts, and little research has investigated how contextual factors affect IOIS-adoption variances at the inter-organizational (IO) level in depth—particularly from a multilevel perspective. This paper proposes a novel multilevel framework to analyze what combinations of contextual factors at the national, industry, inter-organizational, and organizational levels influence IOIS-adoption variances at the inter-organizational level. We present an in-depth, exploratory case study of the Indonesian grocery industry that identified three inter-organizational configurations between manufacturers, distributors, and retailers with IOIS-adoption variances. We found that the combinations of multilevel contextual factors varied for each configuration and, thus, explain the IOIS-adoption variances we observed at the IO level in a nuanced and holistic way. We argue that our multilevel framework may help scholars avoid contextual fallacy by encouraging them to examine the influence of higher-level factors on IOIS-adoption variances at the IO level and to avoid the atomistic fallacy that results when they make the wrong assumption that IOIS adoption at the organizational level implies adoption at a higher level.
Organizations are under increasing pressure to apply digital technologies to renew and transform their business models. A great deal of research has examined specific phenomena, such as adoption antecedents and design methods. However, it is unclear what we know in totality, including what research streams exist, how they fit together, and fruitful opportunities for new knowledge development. We combine scientometric and systematic literature review methodologies to examine 7 dimensions of an adapted theoretical framework: initiation; development; implementation; exploitation; the role of the external competitive environment; role of internal organizational environment; and product, service, and process outcomes. From a macro perspective, we find vastly uneven coverage of research streams, diversity and diffusiveness of research, and knowledge and learning as an underlying conceptual pillar. Combined with our summary of each of the 7 research streams, these findings suggest several areas of future research, which we develop by identifying oppositions and tensions.
A Port Community System (PCS) is an electronic platform that links the multiple systems operated by private and public organizations. Accordingly, PCSs can be interpreted as complex service system networks that coproduce services. The study proposes a three levels top-down methodology which aims to interpret existing PCS in order to: provide a formal description of this system network based on the enterprise architecture concepts of a PCS; illustrate how each actor of a PCS offers or requires services; and present a new approach to the measurement of services based on the Goal-Question-Metric paradigm.
While systematic literature reviews (SLRs) have contributed substantially to developing knowledge in fields such as medicine, they have made limited contributions to developing knowledge in the supply chain management domain. This is due to the ontological and epistemological idiosyncrasies of research in supply chain management, which need to be accounted for when retrieving, selecting, and synthesizing studies in an SLR. Therefore, we propose a new paradigm for SLRs in the supply chain domain that is based on both best practice and the unique attributes of doing supply chain management research. This approach involves exploring existing studies with attention to theoretical boundaries, units of analysis, sources of data, study contexts, definitions and the operationalization of constructs, as well as research methods, with the goal of refining or revising existing theory. This new paradigm will push supply chain management research to the frontier of current methodological standards and build a foundation for improving the contribution of future SLRs in the supply chain and adjacent management disciplines.
For the journal version: https://doi.org/10.1111/jscm.12145
As digital platforms are transforming almost every industry today, they are slowly finding their way into the mainstream information systems (ISs) literature. Digital platforms are a challenging research object because of their distributed nature and intertwinement with institutions, markets and technologies. New research challenges arise as a result of the exponentially growing scale of platform innovation, the increasing complexity of platform architectures and the spread of digital platforms to many different industries. This paper develops a research agenda for digital platforms research in IS. We recommend researchers seek to (1) advance conceptual clarity by providing clear definitions that specify the unit of analysis, degree of digitality and the sociotechnical nature of digital platforms; (2) define the proper scoping of digital platform concepts by studying platforms on different architectural levels and in different industry settings; and (3) advance methodological rigour by employing embedded case studies, longitudinal studies, design research, data-driven modelling and visualisation techniques. Considering current developments in the business domain, we suggest six questions for further research: (1) Are platforms here to stay? (2) How should platforms be designed? (3) How do digital platforms transform industries? (4) How can data-driven approaches inform digital platforms research? (5) How should researchers develop theory for digital platforms? and (6) How do digital platforms affect everyday life?
The MEDNET project “Mediterranean Network for Custom Procedures and Simplification of Clearance in Ports” funded by the MED programme (2007–2013), was aimed to establish and operate anetwork of port authorities and experts focusing on the exchange of experiences concerning ports and customs procedures and simplification of clearance for vessels and cargoes.
