Social media marketing and website quality relationship: a brief note

I refer to Kim and Stoel (2004) on the various attributes of website quality in retail business to start off my discussion. These writers provide a comprehensive list of quality attributes, namely,

1. information fit-to-task
2. tailored communication
3. online completeness
4. relative advantage
5. visual appeal
6. innovativeness
7. emotional appeal
8. consistent image
9. ease of understanding
10. intuitive operations
11. response time
12. trust

When a company conducts marketing and sales activities in the social media ecosystem, these activities could be studied in terms of further contribution to some of the website quality attribures provided. More empirical studies need to be carried for this purpose. It appears to me that social media marketing can contribute to (2), (7), (9) and (12). There are 2 other factors to consider:

1. The social media ecosystem tends to favour more marketing 3.0 approach as well as more social enterprise-behaviour in commercial enterprises. This effect will in turn influence the social medica marketing approach adopted by companies.
2. Website qaulity is affected by the 3 main considerations in a typical user and task analysis, namely, user, task and the specific environment involved. I want to point out that, website presentation in a smartphone is different from that of a PC tablet, and which, in turn, is different from that of a desktop PC. These are 3 different environments; user profiles and main task profiles are also different in these 3 computing environments. Thus, the priorities of website quality attributes in these 3 cases also differ.

Ultimately, it is important to ask how a corporate website contributes to the marketing effectiveness of an enterprise, not just its social media marketing effectiveness.

References

1. Kim, S. and Stoel, L. (2004) "Dimensional hierarchy of retail website quality", Information & Management, 41, pp. 619-633.
2. Kotler, P., Kartajaya, H., and Setiawan, I. (2010) Marketing 3.0, John Wiley and Sons.
3. Social media marketing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing
4. User and task analysis: http://old.sigchi.org/bulletin/1999.3/pubs.pdf
5. Web usability: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_usability

A research agenda: social enterprise-like corporate behaviour in the social media ecosystem

It comes to my attention that there is a research theme: an assessment of how social media ecosystem fosters social enterprise-like behaviour in commercial enterprises. I list below a number of reference resources for research purpose:

1. Corporate citizenship: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_citizenship
2. HKSEC: http://www.hksec.hk/2010/?q=home_front
3. Social enterprise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_enterprise
4. Social marketing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_marketing
5. Social enterpreneurship: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_entrepreneurship
6. Social media: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

I think the literature on corporate social responsibility is also relevant.

Software engineering dissertation report writing - some advice

My Diploma and Degree students in computer science are required to do software engineering projects. Here, I want to provide some advice on how to write the project dissertation report. In general, the report has the following report structure

Title: Development of an XXXX system for XXX company based on XXX methodology

Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables

Chapter 1: Introduction: cover the context of the project, the objectives of the project and your role with the client system; also try to provide an overall view of the report structure
Chapter 2: Literature review: cover information about the application domain, e.g inventory management for an inventroy management software, etc; the main type of information system involved, e.g. an expert system for  a web-based personal investment advice software; software development tools used.
Chapter 3: Sofware Engineering Methodology justifications: evaluate a number of software development methodologies, e.g. DSDM, SSADM and make a choice on methodology used with clear justifications.
[There could be an additional chapter on the Project Plan for the software project; in this case, the software engineering project is described using Project Management concepts and frameworks.]
Chapter 4: Software engineering methodology in action: make an account of how you use the chosen methodology to manage the software engineering project
4.1 Phase 1 (of your chosen methodology); try to provide a few systems diagrams as explicitly required in this phase of the methodology
4.2 Phase 2.
... etc

Chapter 5: Conclusions and lessons learned: evaluate how well you have achieved your project objectives and reflect on the experience of using the software tools and methodology chosen for the project
References: do so in harvard referencing format.
Appendix: including major systems documentations, e.g. user guide, and UML diagrams constructed. Also attach your approved project proposal here.

When writing your report,

• try not to use systems deliverables as your chapter subtitles
• try to write in descriptive and discussion modes
• do not insert too many diagrams into the report direct
• use outlining in the report, e.g. 4.1, 4.2 in Chapter 4
• start on a new page for a new chapter
• label Figures and Tables clearly, e.g. Figure 1.1 XXX; Figure 1.2 XXX, etc
• try not to copy and paste diagrams from other sources; construct your own diagrams
• check your writing carefully and reduce grammatical errors
• try to express your line of reasoning clearly and in an organized way
• make sure you use proper references, e.g. textbooks and academic journal articles. Do not just use Internet resources for your references

Dissertation report is not a systems documentation manual. It is important to provide clear referencing and express your ideas with good English. Finally, the level of complexity/ sophistication of your software application should meet the academic requirement of the programme you study. If you are doing your final year dissertation at the Honour Degree level, do not use a primiative model such as SDLC as your methodology to use.


Below is the software engineering dissertation proposal template of GWU for reference:

Project Proposal

Topic area

WAP Application

Title

Telephone Number Enquiry System and Meeting Room Booking System for WAP device and Web Browser.

Introduction

The beginning usage of Internet was primarily a research and academic network. In more recently, commercial enterprises and a vast number of consumers around the world can use the Internet to retrieve information, communicate and conduct business globally and access a vast array of services and resources on-line. When connect to the Internet, computers using a client/server model to communicate with each other. A Browser is a client program that is used to search through information provided by a specific type of server and offer a graphical interface to the World Wide Web. The growth of WAP, which is the de facto worldwide standard for providing Internet communications and advanced telephony services on digital mobile phones, pagers, personal digital assistants and other wireless terminals.

The rapid use of mobile communication device today made company data accessible anywhere for their staff.  One ever-growing device is the portable mobile phone. As most corporations personal equip with wired or wireless devices, information retrieve can be done in anywhere. Based on the maturation of Internet technology through these years, the WAP will be another major part of an Information System.

Most common activity such as the corporate phone book enquiry, meeting room booking, sells and marketing, Customer Relation management, sending E-mail and various valuable services.

This project is concerned with the design and implementation of a database system that will enable the company user to retrieve company telephone number and Meeting Room booking through the web browser with the company Intranet and with their mobile phone.

