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Previous research has highlighted the need to examine the appropriateness of existing information systems methods in the context of electronic business environments. This paper argues for a re‐examination of the suitability of current planning practices in light of the complexity of developing electronic business systems. In particular, the paper illustrates that planning and developing business‐to‐business electronic trading systems (ETS) is fraught with difficulties associated with the priorities and power of individual actors in participant organisations. The authors discuss triple loop learning (TLL), an approach that deals with diverse requirements and power issues, and argue that it may assist in overcoming some of the problems identified. The study aims to analyse the theoretical usefulness of the concepts of triple loop learning in the context of planning inter‐organisational ETS. Using the data gathered from case studies of three inter‐organisational networks, the authors argue that approaches associated with TLL can offer insight into managing inter‐organisational systems complexities, and can thereby enhance planning methods for ETS.

The world of business is being profoundly transformed by the Internet and electronic commerce. The rapid advancement of Internet technology and its applications holds promise for the expansion of business opportunities in the global digital economy. Internet systems support a world‐wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination and a medium for electronic commerce between organizations and customers across countries. Describes research that leads to the derivation of a diffusion model of Internet systems, comprising four key dimensions: external market factors, external technical factors, internal organization factors, and internal systems factors. The intention is for this model to provide a theoretical base for further research on electronic commerce and Internet technology diffusion.

The aim of this paper is to outline the importance of organisational rhetoric as a valuable theoretical lens to examine and conceptualise IS adoption.

The paper is based on a critical, yet selective, review of some relevant literature on rhetoric and IS adoption.

The paper outlines four distinctive yet interrelated elements of rhetoric, namely, different types of rhetoric and their implications; the role of stakeholders; the notion of rhetorical congruence; and rhetorical situations and strategies. These provide a means of operationalising the rhetorical dimension in researching IS adoption.

The paper's main contribution is to enrich the existing repertoire of IS adoption theories and perspectives by adding the dimension of rhetoric.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the unique value that can be created by performing a commodity process, in this case call handling at a call center, as a means of challenging the prevalent assumption that an organization should differentiate between the management of a core competence and a commodity process.

An inductive case study is conducted to examine the strategic planning and management of a call center in one of the largest retailers headquartered in the UK. Semi‐structured interviews, informal dialogue, on‐site observation and documentation were the four data collection methods that we used.

Based on the findings derived from the study, this study proposes the notion of a “differentiated commodity” to illustrate that a commodity process, such as handling customers' complaints and enquiries using standard call center technologies, can be significantly beneficial to the business, if differentiation was embedded into the architecture and management of the business process.

The distinction between core competencies and commodity processes has become one of the key aspects in shaping a manager's decision making. The findings are vital not only in challenging such an assumption, but also in providing an explanation as to how strategic value can be generated by performing commodity processes, which is often under‐estimated.

The strategic value of information and information technology to an enterprise has received increased attention both in management practice and in the business and information literatures. This paper explores issues related to the alignment of business and information strategies and some organisational characteristics which appear to contribute to such an alignment, drawing on recent and current research in progress. Implications are drawn for organisational processes and structures and for the education and training of managers and of information specialists.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

How can action research be made more rigorous? We discuss in this paper action research, positivism and some major criticisms of action research by positivists. We then examine issues relating the conduct of IS research in organisations through multiple iterations in the action research cycle proposed by Susman and Evered. We argue that the progress through iterations allows the researcher to gradually broaden the research scope and in consequence add generality to the research findings. A brief illustrative case is provided with a study on groupware introduction in a large civil engineering company. In the light of this illustrative case we contend that effective application of the iterative approach to action research has the potential to bring research rigour up closer to standards acceptable by positivists and yet preserve the elements that characterise action research as such.