The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) is a little over a decade old and has been used extensively in information systems (IS) and other fields, as the large number of citations to the original paper that introduced the theory evidences. In this paper, we review and synthesize the IS literature on UTAUT from September 2003 until December 2014, perform a theoretical analysis of UTAUT and its extensions, and chart an agenda for research going forward. Based on Weber’s (2012) framework of theory evaluation, we examined UTAUT and its extensions along two sets of quality dimensions; namely, the parts of a theory and the theory as a whole. While our review identifies many merits to UTAUT, we also found that the progress related to this theory has hampered further theoretical development in research into technology acceptance and use. To chart an agenda for research that will enable significant future work, we analyze the theoretical contributions of UTAUT using Whetten’s (2009) notion of cross-context theorizing. Our analysis reveals several limitations that lead us to propose a multi-level framework that can serve as the theoretical foundation for future research. Specifically, this framework integrates the notion of research context and cross-context theorizing with the theory evaluation framework to: 1) synthesize the existing UTAUT extensions across both the dimensions and the levels of the research context and 2) highlight promising research directions. We conclude with recommendations for future UTAUT-related research using the proposed framework.
Coding is the core process in classic grounded theory methodology. It is through coding that the conceptual abstraction of data and its reintegration as theory takes place. There are two types of coding in a classic grounded theory study: substantive coding, which includes both open and selective coding procedures, and theoretical coding. In substantive coding, the researcher works with the data directly, fracturing and analysing it, initially through open coding for the emergence of a core category and related concepts and then subsequently through theoretical sampling and selective coding of data to theoretically saturate the core and related concepts. Theoretical saturation is achieved through constant comparison of incidents (indicators) in the data to elicit the properties and dimensions of each category (code). This constant comparing of incidents continues until the process yields the interchangeability of indicators, meaning that no new properties or dimensions are emerging from continued coding and comparison. At this point, the concepts have achieved theoretical saturation and the theorist shifts attention to exploring the emergent fit of potential theoretical codes that enable the conceptual integration of the core and related concepts to produce hypotheses that account for relationships between the concepts thereby explaining the latent pattern of social behaviour that forms the basis of the emergent theory. The coding of data in grounded theory occurs in conjunction with analysis through a process of conceptual memoing, capturing the theorist’s ideation of the emerging theory. Memoing occurs initially at the substantive coding level and proceeds to higher levels of conceptual abstraction as coding proceeds to theoretical saturation and the theorist begins to explore conceptual reintegration through theoretical coding.
The widespread globalization of production corporations in the late 20th century, as well as the subsequent trade facilitation policies of state authorities, generates an imperative need to extend the scope of supply chain management. Apart from the evaluation and monitoring of networked operations in different parts of the world, the effectiveness of trade policy measures is also included. This paper examines the potential contributions of a logistics and transport data exchange platform in measuring the performance of supply chain stakeholders of a hub port at different stages along the chain. A case study demonstrates how the integrative characteristics of a logistics and transport data exchange platform can be exploited to measure performances of different parties along the supply chain of a firm. More importantly, the authors explain how such a platform can be transformed into a system that evaluates the integrative supply chain activities of firm, the infrastructure, and the institutional stakeholders. A series of new supply chain performance metrics, including specific monitor end-to-end processes, can be captured by the proposed system. The paper concludes that in view of the significant policy implications of a platform-based supply chain performance measurement (SCPM) system, state intervention is critical to foster a high participation rate of the logistics and transport data exchange platform and develop its SCPM functions.
Bibliometric methods are used in multiple fields for a variety of purposes, namely for research evaluation. Most bibliometric analyses have in common their data sources: Thomson Reuters' Web of Science (WoS) and Elsevier's Scopus. This research compares the journal coverage of both databases in terms of fields, countries and languages, using Ulrich's extensive periodical directory as a base for comparison. Results indicate that the use of either WoS or Scopus for research evaluation may introduce biases that favor Natural Sciences and Engineering as well as Biomedical Research to the detriment of Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities. Similarly, English-language journals are overrepresented to the detriment of other languages. While both databases share these biases, their coverage differs substantially. As a consequence, the results of bibliometric analyses may vary depending on the database used.