Key phrases

WAP Database connectivity, Web Database connectivity, Web application development, WAP application development, Intranet, Internet, DBMS, LAN, Wireless LAN, Wireless application, B2B, W3C

Objectives

1. To review technical specification and technique to fulfill the project requirement. To  establish a network infrastructure for the system.

     Activities: Read literature on the use of software for WAP application development and Web application development. Survey web sites and white paper of software and magazines for relevant articles. Obtain trial copies of relevant software packages. Informal interviews with consultants and practitioners working in the area of web applications and wireless application.

    Deliverables: Section for report. 1000 – 1500 words.

2. To build a network infrastructure for the project

    Activities: Download software and setup computer environment for development.  Obtain comparison between different development infrastructure.

    Deliverables: Section for report. 1000 – 1500 words.

3. To collect user requirement for the system. Consolidate system requirement specification and functional specification of the system.

    Activities: Obtain relevant user requirement from the staff within various departments. Survey business function and staff behavior.

    Deliverables: Section for report. Max. 2000 words.

4. To design and implement a database that will hold information relating to the system.

    Activities: Analysis the information collected and draws up a requirement specification. Select appropriate methods and design and implement a database application to meet the requirements.

     Deliverables: Produce requirement specification. Justification for methods selected. Analysis and design documentation. Database schema. Implementation code. Test strategy. Evaluation steps.

    Write up a statement of each step of the design with justifications for design decisions made. 

Relevance of other courses

The courses Database Design, Human and Computer Aspects, Distributed Information System, Application Programming for Internet and Information engineering will provide relevant sources of material for the project.

Required resources

Access to libraries. Access to the Internet. Standard Pentium PC, Windows 98, Microsoft Access, PDA, Mobile phone, Delphi development tool.

Initial references

1. “Netware Web Development”, Peter Kuo, Ph.D   First Edition ,1997 sams.net publishing .

2. “World Wide Web Database Developer's Guide”,  Mark Swank and Drew Kittel 1996, Sams Publishing.

3. “Wireless Internet Database Connectivity with ASP, XML, and SQL Server”,

     Srdjan Vujosevic and   Robert  Laberge June 2000 issue of MSDNagazine.

     http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/0600/wireless/print.asp.       

4. “Dynamic WAP Application Development”, Soo Mee Foo, Christopher Hoover, Wei Meng Lee , ISBN 1930110081    Manning Publishing Co.

5. “Databases on the Internet/Intranet?A White Paper”, Ron Martin ,   neQuest Systems

6. “Web Database Connectivity with Scripting Languages”, Z. Peter Lazar and Peter Holfelder,   Web  Journal,  Volume 2, Issue 2

7. “Putting your Database on the Web”,  Norm Friesen, Academic Technologies for Learning,  norm.friesen@ualberta.ca

8. “Web Database Connectivity Buzzwords”, John Paul Ashenfelter Nov. 5, 1999 Database Developer,  http://www.webreview.com/dd/1999/11_05_99.shtml.

9. ”Web Services and Enterprise Integration - Friends Not Foes”, David Plesko and J. Michael Lee,  07/22/02 Intranet Journal http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200207/tu_07_22_02a.html.

Critical success factors

Locating relevant and up-to-date literature.

Obtaining sufficient relevant information to determine a full set of requirements.

Setup development infrastructure.

References

1. On DSDM: http://www.dsdm.org/
2. On harvard referencing: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm
3. On SDLC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_Development_Life_Cycle

e-supply chain management - a resource list

I compiled the following list of internet resources for students studying e-supply chain management/ e-logistics:

1. Agent-based supply chain management: http://csdl2.computer.org/comp/proceedings/hicss/2004/2056/07/205670168a.pdf
2. B2B e-marketplace: http://www.emarketservices.com/start/Knowledge/E-business-Issues/E-marketplace-development/prod/Benefits-and-barriers-on-B2B-e-marketplaces.html?xz=0&sd=1&ci=272
3. Bullwhip effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullwhip_effect
4. Collaborative commerce: http://barcodes.gs1us.org/dnn_bcec/Solutions/CollaborativeCommerce/tabid/195/Default.aspx
5. CPFR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_planning,_forecasting,_and_replenishment
6. Critical success factors of e-SCM - an article: http://repository.lib.polyu.edu.hk/jspui/bitstream/10397/1149/1/scm_paper_PPCv3_PolyU_Libra.pdf
7. ebXML: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Business_XML
8. EDI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Interchange
9. e-procurement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-procurement
10. Extended enterprise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Enterprise
11. Extranet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extranet
12. 4PL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth-party_logistics
13. GPS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System
14. Mass customization: http://ecommerce.hostip.info/pages/719/Mass-Customization.html
15. RFID: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification
16. RosettaNet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RosettaNet
17. VMI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor-managed_inventory
18. Web-based supplier management: http://blog.intelex.com/post/2011/03/17/The-advantage-of-web-based-supplier-management.aspx

Strategic cost analysis on e-Businesss management: a brief note

There are two closely related perspectives on e-business (EB) cost analysis. They are the economic and management accounting perspectives. I briefly present them here:

Perspective 1: economic perspective
a. Transaction cost economics (TCE) perspective: By studying the impacts of EB on the transaction costs via marketplaces as compared with administrative costs as what enterprises incurr internally, TCE sheds light on why ebusinesses increasingly rely on business process outsourcing to operate.
b. Using classical micro-economic theories, Grover and Ramanlal (2004) explain why eBusinesses are facing higher intensity of rivalry in the marketplaces as a result of much lower marginal cost with the adoption of a more digital business model in EB. Moreover, Internet promotes cost transparency in supply chains, resulting in higher customer bargaining power. This puts pressure on the gross margins of EB in general (Sinha, 2000). It has also been pointed out EB is able to shift outward the EB rich-reach trade-off curve, which can change the "rules of the game", thus disruptive to the marketplace.


Perspective 2: strategic management accounting (SMA) perspective
Michael Porter's models of Value Chain and 5-Force Model are very influential in SMA; these two models, while grounded on economic logic, offer major theoretical insights for SMA to develop more specific and practical SMA practices, see Ward (1993). For a discussion of how to apply Porter's models in EB, you are referred to Porter (2001).

