• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.35-55
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• 2013

Information technology is a critical resource necessary for any company hoping to support and realize its strategic goals, which contribute to growth promotion and sustainable development. The selection of information technology and its strategic use are imperative for the enhanced performance of every aspect of company management, leading a wide range of companies to have invested continuously in information technology. Despite researchers, managers, and policy makers' keen interest in how information technology contributes to organizational performance, there is uncertainty and debate about the result of information technology investment. In other words, researchers and managers cannot easily identify the independent factors that can impact the investment performance of information technology. This is mainly owing to the fact that many factors, ranging from the internal components of a company, strategies, and external customers, are interconnected with the investment performance of information technology. Using an agent-based simulation technique, this research extracts factors expected to affect investment performance on information technology, simplifies the analyses of their relationship with economic modeling, and examines the performance dependent on changes in the factors. In terms of economic modeling, I expand the model that highlights the way in which product quality moderates the relationship between information technology investments and economic performance (Thatcher and Pingry, 2004) by considering the cost of information technology investment and the demand creation resulting from product quality enhancement. For quality enhancement and its consequences for demand creation, I apply the concept of information quality and decision-maker quality (Raghunathan, 1999). This concept implies that the investment on information technology improves the quality of information, which, in turn, improves decision quality and performance, thus enhancing the level of product or service quality. Additionally, I consider the effect of word of mouth among consumers, which creates new demand for a product or service through the information diffusion effect. This demand creation is analyzed with an agent-based simulation model that is widely used for network analyses. Results show that the investment on information technology enhances the quality of a company's product or service, which indirectly affects the economic performance of that company, particularly with regard to factors such as consumer surplus, company profit, and company productivity. Specifically, when a company makes its initial investment in information technology, the resultant increase in the quality of a company's product or service immediately has a positive effect on consumer surplus, but the investment cost has a negative effect on company productivity and profit. As time goes by, the enhancement of the quality of that company's product or service creates new consumer demand through the information diffusion effect. Finally, the new demand positively affects the company's profit and productivity. In terms of the investment strategy for information technology, this study's results also reveal that the selection of information technology needs to be based on analysis of service and the network effect of customers, and demonstrate that information technology implementation should fit into the company's business strategy. Specifically, if a company seeks the short-term enhancement of company performance, it needs to have a one-shot strategy (making a large investment at one time). On the other hand, if a company seeks a long-term sustainable profit structure, it needs to have a split strategy (making several small investments at different times). The findings from this study make several contributions to the literature. In terms of methodology, the study integrates both economic modeling and simulation technique in order to overcome the limitations of each methodology. It also indicates the mediating effect of product quality on the relationship between information technology and the performance of a company. Finally, it analyzes the effect of information technology investment strategies and information diffusion among consumers on the investment performance of information technology.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.11
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• pp.1-27
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• 1969

More than thirty kinds of sea food pickles have been eaten in Korea. Out of these salted yellow tail pickle, salted clam pickle, salted oyster pickle, and salted cuttlefish pickle were employed for the analysis of their components, identification of main fermenting microbes, and determination of enzyme characteristics concerned. Also studied was the effect of enzymic action of microbes, which are concerned with the fermenting of pickles, on the production of flavorous 5'-mononucleotides and amino acids. The results are summarized as follows: 1. Microflora observed in the pickles are: (a) Total count of viable cells after 1-2 months of pickling was found to be $10^7$ and that after 6 months decreased to $10^4$. (b) Microbial occurence in the early stage of pickling was observed to be 10-20% Micrococcus spp., 10-20% Brevibacterium spp., 0-30% Sarcina spp., 20-30% Leuconostoc spp., ca 30% Bacillus spp., 0-10% Pseudomonas spp., 0-10% Flavobacterium spp., and 0-20% yeast. (c) Following the early stage of pickling, mainly halophilic bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Pediococcus halophilus and Sarcina litoralis, were found to exhibit an effect on the fermentation of pickle and their enzyme activities were in direct concern in fermentation of pickles. (d) Among the bacteria participating in the fermentation, Sarcina litoralis 8-14 and 8-16 strains were in need of high nutritional requirement and the former was grown only in the presence of purine, pyrimidine and cystine and the latter purine, pyrimidine and glutamic acid. 2. Enzyme characteristics studied in relation to the raw materials and the concerned microbes isolated are as follows: (a) A small amount of protease was found in the raw materials and 30-60% decrease in protease activity was demonstrated at 7% salt concentration. (b) Protease activity of halophilic bacteria, Bacillus subtilis 7-6, 11-1, 3-6 and 9-4 strains, in the complete media decreased by 10-30% at the 7% salt concentration and that of Sarcina litoralis 8-14 and 8-16 strains decreased by 10-20%. (c) Proteins in the raw materials were found to be hydrolyzed to yield free amino acids by protease in the fermenting microbes. (d) No accumulation of flavorous 5'-mononucleotides was demonstrated because RNA-depolymerase in the raw materials and the pickles tended to decompose RNA into nucleoside and phosphoric acid. (e) The enzyme produced in Bacillus subtilis 3-6 strain isolated from the salted clam pickles, was ascertained to be 5'-phosphodiesterase because of its ability to decompose RNA and thus accumulating 5'-mononucleotide. (f) It was demonstrated that the activity of phosphodiesterase in Bacillus subtilis 3-6 strain was enhanced by some components in the corn steep liquor and salted clam pickle. The enzyme activity was found to decrease by 10-30% and 40-60% at the salt concentration of 10% and 20%, respectively. 3. Quantitative data for free amino acids in the pickles are as follows: (a) Amounts of acidic amino acids such as glutamic and aspartic acids in salted clam pickle, were observed to be 2-10 times other pickles and it is considered that the abundance in these amino acids may contribute significantly to the specific flavor of this food. (b) Large amounts of basic amino acids such as arginine and histidine were found to occur in salted yellow tail pickle. (c) It is much interesting that in the salted cuttlefish pickle the contents of sulfur-containing amino acids were exceedingly high compared with those of others: cystine was found to be 17-130 times and methionine, 7-19 times. (d) In the salted oyster pickle a high content of some essential amino acids such as lysine, threonine, isoleucine and leucine, was demonstrated and a specific flavor of the pickle was ascribed to the sweet amino acids. Contents of alanine and glycine in the salted oyster pickle were 4 and 3-14 times as much as those of the others respectively. 4. Analytical data for 5'-mononucleotides in the pickles are as follows: (a) 5'-Adenylic acid and 3'-adenylic acid were found in large amounts in the salted yellow tail pickle and 5'-inosinic acid in lesser amount. (b) 5'-Adenylic acid, especially 3'-adenylic acid predominated in amount in the salted oyster pickle over that in the other pickles. (c) The salted cuttlefish pickle was found to contain only 5'-adenylic acid and 3'-adenylic acid. It has become evident from the above fact that clam and the invertebrate lack of adenylic deaminase and contain high content of adenylic acid. Thus, they were demonstrated to be the AMP-type. (d) 5'-Inosinic acid was contained in the salted yellow tail pickle in a significant concentration, and it might be considered to be IMP-type. 5. Comparative data for flavor with regard to the flavorous amino acids and the contents of 5'-mononucleotides are: (a) A specific flavor of salted yellow tail pickle was ascribed to the abundance in glutamic acid and aspartic acid, and to the existence of a small amount of flavorous 5'-inosinic acid. The combined effect of these components was belived to exhibit a synergistic action in producing a specific fiavor to the pickle. (b) A specific flavor of salted clam pickle has been demonstrated to be attributable to the richness in glutamic acid and aspartic acid rather than to that of 5'-mononucleotides.