The aim of the paper is to investigate maritime logistic processes, focusing on efficiency and coordination. The topic is timely because, in the European context, the EU Directive no. 2010/65/EU imposes the adoption of digital procedures concerning documents and information, in order to facilitate the relationships between all the actors of a port community system (PCS). From a theoretical viewpoint, we adopt the evolutionary economic approach, since it helps to understand the change processes due to its focus on organizational routines and their institutionalization. From a methodological viewpoint, we adopt a case-study approach, investigating the port of Salerno (south of Italy), which is involved in the “Smart Tunnel Project”, whose aim is to create a platform for intelligent logistic services. As a result, we provide a model that aims to replace the old inter- organizational routines with new more efficient ones, also improving the knowledge of the logistic processes through a facilitation of the exchange of documents and information between all the involved actors.
Evaluation of the Business Intelligence (BI) competencies of port community systems before they are bought and deployed is a vital importance for establishment of a decision-support environment for managers. This study proposes a new model which provides a simple approach to the assessment of the BI competencies of port community systems in organization. This approach helps decision-makers to select an enterprise system with appropriate intelligence requirements to support the managers' decision-making tasks. Thirtyfour criteria for BI specifications are determined from a thorough review of the literature. The proposed model uses the fuzzy TOPSIS technique, which employs fuzzy weights of the criteria and fuzzy judgments of port community systems to compute the evaluation scores and rankings. The application of the model is realized in the evaluation, ranking and selecting of the needed port community systems in a port and maritime organization, in order to validate the proposed model with a real application. With utilizing the proposed model organizations can assess, select, and purchase port community systems which will provide a better decision-support environment for their business systems.
Information systems (IS) researchers often explore complex phenomena that result from the interplay between technologies and human actors; as such, IS research frequently involves constructs found at multiple levels of analysis, although rarely recognized as such. In fact, our targeted review of the IS literature found minimal explicit consideration of the issues posed by multilevel research although a number of studies implicitly conducted research at multiple levels. In this paper, we discuss the issues that result from not explicitly recognizing the multilevel nature of one’s work and offer guidance on how to identify and explicitly conduct multilevel IS research. Recognizing the relevance of multilevel research for the IS domain, we discuss a systematic approach to conduct quantitative multilevel IS research that is grounded in an overarching framework that focuses equally on testing variables and entities. We also highlight the unique role of IS in developing multilevel opportunities for researchers. Finally, we identify a number of gaps within the IS literature in which specific multilevel research questions may be articulated. Such explicit consideration of multilevel issues in future IS research will not only improve IS research but contribute to the larger discourse on multilevel research. © 2014, Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved.
Information infrastructures of businesses and government are increasingly interwoven and highly dependent on each other. Though often referred to as sociotechnical innovations, the development of these information infrastructures often has a technological focus. The related and even concurrent development of new social practices is understudied. As a result, the social innovation taking place next to the development of large-scale information infrastructures is ill understood. To address this gap, we study public-private information infrastructure developments at three layers and over a prolonged period of time and focus on the innovation in the social practices. Our goal is to understand the social innovation that is taking place within and among these layers and within their technological context. A finding was that stakeholders face changes in their existing practices and have to alter them as a pre-condition to realize the benefits that information infrastructures promise to provide. New social practices need to be developed and sustaining the innovation requires the development of governance mechanisms.
A growing number of countries are adopting e-government to deliver greater operational efficiency, cost savings and transparency. The current wave of globalization and the integration of the world economy have intensified international trade volumes. Thus, the prospect of development through trade has driven some countries sub-Saharan Africa to adopt information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly electronic data interchange (EDI) to facilitate international trade. This paper applies Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) as a framework to examine the effect of an e-government initiative intended to modernise customs operational procedures and facilitate trade. E-trade facilitation has given individuals and businesses the opportunity to lodge import and export declarations electronically with a single document, resulting in time and cost savings as declarations can be made electronically from any location and at any time. The paper makes a contribution by offering a useful example of the affordances of the CA for examining e-government initiatives, particularly in developing countries, focusing on what people can actually do with the opportunities provided by e-government, rather than using income-based measures.
