Information System and Productivity in Kuwaiti Public Organizations: Looking Inside the Black Box

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of information system on productivity in Kuwaiti public organizations. More specifically, it investigated the impact on business processes. Three dimensions of these processes were selected to view the impact. These dimensions were: Internal Process Performance, Coordination, and Customer Focus. Based on the literature review, three hypotheses were formulated. Each hypothesis related Information System Usage to an increase in the efficiency of the three process dimensions. In addition, this study investigated the impact of ten more variables that might affect the dependent variables. These variables included age, gender, nationality, years of experience in Kuwaiti public sector, years of experience in the current organization, years of experience in using IS, years of training in IS, position in hierarchy, level of education and years spent in current position. The study found a significant statistical evidence for the relationship between the usage of information system in a process and increasing the efficiency of its Internal Performance, Coordination, and Customer Focus. Further, five of the ten additional variables were found to be significant. Research and practice implications of the study's findings were stated.

The Effect of ERP System Implementation on Business Performance: An Exploratory Case-Study

“…Such factors which contribute to the phenomena of the IT paradox were also pointed out by Hamilton and Asundi (2008) and include the false measurements of output to measure productivity, measurements done before the long payoff time until when returns on IT investments accrue, economy-wide measurements errors due to rearrangements of output, and mismanagement. False measurements were supported by other research like Almutairi (2007) and Rei (2004).…”

“…Finally, it was discussed by Almutairi (2007) and Pilat (2004) that there are a variety of methods used by researchers to measure IT productivity at the firm-level. The variety of methods is considered a positive attribute of research in this field because not all measures are accurate and using many measurements increases validity and provides stronger support.…”

The Application of the Technology Acceptance Model under Different Cultural Contexts: The Case of Online Shopping Adoption

“…The notion to test the applicability of the TAM across cultures (i.e., outside Western cultures) has recently drawn the attention of marketing and e-commerce researchers (Almutairi 2007; Alsajjan and Dennis 2010; McCoy, Galletta, and King 2007; Straub, Keil, and Brennan 1997). Among these studies, however, very few have explored EAMs (Sultan, Rohm, and Gao 2009; Tong 2010), and none have explored Pakistan.…”

“…Researchers have argued that Canada and the United States together represent a single (Anglo) “North American” culture with few differences; however, some significant differences have been reported between the two countries in the context of online shopping (Cyr et al 2005) and information technology adoption (Lippert and Volkmar 2007). Thus, the external validity of the TAM is still in question (Almutairi 2007; McCoy, Galletta, and King 2007; Straub, Keil, and Brennan 1997). Indeed, Hofstede (2001) criticizes several management theories for being culture specific because most of them reflect North American culture.…”

“…They find that PU and PEOU have no significant influence on behavioral intentions and that PEOU fails to predict PU for the Hong Kong, Singaporean, Japanese, and Malaysian samples (i.e., countries with high collectivism, power distance, and masculinity scores). Similarly, Almutairi (2007) analyzes the use of information systems in Kuwaiti (high CMSI culture) governmental organizations using the TAM and finds insignificant relationships between the core TAM concepts, with the exception of PU and PEOU. In line with previous research, it is reasonable to postulate that the TAM will be a weak predictor of technology adoption in Pakistan compared with Canada.…”