In short, to conduct strategic cost analysis of EB, you need to study these two related literatures.

References

1. e-Business basics and transaction costs: http://tutor2u.net/ebusiness/ebusiness-law-cybercrime.html
2. Singha, I. (2000) "Cost Transparency: The Net's Real Threat to Prices and Brands", Harvard Business Review, March-April, 43-50.
3. e-Business environment and strategic cost management - an article: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1079725
4. Grover, V. and Ramanlal, P. (2004) "Digital economics and the e-business dilemma", Business Horizon, 47/4, July-August, pp. 71-80.
5. On outsourcing - a transaction cost view: http://eight2late.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/to-outsource-or-not-to-outsource-a-transaction-cost-view/
6. Porter, M.E. (2001) "Strategy and the Internet", Harvard Business Review, March, 63-78.
7. Strategic cost management and e-supply chain article: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1079725
8. Ward, K. (1993) Strategic Management Accounting, Butterworth Heinemann.

e-Customer service management in the social media ecosystem

To discuss Internet-based customer service in the social media ecosystem, you need to have some ideas about the two terms used:

a. Customer service: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_service
b. Social media ecosystem: http://www.slideshare.net/leminhhai/social-media-ecosystem-2706486

In a paper on Internet-based customer service by Walsh and Godrey (2000),  they stressed the importance of strengthened customer relationship management by retailers based on a more comprehensive and sophisticated customer intelligence database. Such data were much more easily gathered online. With that, online retailers could make their online customer service more accessible, more relevant and  more supportive of constant dialogue with customers. Morever,  online retailers were able to provide added value, e.g., in the forms of online personalized recommendation services, virtual communities for customer-to-customer interation and customized products. The business benefits of such Internet-based customer service were more customer loyalty and trust, more sales and profit from strengthened customer relationship management based on improved customer profitability analysis.

In the contemporary social media ecosystem, these ideas from Walsh and Godrefy remain laregly valid. On top of relying on virtual communities, on-line retailers need to consider social networking platforms, blogs, and micro-blogs such as twitter to engage consumers. Online retailers need to be more prepared to conduct marketing 3.0 practices in their e-customer service in the social media ecosystem. Consumer behaviour and expectations in 2011, as affected by contemporary social media ecosystem, are not the same as those in 2000; thus, there is a need for more marketing 3.0 thinking in online customer service management.

Finally, online retailers need to closely monitor their online customer service quality, perhaps by using the GAP model of service quality, because the business ecosystem they face is very often hyper-competitive.


References

1. Business ecosystem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_ecosystem
2. eCRM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECRM
3. Hypercompetition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercompetition
4. Kotler, P., Kartajaya, H., and Setiawan, I. (2010) Marketing 3.0, John Wiley and Sons.
5. The gap model of service quality: http://www.degromoboy.com/cs/gap.htm
6. Walsh, J. and Godfrey, S. (2000). "The Internet: A New Era in Customer Service", European Management Journal, Vol. 18(1), pp. 85-92.

Legal and ethical issues in Electronic Commerce: a brief note

Legal and ehical issues in Electronic Commerce (EC) are big subjects; these issues are related to computer ethics as well as information management ethics (Spinello, 1997).  In their review of ethical issues in EC, Stead and Gilbert (2001) discussed cybersquatter, disintermediation, privacy and spamming, among others. Kelly and Rowland (2000) examined the legal and ethical considerations in online privacy. Here, I suggest 2 ideas for you to consider when studying them:

1. Barbour (1992) points out three views of technology: (a) as liberator, (b) as threat, and (c) as instrument of power. He then presented 3 views of the interactions of science, technology and society:
(a) linear development: science -> technology -> society;
(b) technological determinism: technology -> society, science
(c) contextual interaction: society, science and technology affect each other mutually.

When you conduct your EC analysis on ethical and legal issues, you need to be aware of your personal stance on these views on technology so as to remain critical.

2. It is useful to conduct the analysis or study on a theory-driven and systematic basis (e.g. Ho (2011): http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/ethical-analysis-based-on-soft-systems.html)

Here I provide a list of relevant links on these topics for your study:

• Computer crime: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crime
• Computer ethics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_ethics
• Legal aspects of computing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_aspects_of_computing
• Taxation and ecommerce: http://articles.manupatra.com/PopOpenArticle.aspx?ID=f3c75cea-57c1-4b7e-a881-3c5a339eddc7&txtsearch=
• Legal issues in eCommerce (pdf): http://www.nishithdesai.com/Research-Papers/Legal_issues_ecom.pdf

You will find the Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, published by Emerald useful.

References

1. Barbour, I. (1992) Ethics in an Age of Technology, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
2. Kelly, E.P. and Rowland, H.C. (2000) "Ethical and Online Privacy Issues in Electronic Commerce", Business Horizons, May-June, pp. 3-12.
3. Spinello, R.A. (1997) Case Studies in Information and Computer Ethics, Prentice Hall
4. Stead, B.A. and Gilbert, J. (2001) "Ethical Issues in Electronic Commerce", Journal of Business Ethics 34, pp. 75-85.
5. Views on technology (a brief article by Larry Mittag): http://www.eetimes.com/design/communications-design/4139990/Two-Views-One-Technology
6. An academic article by Kracher and Corritore: http://www.jstor.org/pss/3857773

Ethical analysis based on soft systems thinking

The literature on business ethics has had good coverage of ethical analysis in its field of study. Here I offer a version of ethical analysis approach based on Peter Checkland's soft systems methoddology (SSM) to address ethical dilemmas (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_dilemma):

Step 1: capture the ethical dilemma in the form of a rich picture
Step 2: develop a number of options that are considered as useful to alleviate the problem situation; these options should be formulated in the form of root definitions.
Step 3: subject the root definitions to CATWOE analysis
Step 4: develop conceptual models from these root definitions
Step 5: Reflect on these root definitions (and  corresponding conceptual models) and explore the problem situation again with these conceptual models to gain an in-depth understanding of the situation, the implications of adopting these root definitions, as well as to stimulate further creativity to address the ethical dilemma.
Step 6: Develop your response to the ethical dilemma based on your SSM-based ethical analysis and improved understanding of the problem situation with awareness of the implications of your endorsed ethical position.
Step 7: Learn from your impacts of your response and consider next move.