The adoption of e-Customs platforms to simultaneously ensure regulatory compliance and to facilitate trade is a major strategic issue for governments and customs administrations worldwide. It ensures a more cost-efficient usage of resources while preserving a smooth flow of goods across international borders. Hence, customs administrations are challenged to favor the introduction of IT systems that may enhance the ability to improve information sharing with the business sector, as well as with other governmental agencies. This is often not a straightforward process. As many experts point out, e-Government development projects fail commonly due to the lack of thorough understanding of administration requirements as well as barriers for implementation. Hence, the purpose of this study is to understand what factors enable or hinder the exploitation of e-Customs platforms. By means of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), a theoretical framework is developed to identify drivers and barriers for usage of e-Government/e-Customs platforms. Thereby, a survey instrument was developed and data was collected in occasion of a World Customs Organization (WCO) Annual Council meeting, which was joined by around 400 customs delegates and officers from 178 WCO member administrations. A total of 94 questionnaires have been collected and analyzed, which gives an approximate response rate of 23% (46% considering only the 178 member administrations). The analysis of data has been performed by a combination of multivariate techniques and ANOVA. Results show that factors like cost-savings and ease of use significantly influence the usage of e-Customs platforms. On the contrary, cost-efficiency and usefulness of e-Customs platforms have no significant impacts. From the perspective of barriers preventing adoption, this paper identifies two main factors: 1) technical constraints and costs and 2) quality and trust. Both these factors significantly influence adoption of information sharing, in the context of business-customs communication.
The main objective of this paper is ‘to assess the conditions, including policy support, under which innovative concepts have a high chance of getting adopted and being successful’. The work will start from the state-of-the-art with the following goals targeted. Firstly, to identify the paths that new innovative concepts usually follow, what key determinants are, which actors are involved, and what policy has been doing and can do. As part of this, a typology of variables is established, which will be the basis for the identification of successful adoption paths. Illustrations are provided of the performance of different innovative concepts in the seaport sector. A further goal is to propose policy recommendations, identify best practices, barriers to implementation and transferability of innovative concepts and processes. Finally, the research establishes developments needed in assessment methods and a methodological framework if innovative concepts are introduced.
This paper provides insights into the ways global sea ports are challenged by the need for managing complex information flows, given the developments in global supply chains. We argue that special port IT capabilities are needed to address these challenges by sharing information and planning and executing container transport in a collaborative way, establishing inter-organizational information architectures, and coordinating interests to successfully implement the technological infrastructures. We focus on the role of port community systems that support port communities in meeting the demands of global supply chains.
ABSTRACT Prior research has provided valuable insights into how and why employees make a decision about the adoption and use of information technologies (ITs) in the workplace. From an organizational point of view, however, the more important issue is how managers make informed decisions about interventions that can lead to greater acceptance and effective utilization of IT. There is limited research in the IT implementation literature that deals with the role of interventions to aid such managerial decision making. Particularly, there is a need to understand how various interventions can influence the known determinants of IT adoption and use. To address this gap in the literature, we draw from the vast body of research on the technology acceptance model (TAM), particularly the work on the determinants of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, and: (i) develop a comprehensive nomological network (integrated model) of the determinants of individual level (IT) adoption and use; (ii) empirically test the proposed integrated model; and (iii) present a research agenda focused on potential pre- and postimplementation interventions that can enhance employees' adoption and use of IT. Our findings and research agenda have important implications for managerial decision making on IT implementation in organizations.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the role of network effects (defined as increased utility for users of a technology that occurs when adoption increases among other users) in the adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) systems. EMR systems, which have experienced slow adoption rates, promise to improve the efficiency of the healthcare system by facilitating information exchange among physicians caring for the same patients.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey responses from physicians are used to test several hypotheses. The authors are interested in how market level EMR adoption was related to physician adoption intentions. The authors also test the “strong ties” notion of network effects by examining whether EMR adoption among generalists, and specialist physicians, had differing influences on adoption intentions in a given market.
Findings
Support for network effects is found; each one unit increase in market‐level EMR adoption is associated with a significant increase in overall physician adoption intention in that market. Secondary analyses suggest adoption of EMRs by specialists is significantly predictive of generalists' adoption intentions in a given market. However, as predicted, EMR among generalists does not influence other generalists' intentions; nor does EMR adoption by a specialists influence other specialists' intentions.
Research implications
Network effects play a role in the EMR adoption among physicians. Decision‐makers wanting to influence adoption should target defined market segments in an effort to build a critical mass of adoption then move to adjacent segments once network effects take hold.
Originality/value
This paper applies network effects theory to help explain the suboptimal adoption rates of an important healthcare technology.
