Evaluation of Benefits Concepts

The benefits evaluation literature has three main themes or sets of issues. The first is the benefits evaluation classification as defined by DeLone and McLean (1992) and subsequently extended by other researchers. This framework has been in place for some time and referred to extensively by IS researchers. The extent to which this framework is useful as a way of classifying benefits, especially for electronic commerce systems such as e-marketplaces, is worthy of examination since the classification was developed as a tool for use with information systems in the 80's and early 90's and has mainly a technical focus.

The second issue related to e-commerce benefits evaluation is the process of evaluation. A growing body of literature highlights that benefits evaluation cannot be disentangled from the method of evaluation. In particular, whether a quantitative (rationally constructed) or qualitative analysis (socially constructed) is taken (Hirschheim & Smithson, 1988) and (Serafeimidis & Smithson, 1994).

The third, and often overlooked, aspect of evaluation of benefits is that their perception of significance can change significantly through time. Only a relatively small percentage of studies take a longitudinal approach. There may even be a cycle of benefits that can be derived from e-marketplaces that cannot be brought out by one of data collection or a case study over a short period of analysis.

Bytheway's (Bytheway, 1995b) taxonomy of the strategic benefits of the application of IT to the supply chain may alternatively be described as a taxonomy of motivation. It is suggested that there are three core benefits provided:

  • Efficiency: doing things right

  • Effectiveness: doing the right thing

  • Evolution: doing something else

In addition, he proposed two other "extreme reasons" for implementing innovation in technology. These are:

  • Defensive: reacting to moves made by competitors

  • Experimental: trying to understand your opportunities

While these reasons may have seemed extreme when they were proposed in 1995, in the addition to the expected returns in the core categories, we think that it serves as a useful framework for analyzing adoption and support for the introduction of e-marketplaces.



Managing Globally with Information Technology
Managing Globally with Information Technology
ISBN: 193177742X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 224

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