These ethical analysis steps follow closely the soft systems methodology of Checkland. In this case, what are the benefits of following this ethical analysis? First, this process makes use of our existing knowledge in Soft Systems Methodology (SSM). Second, in Step 1, when constructing a rich picture that depicts the ethical dilemma, you need to carry a stakeholder analysis and note the specific concerns of various stakeholders. Third, in Step 3, when conducting CATWOE analysis, we need to make explicit the specific ethical criteria and corresponding underlying philosophical stances that represent the worldviews (i.e. the Ws in CATWOE) of of various root definitions.

I think it is useful not to reinvent the wheel but to use familiar systems methodologies to derive an ethical analysis approach. Such a soft systems-based ethical analysis approach is intended to deal with ethical dilemmas that inevitably possess tremendous soft complexity. The process can be employed in a personal self-reflection mode or as a collective learning process with a group of participants in a problem situation. Apparently, this SSM-based ethical analysis process is not intended to produce or discover an optimal solution to "solve" an ethical dilemma. Grounded on soft systems thinking (or critical systems thinking), it promotes holistic, critical and creative thinking in responding to such a dilemma. To apply this ethical analysis approach, you need to be familiar with the literature of business ethics and contemporary systems thinking.

References

1. Business ethics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_ethics
2. CATWOE analysis: http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/105917.aspx
3. Concepts of ethical analysis: http://www.ethicsscoreboard.com/rb_definitions.html
4. Ethical dilemma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_dilemma
5. On ethics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics
6. Philosophy of ethics: http://www.philosophyarchive.com/index.php?title=Philosophy_of_Ethics
7. Soft systems methodology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_systems_methodology
8. Stakeholder analysis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_analysis
9. An academic article by Taylor and Moynihan (2002) on IT ethics and SSM: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7349/is_1_19/ai_n32012641/pg_5/

Fragmentation of value chains: a brief note

In the Electronic Commerce literature, there a topic which is on why a value chain is more likely to be fragmented these days. The basic reasons are two: (a) the major functions in a business model are based on different economic logics, with different subcultures; thus, running them together in as a single business unit are always not easy (Hagel and Singer, 1999); (b) as the Internet lowers the transaction cost of meeting business requirements for various support services via the marketplaces, companies find it more attractive to do business process outsourcing than to manage these business processes in-house. In other words, the transaction costs of business process outsourcing are lower as compared with the administration costs of managing these processes internally within a business. As a result, value chains tend to be more fragmented and operate more like virtual organizations. The following diagram is illustrative:

In this case, a number of support and primary activities are outsourced to other companies to perform, while the company fthat manages the value chain as a whole focuses on what it is good at performing based on its core competence. The company in this case can still manage these other value chain activities without owning these business processes.


References

1. Hagel, J. and Singer, M (1999) "Unbundling the corporation", Harvard Business Review, March, pp. 133-141.
2. On core competency: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_competency
3. On transaction costs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction_cost
4. On value chain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_chain

Corporate Social Responsibility - a means-ends review

The main view of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is to negate the notion that business enterprise is a machine that solely aims at profit maximization and that it should also be concerned with social performance by responding positively and proactively to the legitimate expectattions of its stakeholders. Thus, to study CSR, we first need to ask ourselves whether we are convinced with the rationale of CSR in terms of its ends (or its view about the roles and aims of commercial enterprises in society). Then, we study the various CSR mechanisms, which I call means here.) Based on Cochran (2007), I came up with the following diagram to capture the main points on CSR's ends and means:

I think it is not easy to be convinced with the rationale of CSR ends solely based on discussion of abstract ethical principles. It appears that the increasing adoption of CSR in the business community  is as much due to the heightened social expectations on higher corporate CSR performance; this heightened social expectation, in turn, is fostered by increased affluence in society, globalization and Internet-based media. Management theoriests have suggested that companies can following certain strategic management practices to improve social and financial performance at the same time; some suggest that, even without clearly measurable economic benefit, adopting more CSR practice is a brand insurance, and this brand insurance is especially important for global businesses.

In short, increasing adoption of CSR (as an ends for business) in the business community can be explained by superior CSR theoretical arguments as well as by a number of PEST trends. As to the means to conduct CSR, there are various CSR mechanisms and strategic guidelines explained in the CSR literature.

References

1. Cochran, P.L. (2007) "The evolution of corporate social responsibility", Business Horizon, 50, pp. 449-454.
2. Werther Jr., W.B. and Chandler, D. (2005) "Strategic corporate social responsibility as a global brand insurance", Business Horizon 48, pp. 317-324.
3. On Corporate Social Responsibility: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility

Virtual organization in ecommerce study: the underlying concepts

Virtual organization (VC) (or network organization) is a complete business model, with its major functions being carried by different organizations (as nodes of a network). There are a few concepts underlying the model. They are as follows:

a. A company (as a leader of the virtual organization) leads and control the other VC nodes without owning these nodes; this is made much easier with the Internet platform (though this can still be done without the Internet)
b. A virtual organization overs the problem of geographical frictions with the Inernet; that is, the various VC nodes need not be spatially close to each other
c. A virtual organization is strategically opportunistic: it is formed promptly to take advantages of the opportunities in the marketplace. In this case, the business risk is shared by all the VC nodes and the fixed cost for doing so for the individual node is lower than otherwise.
d. A virtual organization is made up of nodes (ie individual organizations) that possess core competence in the functions that they share in the VC.
e. A VC should be capable of conducting Business Process Re-engineering at the VC level; to do so, individual VC nodes should have knowledge to carry out BPR (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_reengineering) at their own internal business set-up.
f. A VC requires a virtual information system (VIS) to support; in this case, the information systems (IS) of the VC nodes should be able to "plug in and play" with the IS of other VC nodes. Major enterprise systems solutions are increasingly able to support this VIS requirement.
g. A VC is opportunistic in its dealing with the marketplace; on the other hand, the relationship among VC nodes depends on trust among the nodes; and trust cannot be implemented with IS; trust is not a technical/ engineering task in essence.