Due to increase in the amount of international trade and developments in shipbuilding and cargo handling technology, seaports are in a fierce competition to become the hub port of their region, and they are heavily investing in infrastructure and information technology in order to increase their operational efficiency. On the other hand, Turkish seaports fell behind on deploying information technology and the inefficiency is negatively affecting Turkish logistics industry. The main purpose of this paper is to derive useful implications about information technology development for Turkish ports through the case study of Kumport, which is the best-in-class port in Turkey to deploy information technology. For this purposes, a series of interviews and observations were conducted on August 2006. According to the results, the success of Kumport lies in the foreseeing vision and determined attitude of the top management, and the consistency of the information systems with the local conditions and legal requirements in Turkey.
The Port Community System is a type of digital platform that offers several benefits and improvements to the operations and supply chain of an increasing number of ports worldwide. However, prior literature does not explain in detail how these various types of benefits and business process improvements spread within a port and are obtained by its main groups of stakeholders (agents, terminal operators, and so on). The article fills this literature gap by analysing the distribution of benefits and improvements among the main types of port actors in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) after the introduction of the ‘Portbase’ platform. The results show that PCS effectively improves port stakeholders’ business processes only if the platform is the core element of a port digital transformation strategy, and if it offers a large portfolio of smart IT solutions that (a) directly improve the system quality, information quality and service quality, and (b) are properly targeted for the business processes that are carried out by the different groups of port stakeholders.
Port Community Systems (PCS) are inter-organizational software platforms that connects port community actors, enabling commercial services and information exchange between the port to their customers and a variety of stakeholders. Our main motivation for this paper lies in the absence of surveys on the PCS literature, hence the purpose of this paper is to perform a structured literature review on PCS to establish promising research gaps. Such review was conducted surveying the literature about PCS from 2001 until 2019. The study introduces a detailed and current worldwide PCS inventory using a proposed evolution framework and a taxonomy, the latter built upon commonly cited factors from the IT systems development literature in the context of port communities, which are synthesized into three frames: a Business frame, an Integration frame, and a Legal frame. Findings show that literature on PCS is scarce and fragmented, oftentimes with PCS research published in non-specialized documents on the topic, with few comparative studies between countries and several countries receiving little attention. Few authors have high specialization on the topic while most authors in average contribute less than once to the body of knowledge. Additionally, it was found that industry is ahead of scientific research in terms of documenting PCS development and technical features. The results also show a lack of innovation regarding PCS research studies, which risks relegating PCS research to irrelevance. A major critique to extant PCS literature is about its inertia, as research tends to be excessively comfortable with the legacy PCS, neglecting its need to evolve and adapt to new markets (in response to the growth of emerging economies) or to extended functionalities (taking advantage of the surge of new technologies). Furthermore, it was found that the future of PCS research should aim for addressing practical needs, while fostering collaboration among practitioners and scholars.
The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of the port community system (PCS) and its influence on port performance. The techniques of principal component analysis and structural equation modelling are applied to 153 valid responses from a sample, obtained from Portuguese port community experts. The results identify and measure the factors that characterize the PCS and affects port performance. PCS characteristic, including service level, partner network, ship services, cargo services, logistics services and advanced services, affect port performance, defined as operational performance, effectiveness and efficiency. The primary contribution of this study is to show the mechanisms that allow ports to adjust and evolve the PCS characteristics and develop new features that affect port performance.
Ports have played an important role in facilitating exchanges among countries since the day when inland transportation was poor. As ports become hubs for global supply chain, they have to maintain their competitiveness not only by reassuring their efficiency, reliability, accessibility to hinterland, and sustainability. In addition, there is a constant challenge from all operational parties of the port to acquire needed information or to trust information received, due to multiple legacy systems and platforms that do not integrate with each other, and to the lack of real time updates. There are differing agendas between parties and, sometimes, distrust within the multi-stakeholder ecosystem leads to working in silos. This jeopardises seamless data exchange and cooperation across the port value chain, resulting in significant inefficiencies. Port community system (PCS) can enhance communication and simplify administrative process resulting economic and environmental benefit for actors in the supply chain. The invisibility of the benefit, actors’ heterogeneity and significant investment to develop the system resulting a reluctance in implementing PCS. This chapter aims to study the evolution mechanism behind the process of PCS network development using lessons learned from industrial symbiosis network development and network trajectories theory. The PCS network development follows a serendipitous and goal-oriented process that can be categorised into three stages: pre-PCS network, PCS network emergence, and PCS network expansion. This chapter contributes to the exploration of network evolution and documents lesson learned to foster PCS implementation.
