Information Technology : oso

Telecommunications in Africa

Eli M. Noam — 2011-10-03

Author:: Eli M.NoamColumbia University Business School
ISBN:: 9780195102017
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195102017.001.0001
Published in print:: 1999
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

Telecommunications is becoming an essential infrastructure in the global economy. The electronic flow of information around the world favors those nations that have invested in the technology to participate in this international commerce. This book provides a comprehensive view of what individual African countries are doing to build a telecommunications capability. Special attention is paid to telecommunications as a link in the chain of the regional development process.

Representing Organization

Simon Lilley, Geoffrey Lightfoot, and Paulo Amaral M. N. — 2011-10-03

Author:: Simon Lilley, Geoffrey Lightfoot, Paulo Amaral M. N.
ISBN:: 9780198775416
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology, Organization Studies
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198775416.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This textbook provides an accessible theoretical analysis of the organizational impact of information technologies. It seeks to examine and comment upon the myriad ways in which actors, organizations, and environments are represented through these technologies. Contemporary threats to organizational form and stability are considered alongside the potential that information technologies offer to both exacerbate and overcome them. It examines, amongst others, issues surrounding the material and symbolic aspects of information systems; risk and prediction; systems implementation and systems success; knowledge management practices; accountability and other management practices; computerised modelling; and virtual organization. To this end it deploys a number of different theoretical lenses including: systems theory, social constructivism, labour process theory, post-structuralism, and actor network theory. These offer complementary and contrasting insights into the computerisation of managerial work. In order to ensure that the book is both relevant and approachable to students from a range of backgrounds, these theories are applied to real examples of the development and implementation of information systems. This combination fosters practical knowledge that is theoretically informed. The book thus aims to bridge the gap between the abstractions of current theories of organization and the grounded material that forms the bulk of Information Systems literature. It offers a novel way into the ongoing debates surrounding technological change and the perennial problems of managerial control.

The Relationship Advantage

Thomas Kern and Leslie P. Willcocks — 2011-10-03

Author:: Thomas Kern, Leslie P. Willcocks
ISBN:: 9780199241927
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199241927.001.0001
Published in print:: 2001
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

The relationship in information technology (IT) outsourcing determines the difference between a successful, a less successful, and a failing outsourcing deal. IT managers will commonly spend seventy per cent of their time on making the client-supplier relationship work, while thirty per cent of their time will focus on the contract, personnel, and problem issues. This book provides longitudinal research into Xerox's global, British Aerospace's total, ESSO's selective, British Petroleum's alliance, and the UK Inland Revenue's public sector outsourcing deals. It highlights relationship practices and recurring post-contract management issues that demand careful attention and management. By use of a novel client-supplier relationship framework developed from transaction cost, relational contract, and interorganisational relationship theory, the authors carefully analyse these five longitudinal case studies and identify what the key dimensions of an outsourcing relationship are. Together the framework and the case studies provide advice for both practitioners and academics on how to achieve a relationship advantage.

Mobilizing the Information Society

Robin Mansell and W. Edward Steinmueller — 2011-10-03

Author:: Robin Mansell, W. Edward Steinmueller
ISBN:: 9780198295570
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology, Innovation
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198295570.001.0001
Published in print:: 1993
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book examines the interaction between social, regulatory, and market developments underlying the growing use of new technologies such as the personal computer and the Internet. Based upon empirical research by an international team, it offers insights needed to understand public policy, corporate strategy, and individual choices taken in response to the deluge of new technological opportunities. A principal theme of the book is that changes are governed by public decisions that establish the institutional framework in which the private sector operates. The quality and value of the information society for the citizen is not the inevitable consequence of market and technological forces. Policy choices that however fail to take market and technical influences into account will prove ineffective. The book lays the foundation for improved theories of the process of change, more appropriate strategies to achieve desired aims, and more effective policies for mitigating the effects of dislocation and exclusion from the information society.