The following diagram is illustrative:

These are the main points about VC. You should also refer to Venkatraman and Henderson (1998) for a theoretical framework on this VC model, among others.
References

1. On Networked organizations: http://www.skyrme.com/insights/1netorg.htm
2. On Virtual Organizations: http://www.analytictech.com/mb021/virtual.htm
3. Plug and play: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/res/pnp-c.html
4. Understanding virtual organizations: http://www.isaca.org/Journal/Past-Issues/2001/Volume-6/Pages/Understanding-Virtual-Organizations.aspx
5. Venkatraman, N. and Henderson, J.C. (1998) "Real Strategies for Virtual Organizing", Sloan Management Review, Fall, pp. 33-48.

Information Technology project evaluation

There are different types of Information Technology (IT) projects; some projects are strategic, while others are tactical, or operational in nature. When we conduct IT project evaluation, I think we need to make it very explicit that we do so from a shareholder-value driven perspective; such a perspective adopts a financial management and economic logic in evaluation. Based on this perspective, we start with an overall project evaluation approach calls cost-benefit (CBA) analysis. I think this CBA approach is compatible with the Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) analysis in Financial Management.

We can use this approach to evaluate IT projects that mainly improve operational efficiency as well as projects that improve business effectiveness.  In practice, there are certain complications  involved. For example, some project benefits and costs are intangible. That basically mean that the estimates of certain cost and benefit items are subjective, uncertain, or unclear (due to poor understanding of the underlying cause-and-effect relationship on certain IT project impacts). When the costs and benefits of a project cannot be easily quantified in money terms, they can be evaluated using the scoring method (re: http://www.pd-trak.com/scoring.htm). Sometimes, we can only learn the costs and benefits of an IT project by actually using the IT application to be produced by the IT project. In this case, we conduct the IT project using the spiral model (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_model). Peter Keen made a similar suggestion on decision support system project evaluation in the form of a value analysis approach (re: http://www.jstor.org/pss/249154). Finally, we need to bear in mind that the IT project benefits can only be realized with deliberate efforts, which are known as benefit realization management. Even with that, realized IT project benefits could be less than expected because the impact of IT can also be affected by external factors, e.g. competitive dynamics in the marketplace or other more macro-environmental factors (the various PEST factors (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEST_analysis).).

Other than the shareholder-orientated IT project evaluation approach, we can also consider IT project evaluation from a stakeholder perspective. Such a perspective appears to be more compatible with corporate social responsibility thinking; however, for IT project evaluation, stakeholder perspective is much less frequently adopted.

References

1. Benefits realisation management: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_Realisation_Management
2. Cost-benefit analysis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost-benefit_analysis
3. Shareholder vs stakeholder value perspective: http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/faq_shareholder_stakeholder_perspective.html

Key issues for e-grocery businesses

As a kind of e-tailing business, e-grocery businesses need to respond successfully to following key issues in order to be viable:

a. The products that they sell are mainly convenience products, such as food. Consumers value convenience; e-grocery operators need to address the tight convenience requirements of consumers with an appropriate logistics setup.
b. e-grocery products are mainly of the nature of commodity, yet perishable. Thus, profit margin of these products tend to be slim; on the other hand, once these goods turn bad due to slow stock turnover, the businesses cannot earn profit.
c. Some of these products are touch-and-feel products, thus not easy to sell via the Internet.
d. To succeed as a e-grocery business, it is important to gain repeated businesses from consumers (again due to the nature of products sold - convenience products); much efforts need to be made by e-grocery businesses to cultivate customer loyalty and  trust. Some of the efforts made in this regard have to do with the e-grocery website's security and usability.

e-Grogery businesses do offer various other products that are not convenience goods; in this case, some of the issues identified above do not apply. There are also more specific business issues as related to business models, financing and logistics of e-grocery businesses. They are not explored here.

References

1. Grocery store: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grocery_store
2. Keh, H.T. and Shieh, E. (2001) "Online Grocery Retailing: Success Factors and Potential Pitfalls", Business Horizons, July-Aug., pp. 73-83.

Dynamic capability and multinational corporations

Dynamic capability theory appears to be based  on the resource based view in the strategic management literature (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource-based_view) and has some additional notions on top of the core competence model (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_competency). As such, this model is a kind of inside-out approach in strategic analysis as contrasted with the outside-in stance in  Porter's school of strategic thinking. Such kind of theory is considered more useful to analyze a business in a highly turbulent business environment.

I have the impression that, the additional notions as compared with the core competence model are related to the concern of "dynamic" in dynamica capability thinking. It is dynamic because it pays attention on how to dynamically manage a company's capability to make it more viable in a dynamic external environment. The basic model that I could discern from the literature is depicted in the following diagram:

The dynamic capability model discuss how companies should manage its managerial and organizational processes to nurture its dyamic capability so as to achieve evolutionary fitness; and subsequently, to measure evolutionary fitness.

For multinational corporations, as its resources (including its dynamic capability) are scattered in various countries, the dynamice capability process needs to deal with the concerns of capability transfer, capability integration, and capability sourcing from different countries where specific country-specific assets (e.g. intangible assets) are embedded in them. MNC's dynamic capability processes will,  in turn, affect the external environments in the  host countries where the MNCs have business activities.

References

1. Dunning, J.H. and Lundan, S.M. (2008) "The Institutional Origins of Dynamic Capabilities in Multinaional Enterprises", Whitepaper. (re: http://eiba2008.ttu.ee/public/Papers/73.pdf)
2. Helfat, C.E., Finkelstein, S., Michell, W., Peteraf, M.A., Singh, H., Teece, D.J., and Winter, S.G. (2007) Dynamic Capabilities, Blackwell Publishing

Electronic Commerce Security Analysis: the main concerns

To analyze Electronic Commerce (EC) security of a business, you need to pay attention to following matters

a. Build on the theories and frameworks of computer security, information security and Information Systems audit
b. Review the unique characteristics of EC so that you can adapt the theories in (a) to the EC case.
c. Also then consider specific EC-specific security frameworks, technologies and practices, based on your foundational knowledge in (a) and (b).