This paper investigates the executive modalities and implications of digital platforms for business process management to rethink and redesign the operational processes in the inter-organizational relationship systems among public and private players in seaports. The research question is: how can digital platforms based on the information technology infrastructure rethink and redefine the business processes in seaport organizations? A multiple case study methodology, comparing two Italian port experiences which adopt digital platforms (TPCS and GAIA), evidences several benefits, including the reduction of time schedules and paper documents in the operational processes in relation to sustainability policy. Consequently, the performance of the whole business process increases; more generally, the sea-land supply chain improves its performance and its inter-organizational relationships. This paper aims to fill the existent research gap by providing a broad analysis of the phenomenon and empirical evidence.
Inter-Organizational Information Systems (IOISs) for seaport logistics facilitate monitoring operations, the exchange of information with stakeholders, and meeting regulations of foreign trade. However, seaport contexts entail complexities in terms of stakeholder involvement and business processes that must be considered thoroughly toward the successful adoption of IOISs. This research seeks to identify factors influencing the successful adoption of IOISs in seaports. It follows a grounded theory approach relying on semi-structured interviews and expert opinions to identify facilitating conditions for the adoption of IOISs. Survey research was conducted in order to investigate the appraisal of different ports in Latin America and the Caribbean region regarding the diverse conditions. The results obtained were analyzed descriptively and through a Principal Components Analysis. The latter was conducted in order to discern relevant dimensions influencing the adoption of IOISs in seaports. The results of the study allow deriving managerial insights and practical recommendations to support technological plans at ports and guide the decision-making regarding the digitalization process.
Multi-sided platforms, enabling interactions between different user sides, hold an important place in the contemporary economy. Current literature, focusing on established and successful platforms, has neglected to study B2B multi-sided platform adoption mechanisms. In this article, we analyze these mechanisms by investigating the case of dematerialization platforms for B2B transactions between the multiple actors involved in public works contracts. Various qualitative materials, including 28 semi-structured interviews, were gathered over a thirty-month period. Adopting a business user perspective, this study contributes to the literature on multi-sided platforms in various ways. We show that platform adoption, in project-based B2B contexts, is mainly constrained by a high level of affiliation costs and the existence of tight-interdependencies between users' activities at project level. Thus, a consecutive adoption path would result in negative cross-group network externalities and undermine the platform's attractiveness. Conversely, a concurrent adoption path would activate positive network externalities and encourage platform adoption decisions.
An increasing use of inter-organizational systems, as Port Community System (PCS), can be observed in port collaborations. As multiple organizations often rely on PCS, even for business-critical processes, proper governance of these systems is crucial. This study aims to explain the governance of inter-organizational port collaborations using a lifecycles paradigm. The governance is explored using three points of view – i.e. governance mechanisms, governance aspects, and governance models – and by describing the actors’ roles in collaborations. A case study in the port of Rotterdam is analyzed to explain how these actors affect the governance models through the mechanisms to govern the aspects in each lifecycle stage. The port collaboration in Rotterdam has gone through three full governance lifecycles and has entered the fourth iteration after the set-up of Portbase. During the last two cycles, the collaboration has maintained its Network Administrative Organization governance model. This case study analysis of Rotterdam’s port collaboration provides an example of how a systematic approach could help to discuss and communicate the governance of inter-organizational port collaboration systems and gives some lessons learned for other collaborations.
Literature lacks works that investigate Knowledge Management (KM) from an interdisciplinary point of view and that deepen barriers to KM in a Supply Chain context. Thus, with the purpose to cope with this dearth, we singled out 75 barriers to KM adoption and/or development by means of an in-depth up-to-date systematic literature review. The review was conducted according to a review matrix we developed for steering the inquiry and for classifying its results in six clusters. By pointing out the similarities between KM Systems and Port Community Systems (PCSs), we assessed the relevance of these clusters in a PCS-enabled port area through a Focus Group. The main evidences show that strategic, organisational, and technological barriers could be the most relevant ones in this context, while other acknowledged barriers may be less important. These results provide a first contribution to the aforementioned shortages, propose solutions for overcoming the KM barriers, and pave the way for further research on KM in logistics and in PCS-enabled port communities.
