Factors influencing organizational information systems implementation in Thai public universities
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-07-2017-0054 |
| Published date | 11 March 2019 |
| Date | 11 March 2019 |
| Pages | 90-121 |
| Author | Ananchanok Watchaton,Donyaprueth Krairit |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Information & communications technology |
Factors influencing
organizational information
systems implementation in
Thai public universities
Ananchanok Watchaton
Asian Institute of Technology School of Management, Bangkok, Thailand, and
Donyaprueth Krairit
Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to understand how public sector organizations can successfully implement
organizational information systems (IS). It identifies the factors that contribute to the success of
organizationalIS implementation in public universities.
Design/methodology/approach –Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used. The
proposed research model is based on previous studies and primary qualitative research, including in-depth
interviews, telephone surveys and mail surveys using semi-structured questionnaires to identify the
determinants and measures of implementationsuccess. Based on the first mail survey’s results, quantitative
research is conducted to test the researchhypotheses. The data are gathered from university personnel at 40
public universities,and the study focuses on the implementation of student registrationsystems.
Findings –The results suggest that successfulimplementation of organizational IS includes the decisions
of both those in authorityand users. The external and internal organization and individualuser factors have
direct relationships with the measure of implementation success, which suggests significant differences
between authoritiesand users.
Research limitations –The analysis is based on the viewpointof public university personnel; however,
the findings suggest the need for further researchon other public organizational IS as well as other public
serviceoperations.
Practical implication –The study clearly suggests a set of factors to guide public universities in
successfullyimplementing organizational IS forlocal conditions of a developing country.
Originality/value –The study contributes to the understandingof effective IS implementation in public
universitiesin a developing country.
Keywords Public organizational information systems, Public university,
Informationsystems implementation,Implementation success, Structuralequation modeling, Thailand
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In contemporary organizations, information systems (IS), which are computer-based
systems operating within the bounds of organizational functions, are important tools for
facilitating an organization’s operations. Investments in IS have increased significantly in
public and private sector organizations because of the recognition of its usefulness; this is
also true for Thailand. With the rapidly growing use of IS by the Thai government,public
universities as agencies of the government are also required to deploy IS to facilitate and
improve their operations.
JSIT
21,1
90
Received7 July 2017
Revised7 February 2018
1 May2018
12September 2018
Accepted19 September 2018
Journalof Systems and
InformationTechnology
Vol.21 No. 1, 2019
pp. 90-121
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1328-7265
DOI 10.1108/JSIT-07-2017-0054
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1328-7265.htm
In Thailand, public university operations are governed by civil service laws and
regulations; hence, public universities are controlled by the government and paid for by
public taxation. Public universityadministrators are expected to make effective investments
in IS. However, not all public organizations are able to use IS effectively and to justify the
investments. Therefore, improving the effectiveness of IS implementation, and thereby
ensuring effective investment, remains a challenging task for public university
administrators.
Research on IS implementation is based mostly on business organizations, especially
private sector organizations or a combination of public and private sector organizations
(Rosacker and Olson, 2008). In fact, only a limited number of studies has researched
organizational IS in public universities and on limitedtopics, such as the management and
benefits of public organizational IS (Swain et al.,1995;Vest et al.,2014). Despite certain
similarities between private and public sector organizations, they are distinctive in many
ways, including their management and implementation of information technology (IT)
(Bretschneider,1990;Campbell et al.,2009;Caudle et al., 1991).
In the case of information and communication technology (ICT) in developing countries,
researchers note that the location of a new technological innovation is usually in an
advanced economy, which is a different context to the location of the implementation of
innovation, which is usually in a developing country. In addition, the socio-organizational
settings of ICT development, and its use within countries or regions, may differ
substantially between developed and developing countries. The differences in business
environments in developing countries also suggest that there are very different models for
IT applications (Avgerou,2010;Roztocki and Weistroffer, 2011).