Take the case of (b), above, EC is global and local (or glocal); EC is real-time, EC is collaborative and EC is virtual. These characteristics affect corporate EC external and internal environments, thus its specific EC seurity analysis. Other than that, I encourage you to adopt a systematic EC security, that is mainly based on risk management thinking (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_management). Generally, consider the following:

a. Classify threats (internal/ external; intentional and unintentional; severity of impacts: serious threats or disastrous, etc.); classify safeguards: preventive, detective and corrective; then consider insurance as a risk transfer option; disaster recovery planning and business continuity management is a kind of corrective but it is treated as a separate topic because of its potentail fatal business impacts (re: http://www.thebci.org/); safeguards (or controls) can be general and application-specific.  Obviously you need to relate specific EC security tools, security standards and practices to these variables. You need concrete examples for illustrations, in other words.
b. Examine threats, safeguards, vulnerability of assets and consequences of EC attack success. The model of probability of threats, probability of success of attacks and measure of consequence is highly relevant here. You need ot review these variaables from time to time because they change frequently. The security game involves attack, defence and counter-attack from a game theory-perspective.
c. The actual criteria for EC security evaluation are: cost-benefit analysis; 3 levels of measures: level 1- legal compliance; level 2 - peer group standards and level 3- strategic consideration of a specific business.

I am not going to provide futher details for these items as there are lots of details involved. I just want to say that, EC security tools and practices change very fast; it is important for you to have a organized and effective way to think about the topic.

References

1. Certified IS Auditors: http://www.isaca.org/Certification/CISA-Certified-Information-Systems-Auditor/What-is-CISA/Pages/default.aspx
2. EC security (IBM): http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/0504_mckegney/0504_mckegney.html
3. EC security for merchants: http://www.ecommerce-digest.com/ecommerce-security-issues.html
4. On Intrusion detection system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrusion_detection_system
5. On public key infrastructure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_key_infrastructure
6. Truste: http://connect.truste.com/truste/getform/reg/search_amer_privacy_brand_learnmoreQ2_11?campaign=70180000000TC6Q&campaign_theme=Privacy&campaign_tactic=Keyword_APAC_Privacy_Google_Brand_Exact_LearnMore&leadsource_detail=Keyword_APAC_Privacy_Google_Brand_Exact_LearnMore&lead_source=Keyword&gclid=CJ62wb6D5qoCFWQD4god71FM7A

Research methods terminology - a list

• A focus group: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_group
• Applied research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_research
• Basic vs applied research: http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/research-main.html
• Causality: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality
• Covert participant observation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_participant_observation
• Induction and deduction: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/dedind.php
• Indirect quotation: http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/indirquoterm.htm
• Levels of measurement: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/measlevl.php
• Topping and tailing in chapters: http://www.100kclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Bonus-Report-4-ToppingTailing.pdf
• Pilot questionnaire: http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~kate/qmcweb/q11.htm
• CAQDAS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_assisted_qualitative_data_analysis_software
• Gantt chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantt_chart
• Plagiarism: http://www4.caes.hku.hk/plagiarism/introduction.htm
• A hypothesis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothesis
• Likert scale: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likert_scale
• Annotated biblography: http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/annotated-bibliography
• Discourse analysis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_analysis
• Transdisciplinarity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transdisciplinarity
• Participant observation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participant_observation
• Deontological ethics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deontological_ethics
• Sample size determination: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_size_determination
• Purposive sampling: http://changingminds.org/explanations/research/sampling/purposive_sampling.htm
• Abstract: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_(summary)
• SMART objectives: http://www.learnmarketing.net/smart.htm
• Social constructionism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_constructionism
• Relevance gap: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/bjom/2001/00000012/A00100s1/art00199
• Cluster sampling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_sampling
• Dependent and independent variables: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependent_and_independent_variables

Subjective research philosophies and soft (subjective) systems thinking

Soft sytems thinking shares with subjective research philosophies on views towards ontology (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology) and epistemology (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology). I provide a list of basic online resources on them here as a quick reference:

Soft systems thinking

1. Soft systems thinking of Peter Checkland (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_Systems_Methodology)
2. Interactive planning of R.L. Ackoff (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Planning)
3. Vickers's theory of appreciative systems (re: https://www.acumenmobile.com/papers/Strategic%20Thinking%20-%20Appreciation.pdf)

Subjective research philosophies

1. Interpretivism: (re: http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Interpretivism)
2. Hermeneutics: (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeneutics)
3. Phenomenology: (re: http://www.answers.com/topic/phenomenology)

Reference

• On research philosophy: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=399218525897

On research design evaluation

When you write a chapter on Research Design in dissertaton report, you need to explain your reseaarch design as well as justify it. To start with, your research design should be theory-driven, with inputs from your chapter on Literature Review, and it should also be related to your research objectives and research questions.

Next, you need to discuss the philosophical stance of your research research, i.e. positivist, realist or interpretivist. Different research philosophies favour different research research strategies. Then, you justify your research design in terms of the following criteria:

1. internal validity (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_validity)
2. external validity (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_validity)
3. construct validity (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construct_validity)
4. reliability (re: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/reliable.php)
5. feasibility (e.g. within various resources constraints)
6. research ethics (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_ethics)

It is clear that different research philosophies attach different importances on different research design criteria. Most likely, you will also make use of these research design criteria to evaluate your research findings in the Chapter on "Findings and Analysis". Finally, you need to evaluate your research project achievement also in terms of these criteria. Thus, when studying Research Methods, make sure you are familiar with these concepts and how they have been used in various types of research projects by others.

Reference
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2003) Research Methods for Business Students, Prentice Hall.

An MPSB review of corporate governance

Corporate governance (CG) is about "an extension of ownership"; it is not the same as management, according to de Kluyver (2009).  A review of a corporate governance system in a country needs to cover:
(1) a number of external (in the external environment) and internal (in the internal environment) factors facing a company. These factors can be considered as contingent elements, which can be affected by the occurrences of CG scandals. Among the external environmental factors, the legal practices as related to CG and the behavioural codes for directors, formulated by the national Stock Exchange authority and related professional bodies are vital.
(2) The main players in a corporate governance system include the gatekeepers (e.g. auditors, security analysts, credit rating agencies and bankers), the owners (ie shareholders ) and other stakeholders (e.g. employees, creditors, investors, the general public, customers and suppliers, the stock market authority, the government, etc), and the corporate senior management team.
(3) The various debates in CG such as (i) who owns the corporation? shareholders or stakeholders? (ii) what should be purpose of company? Shareholder value maximization or firm value (which encompasses various stakeholders' values); should a company support shareholder capitalism or stakeholder capitalism? and (iii) what should be the roles of directors? As traditionalists, rationalizers or broad constructionists?