The central role of information systems review articles has been recognised in a recent explosion of interest in editorials, research articles, and opinion papers investigating methods and approaches for conducting standalone reviews. In continuity with recent developments in this area, this descriptive review seeks to determine the extent to which various types of review articles published in our field are transparent, i.e., they report important methodological elements about their design. To fulfil this objective, we identified, classified, and coded 142 review articles from the Association for Information Systems (AIS) senior scholars’ basket of journals published between 2000 and 2014. Overall, our findings indicate inadequate reporting of the methods, procedures, and techniques used in a majority of reviews. Our assessment also reveals that theory development and narrative reviews, which are the most frequently published types of reviews in our field, generally were the least explicit with regard to the methods they used. Based on our observations, we recommend that authors of all forms of reviews better document design decisions so to increase trustworthiness, get meaningful results, and develop a cumulative body of knowledge in our discipline. The list of reporting items developed in this study can serve as a framework to assist prospective authors of reviews both within and outside our field.
Electric energy storage systems (EESS) have received an increased attention in recent years due to their important role in an active management of energy supply systems. Fueled by the increasing shares of intermitting Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in today's energy supply, balancing energy demand and energy supply over time becomes more and more challenging. EESS are recognized as a key technology to overcome this challenge by storing energy and converting it back when needed. Even though some EESS solutions are already available on the market, EESS suffer from technical limitations and entail high investment costs. Energy management is responsible for managing the operations of EESS and the interactions with the surrounding systems. An optimal energy management is an important precondition to ensure economic viability of EESS.
Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) operate in environments characterized by growing competition for resources and greater stakeholder demands for accountability, which makes deploying and maintaining information systems a struggle. In this competitive, resource-constrained environment, enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms offer NPOs a cost-effective way access reliable, low-maintenance information technology services. Thus, the extent to which NPOs assimilate SaaS is an important area of inquiry. Yet despite the wealth of research on organizational IT assimilation, we know little regarding whether, when, and how NPOs assimilate IT innovations. We further our understanding of NPO assimilation of SaaS by conducting a context-based study. To do so, we employ multiple methods with data collected from US-based NPOs executives. Our first study showed that organizational factors (e.g., readiness, top management participation) and environmental factors (e.g., social gains, industry) affect the degree to which NPOs assimilate SaaS. However, we also found that technological factors do not appear to play a significant role in NPO SaaS assimilation. We conducted a phenomenological analysis to shed further light on this unexpected finding. Our analysis found that readiness to adopt SaaS, perceptions about SaaS complexity, and the use of outside consultants all played a key role in NPOs’ assimilation process.
Information systems (IS) research usually investigates phenomena at one level of analysis at a time. However, complex IS phenomena may be difficult to address from such a single-level perspective. A multilevel perspective offers an alternative means to examine phenomena by simultaneously accounting for multiple levels of analysis. Although useful guidelines for theory development are widely available, they give little specific attention to developing theory that is conceptualized and analyzed at multiple levels. Multilevel theorizing or developing theory from a multilevel perspective is more complex and involves unique challenges. To promote multilevel theorizing in the IS discipline, we focus on addressing challenges involved in multilevel theorizing and propose a holistic framework for systematically developing theory from a multilevel perspective. Drawing from the organization science and IS literature, the proposed framework harmonizes and synthesizes previous guidelines, providing a practical basis for conceptualizing and studying multilevel phenomena.
The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0690 .
- This paper describes the process of inducting theory using case studies from specifying the research questions to reaching closure. Some features of the process, such as problem definition and construct validation, are similar to hypothesis-testing research. Others, such as within-case analysis and replication logic, are unique to the inductive, case-oriented process. Overall, the process described here is highly iterative and tightly linked to data. This research approach is especially appropriate in new topic areas. The resultant theory is often novel, testable, and empirically valid. Finally, framebreaking insights, the tests of good theory (e.g., parsimony, logical coherence), and convincing grounding in the evidence are the key criteria for evaluating this type of research.
Multi-sided platforms (MSP) are revolutionizing the global competitive landscape in the new networked economy. Yet, although these MSPs are underpinned by information systems (IS), there is currently little research on how the IS capabilities of the platform sponsor can influence, and co-evolve with, the development of the platform over time. The lack of knowledge in this area may account for the difficulties faced by a significant number of platform sponsors in developing their MSPs effectively. Using a case study of Alibaba.com, one of the world’s largest and most commercially successful online MSP, we inductively derive a process theory of MSP development from an IS capability perspective to address this knowledge gap. The process model reveals that the role of IS capabilities in MSP development is evolutionary in nature, and the antecedent IS capabilities, nature, and outcomes of MSP development can be dramatically different in the various stages of development. © 2015, Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the evolution of local port community systems (PCS) towards a vast network of interlinked locations in Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is conceptual. It builds on the findings of platform theory and the analogy between the market for cargo information and the payment system industry to discuss the potential outcomes and shapes of a European port community. A number of interviews were also conducted with PCS market participants.
