DOSSIER INDEX
Ramiro Montealegre
October 2000
VCAC Checklist
1. Dean’s Recommendation
2. Statement of Dean’s Review Committee
3. Chair’s Report of Dept. Evaluation & Recommendation
4. Statement of Primary Unit Review Committee
5. Current Vita
6. Faculty Statement on Research
7. Faculty Statement on Teaching
8. Faculty Statement on Service/Outreach
9. Comprehensive Review Letters from Dean’s Review Committee and from Dean
10. Multiple Measures of Teaching (based on Todd Gleeson’s memo on October 98)
a. FCQ Instructor and Course Summary
b. FCQ Summary for each course taught
c. Peer Evaluation of Classroom Interaction
d. Student Letters Solicited in an Unbiased Manner
e. Other Student Letters
f. Classroom Interviews
g. Students Interviews
h. Committee Assessment of Teaching Portfolio
i. All Comments Written by Students on my Last FCQs
j. Assessment of Non-Classroom Teaching
k. Other Measures
11. External letters of evaluation
12. One copy of “Primary Unit Criteria for Promotion and Tenure”
13. One copy of your letter soliciting letters of evaluation
14. Examples of Publications (3 are sufficient)
15. UCDF-7 Form (University of Colorado, Boulder, Summary of Recommendation and Notification of Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Appointment)
RESEARCH STATEMENT
Ramiro Montealegre
My scholarly work focuses on the interplay between information technology and organizational transformation, particularly in highly uncertain environments. My engineering and managerial training and experience have led me to appreciate the importance of studying in situ the dialectical interplay between an information technology system’s content, its multilevel context, and changes that may occur over time. Methodologically, my work is characterized by the use of historical records, in-depth case studies, and multi-year studies immersed in field settings. These are all important factors for obtaining insights into the richness and complexity of people’s experiences on different cultural and organizational dimensions with different information technologies. In this statement, I examine the theoretical contributions of my research, and then discuss my publication approach.
RESEARCH AGENDA
My first research project, based on my doctoral dissertation, focused on the interplay between information technology and the social and organizational context in which the technology is being introduced and assimilated. Specifically, I designed a field study of a Guatemalan sugar company that had been internationally recognized for its excellence in implementing information systems (which have transformed Guatemala's sugar industry). I lived on the sugar plantations for 112 days solely to pursue this research. I spent nearly full time working on-site during official hours, and also socialized with organization members outside of work. During this time, I tried to learn the subjects' rules for organizational life and to interact frequently with them to understand how and why they construct their social world as they do.
This research project has generated three journal articles (all of which are single authored). In “The Interplay of Information Technology and the Social Milieu,” Information Technology and People, 1997, I draw on Giddens's conception of plural structural rules and resources in analyzing the organizational change initiatives over a 20-year time frame (1973‑93), starting when computers were first introduced at this sugar company. The paper shows that different social and organizational conditions influence the process of information technology implementation; this process, in turn, reinforces or transforms the structural configurations over time. Thus, this paper highlights the role that information technology plays in transforming its social setting. MCB University Press named this work the “Most Outstanding paper published in Information Technology and People in 1997,” and invited me to guest edit the special issue on “Information Technology in Latin America,” to join the journal’s editorial board, and then to become associate editor.
“Managing Information Technology in Modernizing ‘Against the Odds’: Lessons from an Organization in a Less-Developed Country,” Information & Management, 1998, focuses on management's role in implementing information technology in less-developed countries. In the vast majority of these nations, the intellectual skills that prior research has found to be important in implementing new information technologies—abstract thinking, problem-solving, and inference—are very scarce. Therefore, this paper analyzes the managerial strategies and tactics used in over two decades at this research site. The paper shows that in the long run even in countries that have few employees with the intellectual skills required to use information technology, the company may gain more from "informating" its environment than from merely "automating" its production processes. An earlier version of this paper was accepted at the Hawaiian International Conference on System Science (HICSS), selected as the Best Paper in the Technology Management Track, and nominated for the Best Paper Award of the conference overall.
Finally, “Aprendizaje Organizacional y La Revolucion Tecnologica: Retos para el Empresario de Latinoamericano,” (Organizational Learning and the Technological Revolution: Challenges for Latin American Managers) INCAE, 1996, was written in Spanish and published in a leading practitioner-oriented journal in Latin America. This paper examines some strategies and tactics that managers in this region of the world can employ to strengthen their capacity to understand the technological advances and learn how to improve transfer and assimilation of such advances.
My second research project focuses on the patterns of Internet adoption in Latin America. I began this project as a result of an invitation by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the American Embassy in Peru to participate on a working team to evaluate the Latin American and Caribbean networks. The potential of the World Wide Web and the Internet as a global communication medium has been widely documented in a variety of media. In particular, it has been recognized that today's emerging global infrastructure has the capacity to contribute toward solving many of the problems that confront developing countries. To remain competitive in the information age, these countries must take advantage of the benefits the Internet offers. However, differences among countries in adopting these new technologies and supporting their business community’s strategic and entrepreneurial initiatives have received little critical attention.
