The questions below are based on various case studies of the transformational role of IT, contained in the following four articles. The first listed article contains 4 case studies, each corresponding to a separate business unit of a high-tech firm. The subsequent two articles contain 1 case study each.

Address the 5 questions below, in the context of the following 6 cases.
(The first article contains 4 case studies, and the other three articles contain a single case study each.)

• Political maneuvering during business process transformation – A pluralist approach.

• Data-driven city management.
• Policy discourses of IT and patient-centred care.

QUESTIONS

1. Consider the following two claims made in the textbook –
   • “There is a growing interdependence between a firm’s ability to use information technology and its ability to implement corporate strategies and achieve corporate goals.”
   • “To fully understand information systems, you must understand the broader organization, management, and information technology dimensions of systems and their power to provide solutions to challenges and problems in the business environment.”

Discuss whether or not each of your chosen six case studies provides empirical support for the above two claims. (You need to show, by means of comprehensive review and discussion of the available facts in the case studies, how they do or do not uphold each claim.)

2. Business processes

a. Which specific business processes and/or management activities in the “business information value chain” (Fig. 1-7 of the text) comprise the focus of the IT efforts in each of your chosen six firms/business units? (Be sure to independently research and study “business processes” in detail fromextraneous sources before answering this question — go beyond the textbook figure, as it depicts only a few generic examples of business processes.)

b. For each firm/business unit, do the business processes and management activities you identified above seem to be well supported by its information processing activities? Explain your reasoning.

3. Which “strategic business objectives” of information systems are evident in each case study? Discuss.

4. What kinds of ethical issues (refer to Chapter 4) are evident in each case study, even if not mentioned explicitly? Discuss.

5. Which types of e-commerce (refer to B2C, B2B, C2C, G2C, G2B, etc., in Chapter 10), if any, are evident in each case study, even if not mentioned explicitly? Discuss.