Furthermore, as Chen et al. (2006) suggested, history and culture, technical staff,
infrastructure, citizensand government officers are the main differences between developed
and developing countries from the various aspects of government. The study noted that e-
government development strategiesand experiences from developed countries might not be
directly applicable to developing countries because of such differences. The study also
suggested that developing countriespropose their own strategies to fit with their countries’
characteristics and conditions. Indeed, it has been suggested that a formal and often
stringent budgetingprocess restriction is one of the major constraints to the adoption of new
technologies in the public sector(Perry and Rainey, 1988;Sarantis et al., 2011).
With regard to the efficacy of IS implementation, despite the development of successful
measures for e-government systems(Wang and Liao, 2008), very few studies have assessed
the success of publicorganizational IS. In fact, questions have been raisedas to what aspects
of organizationalIS in the private sector should apply in the public sector (Nutt, 2005).
Lacking knowledge of organizational IS, public universities are far less effective at
implementing the organizationalIS. For public administrators, the problem is how IS can be
implemented successfully.There is a need for research on IS implementationin public sector
organizations. Hence, this study develops a model and measurement to identify the factors
that influence the successfulIS implementation of public sector organizations.
In Thailand, government agenciesare one of four types of state agencies in public sector
entities. Government agencies make up the bulk of government machinery and serve the
basic functions of governmentby providing administrative public services, including public
education. Regarding the public education service, there are 75 public universities out of a
total of 96 government institutions of higher education. The remaining 21 institutions are
independent government-affiliated universities. Amongthe total of 75 public universities, 40
are formally named “Rajabhat Universities.”These universities originated from teacher
training colleges and operateunder the supervision of the Ministry of Education. From their
Thai public
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origin as teacher colleges, these institutions expanded into provincial areas. These 40
universities form one of the largest university systems in Thailand. More than half of
Thailand’s provinces have at least one government Rajabhat University; hence, they are
located all over the country. The distribution of these 40 universities is as follows: 6 are in
the Bangkok metropolitan area, 8 in the northernregion, 12 in the north-eastern region, 9 in
the central region and 5 in the southernregion groups[1].
As discussed above, the main challenge faced by administrators of these public
universities is to ensure the successfulness of their organizational IS implementation.
For the purpose of investigation, qualitative and quantitative research approaches
were adopted in this study to provide insight into the nature of the IS implementation
projects of the universities. For the initial qualitative approach, the initiative stage
was conducted case studies and in-depth interviews. As indicated from the interview
results, all 40 universities have acquired a student-registration (S-R) system, which
has been developed from the same database. The first group of 10 Rajabhat
universities acquired their systems through direct sharing of the original database
among them. The second group of 12 Rajabhat universities acquired the same
systems and then further developed them on their own; however, these systems still
have the fundamental functions of the original system. The remaining Rajabhat
universities acquired the systems through vendors with the same fundamental
characteristics as the other Rajabhat universities. The same characteristics are
needed so that all 40 Rajabhat universities operate similarly. Each system was
developed only for the use of the registrar’soffice and not for the use of the
university’s students. Thus, the registrars of all the universities must assign specific
staff to handle all the work for the students, and the systems are not open for the
students’use. These 40 universities are almost identical in terms of organizational
structure and size. Therefore, the fundamental characteristics of all 40 systems are
the same[2].
In addition, the Ministry of Education requiresall Rajabhat universities to report student
statistics, by which this report is prepared by the registrar’soffice. Hence, all of the S-R
systems in all Rajabhat universities must be similar. Therefore, for the purposes of this
research, the S-R system project implementation of the 40 public universities was selected
for this study.
Two research questionsdrive this study:
Q1. What are the factors that influence the successful IS implementation of public
universities?
Q2. How can a public universityevaluate IS implementation success?
For a developing country,it is important that public sector organizations understandhow IS
can be implemented successfully. This study attempts to fill this knowledge gap by
addressing the factors that contribute to successful implementation to help both
administrators and practitioners. This study’sfindings have important implications for
future research and projectplanning implementation.
The rest of this paper is structuredas follows. Section 2 presents a literature review of the
research on the implementationof organizational IS and a discussion of the research model.
Section 3 presents the researchmethodology and hypotheses. Section 4 reports the analysis
results. Section 5 discusses the findings, and finally, Section 6 presents the conclusion,
implications for academiaand practitioners and study limitations.
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