Media Ownership and Concentration in America

Eli Noam — 2011-10-03

Author:: Eli Noam
ISBN:: 9780195188523
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195188523.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

The concentration of private power over media has been the subject of intense public debate around the world. Critics have long feared waves of mergers creating a handful of large media firms that would hold sway over public opinion and endanger democracy and innovation. But others believe with equal fervor that the Internet and deregulation have opened the media landscape significantly. How concentrated has the American information sector really become? What are the facts about American media ownership? In this contentious environment, the book provides a comprehensive survey of media concentration with a methodical, scientific approach. It assembles a wealth of data from the last twenty-five years about mass media such as radio, television, film, music, and print publishing, as well as the Internet, telecommunications, and media-related information technology. After examining 100 separate media and network industries in detail, the book provides a powerful summary and analysis of concentration trends across industries and major media sectors. It also looks at local media power, vertical concentration, and the changing nature of media ownership through financial institutions and private equity. The results reveal a reality much more complex than the one painted by advocates on either side of the debate. They show a dynamic system that fluctuates around long-term concentration trends driven by changing economics and technology.

Knowledge Frontiers

Wendy Faulkner, Jacqueline Senker, and Léa Velho — 2011-10-03

Author:: Wendy Faulkner, Jacqueline Senker, Léa Velho
ISBN:: 9780198288336
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology, Knowledge Management
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198288336.001.0001
Published in print:: 1995
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

Fostering interaction between industry and academic and government laboratories is widely seen as an important means of facilitating growth and innovation in the technology-based industries. This book investigates the research links and knowledge flows between industrial and public sector research in three new and promising fields of advanced technology — biotechnology, engineering ceramics, and parallel computing. Differences between these fields suggest that policies to promote public-private research links should be more effectively targeted. Similarities highlight the general importance to innovation of frontier research in universities, and the need to encourage informal interaction between industrial and public sector researchers.

The Internet Galaxy

Manuel Castells — 2011-10-03

Author:: Manuel Castells
ISBN:: 9780199255771
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199255771.001.0001
Published in print:: 2002
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book presents a stunning insight on the impact of the Internet and communication technologies on society in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The author puts forward the case that the Internet is not just a technology, but the very fabric and backbone of the New Economy, and of the Network Society. It is essential that people understand its language, its logic, its constraints, and its freedoms in order to manage and to change their reality.

Inside the Communication Revolution

Robin Mansell — 2011-10-03

Author:: RobinMansellDixons Chair in New Media and the Internet, London School of Economics and Political Sciencehttp://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/whosWho/robinMansell.htm
ISBN:: 9780198296553
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology, Innovation
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198296553.001.0001
Published in print:: 2002
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book analyses different aspects of life and work within ‘the heart of the ICT Revolution’. The book engages with the disciplines of sociology, political science, media and communication studies, and management, providing information for business practitioners and policy makers who wish to understand the significance of digital technologies for society, the economy, and social organisation.

Information Technology Strategies

William V. Rapp — 2011-10-03

Author:: William V. Rapp
ISBN:: 9780195148138
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195148138.001.0001
Published in print:: 2002
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

The focus of this book is on educating on the strategic principles fundamental to using information technology to gain market control. It provides case examples of how to use IT to enhance existing core competencies and strategies. The book is designed to help managers struggling with how to advantageously harness the new information revolution. It can also support executive and business education programs on managing technology when few such studies exist. While Internet and information technologies are currently hot topics, many firms and executives are without the tools and knowledge of how to actually use them to improve results. This book describes how major non-information technology companies are doing this and the strategic principles employed.

Information Technology and Organizations

Brian P. Bloomfield, Rod Coombs, David Knights, and Dale Littler — 2011-10-03

Author:: Brian P.BloomfieldLancaster University, Rod Coombs, David Knights, Dale Littler
ISBN:: 9780198289395
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198289395.001.0001
Published in print:: 1997
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book is concerned with the ways in which organizations design, build and use information technology (IT) systems. In particular it looks at the interaction between these IT-centred activities and the broader management processes within organizations. The authors adopt a critical social science perspective on these issues, and are primarily concerned with advancing theoretical debates on how best to understand the related processes of technological and organizational change. To this end, the book examines and deploys recent work on power/knowledge, actor-network theory and critical organization theory. The result is an account of the nature and significance of information systems in organizations, which is an alternative perspective to pragmatic and recipe-based approaches to this topic that dominate much contemporary management literature on IT.