Findings
As a result, insight is given into the stages of building a European maritime information network, the growing part played by PCS operators and the way competition and the market are organizing, as well as into some institutional difficulties.
Research limitations/implications
The paper makes various inroads into the subject of PCS operation that call for further research. One particular field concerns the possible impact of PCS interoperation on port competition, which is not sufficiently clear at this stage of the research.
Originality/value
The paper enlightens a hot topic in an original way and provides a useful benchmark for all concerned parties, professionals and public authorities alike. It also opens many prospects into future research on how information systems may contribute to shaping the cargo industry.
We study the economic tradeoffs that drive organizations to position themselves closer to or further away from a multi-sided platform (MSP) business model, relative to three traditional alternatives: vertically integrated firms, resellers or input suppliers. These tradeoffs lead to a comprehensive discussion of the defining features of MSPs. The formal model we develop focuses on the MSP versus vertical integration choice, which we interpret in the context of professional services. A key tradeoff emerges between the need to coordinate decisions that generate spillovers across professionals (best achieved by a vertical integrated firm) and the need to both motivate unobservable effort by professionals and ensure professionals adapt their decisions to their private information (best achieved by a MSP). We show how this baseline tradeoff is impacted by the nature of contracts available to the vertically integrated firm and the MSP, and by the possibility of professionals holding pessimistic expectations when deciding whether or not to join the vertically integrated firm or MSP.
Port community systems (PCSs) are rapidly being developed in order to enhance the communications between ports and other port related institutions and gain competitive advantage against the world’s leading ports. Most of the literature regarding PCSs development is either a case study or qualitative in nature. To our knowledge, there is not any research focusing on the quantitative benefits of PCSs to support decision-makers for investment decisions. Thus this study aims to develop a simulation model to capture the differences between conventional port logistics business and a conceptual model where a hypothetical PCS is in place. The differences between the existing system and the proposed system are calculated via simulation based on data obtained from Turkish port industry in terms of time and cost reduction. Finally, the data integration requirements are discussed.
The shipping and port industry must respond to a new reality that has been created by the continuing growth of world trade and the emergence of global operators. This combination has resulted in increased demand for seaports and their related services while they are divided into competing nodal points in the entire global logistic chain. To improve their competitive positions, many ports have begun developing and implementing the port community system (PCS), which constitutes an electronic platform that connects multiple systems operated by a variety of organizations that constitute the seaport community and is believed to be a significant contributing factor to a more efficient movement of cargo across international borders. Related research on the integration of PCSs has only recently started to develop. To this end, this paper proposes a methodology to evaluate port performance changes with the introduction of PCS, which, under a competitive environment is of significant importance to port management. The proposed evaluation methodology introduces, among others, key port performance indicators to account for system implementation. An application of the methodology is carried out for the real case of a port that is kept anonymous to maintain confidentiality. The methodology can constitute an effective decision-making tool for port managers, as well as regional and national authorities, to perform port improvement analysis, encouraging these to be proactive in PCS development-ultimately leading to efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness gains.
Although scholars have long studied knowledge sharing drivers within software development teams, our knowledge remains fragmented by divergent efforts based on and contributing to theoretical perspectives. This study provides a review of the extant literature (1993-2011) on knowledge sharing drivers in software teams and establishes a classification framework using an organizational change perspective. Synthesis of the literature uncovers diverse themes and gaps in the existing body of knowledge, suggests several paths for advancing theory on knowledge sharing in software development contexts, and discusses implications for practitioners concerned with knowledge sharing in software development.
This case study examines the air cargo industry in Hong Kong, where an electronic trading network was launched by four international airlines with considerable success in the mid-1990s. Two key factors explain the success. First of all, the electronic network limited its service to preserve carefully the distribution of power among the stakeholders. Secondly, the system roll out took advantage of the four founding airlines' local strongholds as points of departure. The case study also addresses the possibilities of extending the network into a full-scale electronic market for Hong Kong's air cargo community.