This paper presents an exploratory research on the application of the Technology Acceptance Model(TAM) to the domain of object orientation to investigate the validity of TAM in the perspective of its causal relationships. In the Management Information Systems(MIS) area, TAM has been applied to computer usage behavior as a specific technology adoption model. This paper also suggests the factors that affect the technology acceptance of object orientation in U.S. organizations through a modified TAM. Two major research questions are addressed. First, this research investigates the effect of these external variables on the dependent variable, the actual usage of object orientation in the viewpoint of knowledge interaction between structured methods and object orientation. Second, is TAM valid for the technology acceptance of object orientation in terms of its causal relationships? This study empirically explores the impact of the external variables on the level of actual usage of object orientation via the mediating variables in TAM. A structured questionnaire is administered to Data Processing Management Association(DPMA) professionals in US. The result of this study reveals one important contradictory finding that is not consistent with expectations based on related theory. TAM does not accommodate the technology acceptance of object orientation perhaps because object orientation is a complex and organization-level adoptive technology or the measures for the mediating constructs in TAM may not be appropriate in industry settings.

We proposed a conceptual design of the web-based agent model for global supply chain management(GSCM), where agents representing autonomous operational units, such as suppliers, factories, distribution center and customers, cooperate and are coordinated through the information exchange. The agent model assumed the hierarchical federated system. In the federated system, the agents of the same region are grouped and linked to the region-specific facilitator only through which communication between agents is allowed. The facilitator is responsible for monitoring and controlling the conversations consisting of the message flows across the agents. A web-based user presentation was also designed so that human users could involve in collaborative settings into the GSCM multi-agent system. In the conversation protocols which allow for complex coordinated behavior among agents, the KQML was extended to represent the messages. A GSCM scenario where the supply chain is formed upon customer order and supply decision is made was used to demonstrate the dynamics of the conversation protocols.

Recently, as business problems become more complicated and require more precise quantitative results, large-scale model management systems are increasingly in demand for supporting the decision-making activities. In addition, as distributed computing over networks gains popularity, departmental computing systems are gradually adopted in an organization to facilitate collaboration of geographically dispersed multiple departments. In departmental collaborative model management systems, multiple departments share common models but approach them with different user-views depending on their departmental needs. Moreover, the shared models become evolved as their structures and the corresponding data sets change due to the dynamic nature of the operating environment and the inherent uncertainty associated with the problems. In such capacity, providing the multiple departmental users with synchronized and consistent views of the models is important to improve the overall productivity. In this paper, we propose a collaborative model management framework for coordinating model change and automatic user-view update in a departmental computing environment. To do so, we describes changes in the model and their effects occurred in departmental model management environments and identifies the constructs and processes for maintaining the consistency between a shared model and its departmental user-views. Especially, in this framework, generic model concept was adopted for accommodating diverse mathematical models in a uniform way in a modelbase and object-oriented database management systems(ODBMS) for combining the model management constructs and automatic user-view update mechanisms in a single formalism. A prototype object-oriented modeling environment was developed using an ODBMS called ObjectStore and $C^{++}$ programming language on Windows NT.

Despite repeated exhortation about the importance of social and human dimensions of systems development, socio-organizational issues continue to be neglected and ignored in the current information systems practice. A review of the human information processing literature suggests that the reasons for this continuing lack of attention to social issues may be found in the limitations of human cognition and information processing capacities. Bostrom and Heinen(1978) and Kumar and Bjorn-Anderson(1990) also suggest that the inadequate attention to social problems and issues by the analyst could originate from the analysts limited problem perception. This research explores how the representation forms of information systems(IS) methodology used in understanding and modeling the problem situation affect such systems development problem perception. Typically, a system development methodology prescribes the use of system models(i.e., system representations) to understand, analyze, evaluate, and design the information system. Given the size and complexity of information systems, and the abstraction and simplification underlying the modeling process, system representations usually depict only a limited set of aspects of the system. Thus, a methodology whose representations are limited to technical aspects will tend to limit the analyst's perspective to a technical one only(Kumar & Welke, 1990). Following the same line of argument, in contrast, it is the conjecture of this study that a methodology which specifies both social and technical aspects of IS development will help the analyst develop a more comprehensive view of the IS problem domain. Based on the above concept, a theoretical model was first developed which explained the systems analysts cognitive process. Drawing on this model, a research model was developed hypothesizing the impacts of representation forms on problem identification. The model was tested using a laboratory experiment with 70 individual subjects. A special computer software was developed with a hypermedia authoring tool to conduct the experiments in order to avoid experimenter biases and to maintain consistency in administrating repeated experiments. The program, designed to replace the experimenter, consisted of functions such as presenting the subjects with problem material, asking the subjects questions, and saving the typed answers of the subjects. The results indicate that representation forms strongly influence problem identification. It was found that the use of the socio-technical representation form led to the findings of more social problems than the use of technical representation form. The results imply significant effects of representation forms on problem findings and also suggest that the use of adequate representation forms may help overcome dysfunctional effects of our limited information processing capacity.