The Information Society and the Welfare State

Manuel Castells and Pekka Himanen — 2011-10-03

Author:: Manuel Castells, Pekka Himanen
ISBN:: 9780199256990
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256990.001.0001
Published in print:: 2002
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

Silicon Valley has been considered as the model that societies must imitate to succeed in the information age. However, recently another alternative has attracted strong international interest: the Finnish model. This is equally dynamic in technological and economic terms, but combines the information society with the welfare state. This book looks at what the Finnish model really is. The chapters analyse the factors that have enabled Nokia to become the world's leading telecommunications company, for example, and Linux to become the biggest challenger to Microsoft in the operating systems market. They discuss the development of Nokia and the Finnish innovation model, with important lessons for businesses and national technology policies. However, the Finnish model's most radical and interesting feature is its attempt to combine technological and economic success with social justice and equality. The book shows how Finland has uniquely created a ‘virtuous cycle’ out of the information society and the welfare state: the successful information society makes the continued financing of the welfare state possible and the welfare state generates well-educated people in good shape for the information society's continued success. This model has significant implications for all societies where policy debates about the information society and/or public policy are on the agenda. Ultimately, the Finnish model proves that there is no one model for the information age, but that there is room for different policies and values.

Expertise and Innovation

2011-10-03

Author:: Robin Fincham, James Fleck, Rob Procter, Harry Scarbrough, Margaret Tierney, Robin Williams
ISBN:: 9780198289043
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology, Knowledge Management
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198289043.001.0001
Published in print:: 1995
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

The nature of technical expertise has become increasingly important and problematic in the postmodern era as structured hierarchies and production methods are revised. Financial services, one of our most important economic sectors, has also been confronting very high degrees of uncertainty that reflect great institutional and market changes. In this fluid and competitive environment, technological change — in particular the widening scope of information technology (IT) — has become vitally important. This book is about the strategic uses of IT in retail financial services. It is based on the Scottish part of the industry, a highly cohesive sector in its own right, but one with universal linkages to UK and global finance. A set of seven case studies forms the empirical base, while the study also focuses on key strategic projects within these case companies. The purpose is to understand how firms develop a strategic approach to IT. This hinges on the management of expertise — the ability to integrate detailed technological expertise with wider organizational and marketing goals. The book examines a number of themes around this key issue: the process of formation of IT strategy, sectorial influences on the implementation of computer-based systems, and the occupational and career factors that shape IT expertise.

Digital Era Governance

Patrick Dunleavy, Helen Margetts, Simon Bastow, and Jane Tinkler — 2011-10-03

Author:: Patrick Dunleavy, Helen Margetts, Simon Bastow, Jane Tinkler
ISBN:: 9780199296194
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology, Political Economy
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296194.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

Government information systems are big business (costing over 1% of GDP a year). They are critical to all aspects of public policy and governmental operations. Governments spend billions on them — for instance, the United Kingdom alone commits £14 billion a year to public sector information technology (IT) operations. Yet governments do not generally develop or run their own systems, instead relying on private sector computer services providers to run large, long-run contracts to provide IT. Some of the biggest companies in the world (IBM, EDS, Lockheed Martin, etc.) have made this a core market. This book shows how governments in some countries (the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands) have maintained much more effective policies than others (in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia). It shows how public managers need to retain and develop their own IT expertise and to carefully maintain well-contested markets if they are to deliver value for money in their dealings with the very powerful global IT industry. This book describes how a critical aspect of the modern state is managed, or in some cases mismanaged.

Information Orientation

Donald A. Marchand, William J. Kettinger, and John D. Rollins — 2010-01-01

Author:: Donald A. Marchand, William J. Kettinger, John D. Rollins
ISBN:: 9780199252213
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252213.001.0001
Published in print:: 2002
Published Online:: 2010-01-01

In today's fast-moving, e-commerce economy, information is power. For years, companies have been investing in IT, expecting to develop their ability to exploit the power of information and achieve better business performance. Frequently, a company's investment has been a cost with no clear payback; a competitive necessity rather than a strategic advantage. The book presents a framework for evaluating IT strategies: Information Orientation. Information Orientation does this by determining the degree to which a company implements and realizes the synergies across three information capabilities: information behaviours and values; information management practices; and information technology practices. This book provides a description of the dimensions of each of the capabilities, along with the analytical basis which validates the research, finding that a company must integrate all three information capabilities as a precondition for achieving superior business performance. It presents the Information Orientation Dashboard as a diagnostic tool to measure and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a company's information capabilities.