In short, the discussion of CG is complex and controversial. Using a multi-perspective, systems-based (MPSB) process of enquiry, I think we could proceed with the study of CG with the following tasks:

a. Take the shareholder capitalism as a unitary problem context and the stakeholder capitalism as a pluralist context.
b. Consider the following ideas as theoretically grounded in hard systems thinking: an organization is a profit-making machine, with directors being traditionalists who are solely responsble to account to shareholders (thus anchors the concept of CG to hard systems thinking)
c. Consider the following ideas as theoretically grounded in soft systems thinking: an organization is a relation-maintaining system that serves its stakeholders, with directors being broad constructionists, who are respnsible to the stakeholders of the company (thus anchors the concept of CG to soft ystems thinking)
d. In reviewing a specific CG system, to promote comprehensive and critical thinking, it is useful to switch from one perspective (e.g. hard systems thinking) to another perspective (e.g. soft systems thinking). This is known as a perspective switch in MPSB rsearch.

I think the MPSB approach is very useful for studying CG systems with good theoretical depth.

References

1. de Kluyver, C.A. (2009) A Primer on Corporate Governance, business expert press.
2. On MPSB research: http://josephho33.blogspot.com/2011/08/multi-perspective-systems-based.html
3. Park, S.J. and Horn, S. (editors) (2003) Asia and Europe in the New Global System, Palgrave
4. Eldenburg, L., Hermalin, B.E., Weisbach, M.S. and Wosinska, M. (2004) "Governance, performance objectives and organizational form: evidence from hospitals", Journal of Corporate Finance, 10, pp. 527-548.

Using a theoretical framework on technology transfer research for MNCs

The topic of technology transfer research for multinational national corporations (MNC) covers a number of management concepts and concerns. When investigating this topic area, it is easy to get loss in a sea of topic details and related management theories. In the process of preparing for my lecture, I draft a diagram, mainly based on Phene and Almeida (2003), to capture the main elements involved in their discussion. The diagram is as follows:

This diagram presents a learning network view of an MNC; moreover, technology transfer and sharing are conducted via various formal and informal links within the MNC and between the MNC with its external environments (including the environment in the MNC's home country and the host country environments facing the MNC's subsidiaries.)

Mainly from the work on Phene and Almedia (2003), I can identify a number of management theories that are relevant to study MNC's technology transfer. These concepts are:
(i) path dependence (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependence),
(ii) local search in evolutionary theory (re: http://www.dime-eu.org/files/active/0/collab_review-nov.09-1.pdf) ,
(iii) geographical localization of knowledge (re: http://www.nber.org/papers/w3993.pdf), [could also be related to Porter's Diamond Model]
(iv) absorptive capacity (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorptive_capacity),
(v) regional/ national innovation systems (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_innovation_system),  and
(vi) knowledge management (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management).

I now locate these concepts into the diagram above to develop a refined theoretical framework to study technology transfer in MNCs. The diagram is as follows:

This theoretical framework synthesizes the various management theories that are relevant for MNC's technology transfer research. You can of course synthesize other management theories into this framewok as you see fit. To apply this framework, you need to decide on your research objective, such as to find out how technology transfer management can enhance the sustainable competitive advantage of an MNC or how an MNC's technology transfer management can affect its major stakeholders.

Using this theoretical framework, you can now conduct your literature review, and subsequently, your research work in an organized way and with a clear sense of direction. As a result, you will not suffer much from information overload in your research work.

References

1. Phene, A. and Almeida, P. (2003) "How do firms evolve? The patterns of technological evolution of semiconductor subsidiaries", International Business Review, 12, pp. 349-367.
2. Park, S.J. and Horn, S. (editors) Asia and Europe in the New Global System: Intercultural Cooperation and Competition Scenarios, Plagrave. [Especially on Chapters 5 and 13]

Literature review of research subject matter info and its background

In dissertation works, you need to find out information about your research subject and its relevant background. For example, if you want to evaluate the business value of business intelligence application in small-and-medium sized enterprises (SME) in Hong Kong, you need to find out information of business intelligence products available in the marketplace and the business environment facing SME in Hong Kong. To obtain these information, you need to do internet search and library-based search, etc. With these information, you are thus informed to write about the background of your study which could appear in "Chapter 1: introduction". Or, you might prefer to describe the research subject information in "Chapter 2: Literature review". You can also analyze these descriptive information with your chosen management theories. Sometimes, this kind of descriptive information is so important that you might prefer to have a separate chapter on "Background of the study" to explain at some length the research subject and its background.

It is clear that this literature review of research subject matter and its background is very important to your dissertation work. However, this literature review is not literature review of theories. Therefore, this literature review does not offer major management theories to enable you to conduct theory-driven analysis nor to develop theory-driven research design. Therefore, to produce a dissertation report with sufficient theoretical depth, you need to do literature review of theories. Literature review of research subject matter and its background does not enable you to do that. A dissertation report without a proper literature review of theories is highly defective.

Relevant readings:

1. On literature review: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature_review.html
2. Writing literature review: http://www4.caes.hku.hk/acadgrammar/litrev/section2/two1.htm

Research methods in dissertation reports: some advices

To begin with, a typical dissertation report has the following report structure:

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Literature review
Chapter 3: Research methods
Chapter 4: Findings and analysis
Chapter 5: Conclusions and recommendations
References
Appendix

There are textbooks and website resources on dissertation writings and research methods; thus, I do not have to write my own lecture notes on them. Still, I need to point out that your "Chapter 3: Research methods" should be theory-driven (relevant theories should have been discussed in Chapter 2) and should be clearly related to your dissertation objectives and questions (objectives and questions should have been explained in Chapter 1). You need to explain your research methods and justify them in Chapter 3. For that, obviously, you need to spare time to familiarise yourself with the various Research Methods philosophies, methods, and concepts. It is an engaging learning processand it takes time.