This paper proposes a model for assessing enterprise network maturity. We define maturity in terms of the institutional and member support for the network(organizational maturity) and its technical sophistication(technological maturity), and examine their relationships. We build several hypotheses about the relationships between the maturity types and between the maturity of the network and various organizational factors including industry, size, and performance of the enterprise. We test the hypotheses using data collected from a questionnaire survey with Korean firms. The results show that there is a positive correlation between organizational and technological maturity. It is also found that investment in the network infrastructure has a positive influence on the organizational efficiency. However, it is found that industry type does not affect network utilization, but size does, suggesting that large firms utilize network infrastructure more than small ones do. We also identify various relationships among performance, satisfaction level and the maturity of the enterprise networks. Finally, we provide an overview on the current technological state of the Korean enterprise networks.

The objective of this paper is to propose additional features for the success of the Internet-based stock trading companies in Korea which attempt to improve competitiveness in the stock trading market. Literature about this issue has been rarely reported. To clarify our research intention, therefore, we surveyed 24 stock trading companies which support the Internet-based stock trading systems, and gathered data about appropriate Internet business model which is deemed promising and effective in the future. Analysis results revealed that besides cheap trading transaction cost, those additional features such as convenience, reliability, speed delay, superiority, and profitability are also important as well for the success of the Internet-based stock trading.

As companies become more dependent upon information systems(IS), the potential losses of IS resources become critical. IS management must assume the increasing responsibility for protection of IS resources as the IS and business environments become more vulnerable to various threats. The major issues facing management, when attempting to manage risks, include the assessment of the impact of risks on business objectives and the design of security safeguards to reduce the unacceptable risks to an acceptable level. This paper provides a case study of the risk management for IS. A Korean credit card company which has the high sensitivity for customers security was selected as a case. The risk management procedure using a powerful tool, CRAMM(the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agencys Risk Analysis and Management Method) was applied for this company.

Information Systems Planning(ISP) has gained considerable interest among researchers and practioners in recent years because of the impact of information systems on organization performance. This study aims at analyzing organizational characteristic factors, information system characteristic factors influencing ISP's performance. The organizational characteristic variables are considered organizational strategy, organizational culture, and managerial leadership. And the IS characteristic variables are considered IS resource and IS strategic role. The ISP's performance variables are measured BP-ISP integration effectiveness and ISP efficiency. For data on the 493 sampled company, a mail survey using a questionnaire was conducted in this study. The following results were obtained. First, there was significant relationship between organizational characteristics and ISP's performance. Specially, organizational strategy and organizational culture affect the both of BP-ISP integration effectiveness and ISP efficiency. Second, there was significant relationship between Information Systems characteristics and ISP's performance. Specially, IS resource and IS strategic role affect ISP efficiency.

Despite the increasing pervasiveness of electronic commerce, very little empirical research has been done to examine its use in organizational contexts. Based on theories from the technological innovation literature, we developed an integrated model of electronic commerce initiation, adoption and implementation in Korea. We selected a random sample of 500 Korean leading companies. A questionnaire survey examined factors in initiation, adoption, and implementation of electronic commerce. Independent variables of this research were environment uncertainty, organizational characteristics(namely, organizational size, centralization, and formalization), and information system maturity. The resultant study sample included 62 firms across the industries. The empirical tests of the hypotheses were performed. According to our findings, environmental uncertainty, centralization, formalization, and information system maturity have a significant effect on the electronic commerce initiation, adoption and implementation.

Many enterprises continue to have an interest in the usage of new information technologies to gain a competitive advantage. In particular, their interest in the data warehouse and the data mining reveals the aspect of such a trend. Although lots of vendors announce a variety of tools for data warehousing, many a enterprise have a difficulty in building a robust data warehouse due to the lack of the ability of selecting an appropriate data warehouse technology options. Therefore, this study presents some evaluation factors, evaluation methods, and evaluation results about ETT tools, mainly in terms of a comparative test for the current available data warehousing ETT tools, Also, this paper suggests some guides about choosing the right ETT tools.