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Using the Internet to carry out their schemes, fraudsters now have access to the consumers of the world as well as the potential to destroy the image of an entire country. One particular type of Internet fraud, known as the Nigerian money fraud, has become associated with that nation, damaging the brand equity of the country and its region, Africa. The purpose of this article is to discuss the impact that the electronic version of the Nigerian money fraud may have had on the brand equity of Nigeria and Africa and what steps can be taken to diminish these negative effects.

The literature is replete with normative models of system development methodologies. While these methodologies may be sound and workable in the United States, they may not be appropriate for other cultures. This paper proposes that system development methodologies must account for cultural considerations in the development and transfer of Information Systems (IS) outside the United States (US). Planning for overseas system development requires careful assessment and incorporation of cultural implications into the development methodology. How should IS be developed for use in other cultures? What should a system developer consider to be successful in an overseas environment?

This paper discusses the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA), and the European Union (EU) in relation to Iceland. The fisheries sector is being treated extensively, since it is crucial for Iceland's economic survival. Finally, the paper presents various facts as to whether Iceland should join the EU or not.

The three Central European countries (CE‐3), Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, are gradually opening for direct investment. The opportunities are there for the U.S. investors, who need to be well aware and informed about the economies of the CE‐3, the business characteristics, the mentality of the people, and the successful companies already established there.

Discusses cross‐cultural communication as a process of becoming aware of another culture's habits, actions and reasons behind behaviours; and explores low‐context, high‐context, frontstage and backstage cultures, along with the differences between them. Basic principles (conversational, presentation and written) are used to illustrate how cultures vary in communication style. Examples of attitude, priorities and behaviours which are influenced by culture are explained using factors of age, family, money and material possessions, space, time, priorities and gifts.

The current and ongoing controversy that has come to be known as the “Mutual Fund Scandal of 2003” was based in large part on abusive market timing activities that were allowed to occur in select mutual funds. There are many ways in which amarket timer can steal profits through short‐term trading activities but the primary opportunity arises in those mutual funds that invest in foreign shares of stock. This 2004 article looks at a sampling of those mutual funds that invest in companies based in the United Kingdom and evaluates the potential for abusive market‐timing activities.

This paper aims to extend knowledge about virtual teams and their advantages and disadvantages in a global business environment.

Based on a literature review and reported findings from interviews with experts and practitioners in the field, the paper has identified and discussed the advantages and problems associated with creating and managing virtual teams.

In today's competitive global economy, organizations capable of rapidly creating virtual teams of talented people can respond quickly to changing business environments. Capabilities of this type offer organizations a form of competitive advantage.

By identifying the advantages and problems associated with virtual teams, organizations will be better able to successfully establish and manage such teams.

Digital technologies have fundamentally changed organizations, industries, and even the society. Although institutional theory provides rich array of perspectives to both the content and dynamics of such changes, research at the intersection of institutional scholarship and digitalization has remained scarce. In this essay, I draw on the institutional logics perspective to elaborate digitalization as involving a new set of interconnected managerial beliefs and norms, organizational practices, and diverse material and social structures that together complement and challenge the established logics in organizations and institutional fields. I draw attention to two central organizing principles in the logic of digitalization: the pursuit of digital omniscience – the efforts to represent and conceive the world through digital data – and digital omnipotence – the efforts to bring activities inside and outside organizations under the control of information systems. I conclude the essay by elaborating how the institutional logics perspective can help understand organization-level efforts to leverage digitalization by incumbent corporations and new digital-native companies.

The construction industry has been investigating “where Henry Ford is in the industry system.” Given that listed construction enterprises are the backbone of the promotion of the high-quality development of the industry, their research and innovation are of considerable importance. This study aims to comprehensively assess the research and development (R&D) status quo and trends within various types of construction enterprises in order to identify effective strategies to enhance R&D efficiency in the construction industry.

Based on the data won from annual reports and the CSMAR database for the period 2016–2020, this study examines 104 listed construction enterprises in China. By applying both the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method and the Malmquist productivity index, this research compares and analyzes the static and dynamic differences in R&D efficiency across different types of construction enterprises.

Results suggest that the magnitude of change in the Malmquist decomposition index of 104 listed construction enterprises gradually narrowed, but the comprehensive technological level remained relatively low. Although state-owned enterprises had an advantage in scale efficiency, meaning they could maximize output with given inputs, their technological progress efficiency, also known as the degree of technological innovation, was significantly lower than that of private enterprises. As one finding, state-owned enterprises in comparison with private enterprises experience significant R&D inefficiency. It represents the main cause of their low degree of technological innovation and efficiency.

This study assesses the R&D efficiency of listed construction enterprises in China from the perspective of different market segments, state-owned and private enterprises and suggests approaches to improve strategies for various corporate types. Thus, the study’s new findings contribute to addressing the challenge of low R&D levels in the construction industry in the fields of engineering, construction and architectural management.

The purpose of this paper is to adopt two different perspectives of an organization’s absorptive capacity, namely, the asset perspective and the capability perspective, to examine its impact on enterprise resource planning (ERP) assimilation. While prior IT knowledge represents the asset perspective, organization’s combinative capabilities – formalization, cross-functional interfaces and connectedness – represent the capability perspective of absorptive capacity.

The study develops a hypotheses-based theory of absorptive capacity. Data for hypotheses testing are collected from Indian organizations using a cross-sectional survey method. Partial least-squares technique is used to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results reaffirm earlier work showing the importance of connectedness and cross-functional interfaces in ERP assimilation; other two factors (prior IT knowledge and formalization) were not found to be positively related to ERP assimilation. To obtain more insights regarding the latter unexpected results, the study checked the interaction effect of the nature of company ownership (private or state-owned). The results pointed to the existence of a negative relationship between prior IT knowledge and ERP assimilation particularly in the case of private organizations compared to state-owned organizations.

Previous studies on ERP have predominantly examined the influence of absorptive capacity on ERP implementation outcomes at the user level. The present study focuses on absorptive capacity at the organizational level using two perspectives. By utilizing two perspectives on absorptive capacity, namely, the asset perspective and the capabilities perspective, it illustrates how different aspects of absorptive capacity can be brought to light while studying its impacts.