Research methods are fundamentally about producing valid and relevant knowledge. It is not just an academic skill for developing knowledge of interest to the academics. Business research skill is a practical skill: it enhances our problem-solving capability when we know more how to obtain and evaluate information. If you believe in the practical and humanistic values of this subject and are committed to continuous professional development, you have the appropriate mindset that enables you to effectively learn research skills. [I am aware that my favoured view on Business Research Methods is a pragmatic science view.]

Besides reading textbooks on Research Methods, reading academic journal articles (the good ones, I mean) will also improve your knowledge in Research Methods. I think reading literature related to contemporary systems thinking is very useful for you to enhance your research methods knowledge. For example, the concept of inquiry system in Mitroff and Linstone (1993) is about how to create valid knowledge; this concept is highly related to the subject of Research Methods, which concerns the production of valid knowledge.

When writing the chapter on Research Methods, it is useful to locate your specific research methods in specific places in the theoretical framework diagram that you might have developed in your chapter on Literature Review. By doing so, your dissertation report readers can easily relate your Research Methods exercises (e.g. survey, interview, document study, etc.) to your dissertation's theoretical framework. That makes your research methods more explicitly theory-driven.

References

1. Chalmers, A.F. (1992) What is this thing called science? Open University Press
2. Mitroff, I.I and Linstone, H.A. (1993) The Unbounded Mind, Oxford University Press.
3. Research methods tutorials: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/tutorial/tutorial.htm
4. Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2003) Research Methods for Business Students, Prentice Hall.

Global standard institutions as a core theme in global business management study

In reviewing a country's economic policy formulation in the prevailing global business setting, I think it is useful to consider the ideas from the management literature as related to the "global standard institutions" (GSIs). GSIs refers to a conherent set of recommended institutional set-up in a country that is supposed to promote the economic well-being of a country: The main recommneded practices are: (i) liberalised financial market with a mature stock market (ii) free labour market, (iii) minimum state-owned enterprises, (iv) shareholder-based capitalism, and (v) prudent management of banks and the economy. These GSIs are considered to be Anglo-american and promoted  by the IMF and World Bank, especially around the 1990s. GSIs reflect neoliberal thinking in Economics (re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism) and they endorse global shareholder capitalism.

Based on global shareholder capitalism logic, adoption of GSIs shifts financial capital from poorly managed firms to well managed ones. This implies good use of capital. Participation of foreign capital in a country, especially in a developing country, will lead to more transfer of technologies and well-class management practices in the local enterprises in a developing country. In short, GSIs are good for a country's economic health. The underlying rationales of GSI have been challenged by some academics; the experiences of certain Asian countries with GSI practices, e.g. South Korea, do not support the ideas of GSIs. It has been said that GSIs could lead to social/ economic instability, as well as economic stagnation.

I think the discussion of GSIs remains highly relevant for the discussion of economic policies in 2011. For example, we could discuss to what extent China should adopt certain GSIs in view of its current (and future) role(s) in the global economy. Thus Global Business Management students should study this key topic seriously.

References

1. On neoliberalism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism
2. Shin, J.S. (editor) (2007) Global Challenges and Local Responses: The East Asian Experience, Routledge.

Plagiarism? What plagiarism?

Many students ask this question: "how to avoid plagiarism?" When you submit an assignment report, it is checked by the education institution with an anti-plagiarism software such as turnitin (https://turnitin.com/static/index.php); if the similarity index measure produced by the software on your report reaches certain level, your report will be rejected. High similarity index value means high severity of plagiarism in this case. Here is an extract of a sample turnitin report:

(Extract - begin)

Turnitin原創性報告

Energy Saving of Daylight Integrated with Dimmer Light Control 經由 (Student name: XXXX)

從 XXXXx (xxx)

• 已處理到 xx-Dec-2011 9:26 PM PST
• 代碼: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
• 字數: 10719

相似度指標 (similarity index)

78%

依來源標示相似度

網際網路來源: (from Interner)

9%

出版物:  (from publications)

4%

學生文稿: (from student manuscripts)

73%

來源:

1

69% 相符 (matched) (student papers from 12/17/11)

Submitted to The Hong Kong XXXXXX on 2011-XXXX

 (Extract - end)


Many students start to develop writing skill to address this "similarity index" problem. They may also learn this kind of writing skill from some lecturers. From what I know, the trick to beat an anti-plagiarism software is as follows:

(i) Change the sentence structure of "your writings",
(ii) Replace some of the words with others of similar meanings,
(iii) Introduce some grammatical errors in your writings.

Here is an example for illustration:

Original sentence
Dr Ho teaches the subject of ecommerce.

Revised version 1
The subject of ecommerce is taught by Dr Ho.

Revised version 2
E-Business is taught by Dr Ho.

Revised version 3
E-Business is taught via Dr Hell.

You adopt version 3 when you are desperate to lower the similarity index value of your report further. Usually, you are not that worried about the grammatical errors in your report because there are already many of them in the essay reports anyway. You understand that report markers usually do not fail a student due to grammatical errors and that, after all, you only aim at a pass in your report work.

When I was a student, I did not have much worry of "accidental" commitment of  plagiarism in my work. The reason is simple: when I start to write an academic report, I do not look at the academic articles or textbooks that I have gone through. I do the writing and thinking at the same time. Of course, I do check my ideas with the original academic sources after I finish my writing to make sure that my understanding of these readings is appropriate. I also need to provide clear referencing and a reference list in my essay. Sometimes, I also find it useful to insert some quotations from the academic sources into my essay as evidences to support my expressed views  in my essay.



Besides turnitin, plagiarism can be checked using google scholar: http://scholar.google.com.hk/schhp?hl=en; one can copy and paste content to goole scholar to check if the content is plagiarised and from where.

If you are genuinely interested in your essay topic and have exerted serious effort to study and review the relevant academic readings, you will develop understanding and personal viewpoints on the topic. As a result, you should be able to write something about the topic area in your own words. In this case, you should not be worried about plagiarism in your own work.


Relevant readings

1. On harvard referencing: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm
2. On plagiarism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism
3. On plagiarism: http://www4.caes.hku.hk/plagiarism/introduction.htm