Internet Governance

Lee A. Bygrave and Jon Bing — 2009-05-01

Author:: Lee A.BygraveAssociate Professor, Department of Private Law, University of Oslo.http://www.jus.uio.no/ifp/english/people/aca/lee/index.htmlJonBingProfessor, Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law (NRCCL), University of Oslohttp://www.jus.uio.no/ifp/english/people/aca/jonb/index.html
ISBN:: 9780199561131
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology, Political Economy
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199561131.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2009-05-01

This book provides an exposition of key issues in the development, steering, and management of the Internet. Much of its focus is on the governance of the infrastructure for Internet communication, particularly data transmission protocols, protocol addresses, and corresponding domain names. It also maps the development and application of core principles of network design for the Internet. A recurrent theme of the book is the challenges associated with establishing global, multi-stakeholder governance structures based on bottom-up, consensus-seeking decisional procedures, without direct foundation in a treaty framework. The book's basic argument is that the success of the Internet is largely due to its development within open and democratic cultures, and that Internet governance structures ought accordingly to continue to cultivate such cultures.

The Labyrinths of Information

Claudio Ciborra — 2007-09-01

Author:: Claudio Ciborra
ISBN:: 9780199275267
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199275267.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2007-09-01

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in organizations and the management of their impact has been the traditional domain of computer specialists and management consultants. The former have offered multiple ways to represent, model, and build applications that streamline and accelerate data flows, while the latter have been busy linking the deployment of ICTs with strategy and the redesign of business processes. This book takes quite a different approach altogether. It uses a string of metaphors, such as Bricolage, Krisis, Gestell, etc., to place a concern for human existence and our working lives at the centre of the study of ICTs and their diffusion in business organizations, and looks at our practices, improvisations, and moods. It draws upon the author's own extensive research and consulting experience to throw a fresh light on some key questions: why are systems ambiguous? Why do they not give us more time to do things? Is there strategic value in tinkering even in high-tech settings? What is the value of age-old practices in dealing with new technologies? What is the role of moods and affections in influencing action and cognition? The book presents an alternative to the current approaches in management, software-engineering, and strategy.

Information Technology Policy

Richard Coopey — 2007-09-01

Author:: RichardCoopeyLecturer in History, University of Wales Aberystwythhttp://www.aber.ac.uk/history/staff/rcc/index.htm
ISBN:: 9780199241057
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Business and Management, Information Technology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199241057.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2007-09-01

Information Technology (IT) has become symbolic of modernity and progress almost since its inception. The nature and boundaries of IT have also meant that it has shaped, or become embedded within, a wide range of other scientific, technological, and economic developments. Governments, from the outset, saw the computer as a strategic technology, a keystone of economic development, and an area where technology policy should be targeted. This was true for those economies interested in maintaining their technological and economic leadership, but also figured strongly in the developmental programmes of those seeking to modernize or catch up. So strong was this notion that predominant political economic ideologies have frequently been subverted or distorted to allow for special efforts to promote either the production or use of IT. This book brings together country-based studies to examine in depth the nature and extent of IT policies, as they have evolved from a complex historical interaction of politics, technology, institutions, and social and cultural factors. In doing so, many key questions are critically examined. Where can we find successful examples of IT policy? Who has shaped policy? Who did governments turn to for advice in framing policy? Several chapters outline the impact of military influence on IT. What is the precise nature of this influence on IT development? How closely were industry leaders linked to government programmes and to what extent were these programmes, particularly those aimed at the generation of ‘national champions’, misconceived through undue special pleading? How effective were government personnel and politicians in assessing the merits of programmes predicated on technological trajectories extrapolated from increasingly complex and specialised information?