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Strategic alliances between academic and corporate partners can provide exceptional benefits and reveal new opportunities for shared value. Benefits and opportunities include alternative sources of funding to support academic programs, more effective and efficient matching of students with prospective employers, applied research for faculty, innovative and mutual learning environments, and improved business practices. The focus of this paper will describe how three corporate‐alliance relationships with Northern Illinois University’s College of Business were initiated and developed. Other schools and companies looking to develop similar relationships may hopefully benefit from the College of Business’s experience. Moreover, corporate and academic alliances provide a potentially rich area of research.

The study of interorganizational systems (IOSs) has been an important area of interest in information systems research. Proponents of “transaction cost” economic theory predict that IOSs will tend towards a market‐driven orientation over time. Other researchers, however, suggest that there is a reverse trend occurring towards more hierarchical systems (fewer and closer relationships between buyers and sellers). This study examines the theoretical and strategic perspectives that tend to promote one form of network relationship over the other. An exploratory qualitative study of both a market (Amazon.com’s Internet book sales system) and a hierarchical (the Wallace Information Network system) network structure supports the development of a framework to guide future research and strategy.

This chapter overviews organizational neuroscience (ON), covering the past, present, and future of this growing field of inquiry. First, we define ON and clarify the boundaries of the field. Second, we describe the evolution of ON by starting with early papers that tended to discuss the potential of ON to benefit both research and practice. Throughout its development, debates have abounded about the value of ON. Such debates are often related to challenges in collecting, integrating, interpreting, and using information from the brain-level of analysis. It is time for the field to move beyond these debates to focus on applying neuroscience to further theory development and reveal more comprehensive answers to research questions of importance to both academics and practitioners. Third, we propose and describe future research directions for ON. The research directions that we propose are merely a sample of the many paths along which ON inquiry can move forward. Fourth, we outline potential practical implications of ON, including: training and development, job design, high-performance assessment, motivating communications, and conflict prevention. Finally, we draw conclusions about ON as it stands today, address challenges in developing ON, and point out opportunities. We conclude with takeaways and highlight the importance of ON for both academics and practitioners.

A number of recent studies have suggested that many small businesses are opting to become members of strategic alliances with other firms in order to minimise the perceived barriers to adoption of electronic commerce (E‐commerce). This study compares the perception of barriers to E‐commerce adoption between a sample of Swedish small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that have become members of some form of strategic alliance and those that have remained outside such arrangements. The results show that, in general, SMEs that are part of a strategic alliance perceive barriers as less applicable than their counterparts that are not part of a strategic alliance.

The purpose of this paper is to participate in the discussion related to why IS projects, both in Western and in Eastern European countries, e.g. Poland, often fail. One major reason is claimed to be poor implementation, and the article asks whether the stakeholders involved overlook the challenge of and the need for knowledge in change management (CM) when implementing complex IT systems.

The research is based on observations of what is reflected in the CM, the project management (PM) and the IS literature. A basic assumption for the approach is that what PM and IS textbooks focus on strongly influences the views and practice of practitioners. A content analysis method was applied to examine empirically 22 textbooks to evaluate whether the IT/PM literature emphasizes relevant essential recommendations developed in the CM literature for handling changes. A mini‐case was used to illustrate how implementation is done in practice.

The research reveals that in particular the PM authors give little priority to implementation and to essentials developed in the CM discipline. Further, the authors apply rather rational perspectives when discussing implementation. This implies focus on deterministic N‐stage models and overlooking vital organizational processes. The research also reveals that IS success depends to a large extent on how well the interfaces between the project development and the implementation processes are coordinated. The stakeholders often split the project development and implementation into two projects and postpone implementation until the development is completed. This may lead to coordination problems and to ineffective implementation.

The main limitation of this research is the assumption that what is written in the IT/PM books influences what the practitioners do. This may be an area for further research.

The authors of IS/PM textbooks and the practitioners should pay more attention to implementation. The textbooks may benefit from borrowing essentials from the CM literature. Further, the stakeholders should start the implementation processes early and ensure effective coordination between project development and the implementation processes.

The main value of the paper is related to the contribution to the discussion related to why IS projects, both in Western and in Eastern European countries, often fail.

This is a pilot study that aims to investigate the factors influencing the intention to use internet marketing among Malaysians and South Koreans, the two fast developing Asian countries with good internet infrastructure. Many businesses in these countries have leveraged on the rapid growth of World Wide Web by investing in internet marketing due to the anticipation that its acceptance and usage rates are on the increasing trend. However, the extent of intent to use internet marketing remains a question of interest.

This research adopts unified theory of acceptance and use of technology as the underpinning theory to assess the intention to use internet marketing. Data were collected using convenience sampling method from 150 Malaysians and 150 South Koreans through the use of self-reporting questionnaires. The questionnaire was prepared in two languages, English and Hangul to obtain accurate responses.

The findings suggest that different factors affect intentions to use internet marketing between Malaysians and South Koreans.

This is a pilot study and due to its exploratory nature, future research directions are provided for an actual scientific study to be conducted.

The results inform various stakeholders in the two countries and recommend strategies from the perspective of internet marketing's increased adoption.

The theoretical and practical contributions of this paper are articulated to guide organizations and policy makers in terms of the strategies to increase internet marketing acceptance and use among the young Malaysians and South Koreans.

Whether a fire can be initiated in an explosion accident depends on the explosion and deflagration process. In the methane-air explosion in a tunnel, the flame accelerates from the ignition point. However, where it begins to decelerate is not clear. The purpose of this paper is to examine the explosion overpressure, flow and flame propagation beyond the premixed area of methane-air in a tunnel.

The numerical simulation was used to study the explosion processes of methane-air mixtures in a tunnel. Based on the numerical simulation and its analysis, the explosion overpressure, flow and flame propagation rules beyond the premixed area were demonstrated for a methane-air explosion.

The peak overpressure of methane-air mixture explosion was observed to reach its maximum beyond the original premixed area of methane-air. The hazardous effects beyond the premixed area may be stronger than those within the premixed area for a methane-air explosion in a tunnel. Under the conditions of this study, the ratio between the length of combustion area (40 m) and that of original premixed area (28 m) reaches 1.43.

Little attention has been devoted to investigating the explosion overpressure, flow and flam propagations beyond the original premixed area of methane-air in a tunnel. Based on the numerical simulation and the analysis, the propagation rule of overpressure wave and flow inside and outside the space occupied by methane/air mixture at the volume fraction of 9.5 percent in a tunnel were obtained in this work.