I have written three articles from this project, all single-authored. The first paper, “Implications of Electronic Commerce for Managers in Less-Developed Countries,” Information Technology and Development, 1996, is a conceptual piece written in preparation for this research project. It focuses on the need to (1) understand the evolution of countries' and companies' approaches to electronic commerce, (2) gain insight into development phases of, and the type of commercial activity taking place in, the Internet and World Wide Web, and (3) track changes that suggest where development may be headed. The paper presents the framework that was used in conducting this research.
In “A Temporal Model of Institutional Interventions for Information Technology Adoption in Less-Developed Countries,” Journal of Management Information Systems, 1999, I examine the processes and paths taken by four Latin American countries that had recently established, or were in the process of establishing, an Internet presence. The subject countries—Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru—were selected on the basis of differences in their adoption strategies, innovative use of resources, and management of collaboration among involved stakeholders. The paper explores the role that institutions play in the adoption of information technology in these countries. In particular, the paper delineates a gradual but progressive course of institutional actions and suggests a temporal ordering of the actions—including knowledge building, subsidy, knowledge deployment, innovation directive, and standard setting. The temporal model reveals how each country sustained the momentum of its evolving strategy, grew in competence to forge technological solutions, and gained access to the Internet. The four countries’ original goals changed, but through experience they perceived opportunities and established evolving Internet strategies that formed the basis of new technological services provided at the national level.
“A Case for More Case Study Research in the Implementation of Information Technology in Less-Developed Countries,” Information Technology for Development, 1999 is a conceptual paper written as a reflection after the execution of this Internet adoption study. The paper argues for more fieldwork to better analyze the dynamic interweaving between the new technology and the social/organizational setting in which it is being embedded.
My third research project focuses on how companies in different countries are adopting on-line trading and supporting their financial communities’ strategic and entrepreneurial initiatives. The potential benefits of on-line trading have been widely documented in both scholarly and trade publications. What remains unaddressed is how these emerging electronic financial services are shaping and supporting the financial industry in the global competitive landscape. To say “on-line trading will be used by borrowers and investors to take control of their finances and seek on-line sources of information, interaction, and transactions while ignoring national boundaries and become more global” is simple. This project examines the process of Internet strategy formation and implementation, using as its basis in-depth field studies of three companies, each of which pioneered on-line trading in the country where it was founded—E*Trade in the United States, Patagon.com in Argentina, and Bolsa de Valores de Guayaquil in Ecuador.
To date, I have written two single-authored journal articles and three case studies from this project. Three other articles and a case study are in progress. In “Extending Chakravarthy’s Strategy Framework to Cope with Constrained and Unstable Environments: Imitative Catching-Up at Patagon.com,” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 2000, I analyze the history of Patagon.com, a pioneer in Latin American Internet-based financial services. The paper’s primary contribution is to extend Chakravarthy’s strategy framework for coping with turbulence to conceptualizing imitative catch-up electronic commerce strategy in constrained and unstable environments, such as those in less-developed countries. The case analysis also suggests some practical implications that shed light on how organizations in developed countries that are not pioneers of novel breakthroughs can participate in electronic commerce. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Academy of Management 2000.
“Internet Strategy at Bolsa de Valores de Guayaquil: A Model of Resources and Competencies Ordering to Develop Dynamic Capabilities in a Less-Developed Country,” which is now in the second round of the reviewing process in Organization Science, examines how Bolsa de Valores de Guayaquil (BVG) pioneered a strategy to use the Internet to educate its local market and reach investors worldwide. The paper suggests that this strategy depended on key dynamic capabilities (strategic foresight, flexibility, trustworthiness, and integration), and on difficult-to-imitate combinations of external, organizational, and technological resources. In seeking to extend the resource-based perspective, the paper articulates, for the first time, a process model of resources and competencies to enable the creation of those dynamic capabilities in less-developed countries. An early version of this paper, presented at the International Conference of Information Systems (ICIS) 1999, led to an invitation to chair a session on “Managing in the Knowledge Economy” at ICIS 2000.
Two other single-authored papers are in progress. They have already been presented at major conferences and are scheduled for submission by the end of this academic year. In “Four Visions of E-Commerce in Latin America in the Year 2010” (in progress, targeted for California Management Review), I raise questions about Latin America’s ability to exploit the Internet, and to implement and capitalize on e-commerce applications. The paper presents four scenarios as “future snapshots” written from the vantage point of the year 2010. Each scenario considers issues regarding technological adoption and potential social responses, and discusses some of the critical assumptions about patterns observed in the region today and their implications for the future. In “Developing Internet-Based Strategies in Constrained and Uncertain Environments: Lessons from Bolsa de Valores de Guayaquil” (in progress, targeted for Academy of Management EXECUTIVE), I present a set of recommendations for executives on how to develop Internet-based strategies in environments where the imperfection and resource scarcities are especially pressing in developing as well as in developed nations. This paper is drawn from my continued research work at the Guayaquil Stock Exchange. The paper was selected for inclusion at the Academic Writers Workshop sponsored by the Academy of Management EXECUTIVE and the European Management Journal on August 5, 2000.
My fourth research project focused on analyzing a systems implementation and relating that process to its organizational and broader contexts over time. After negotiating research access with the City of Denver in August 1994, I conducted field research on the implementation of the computerized baggage-handling system at the Denver International Airport. The study involved both a historical reconstruction of the 1983-94 period and a longitudinal study of the 1994-95 period. The findings suggest that to understand the risks associated with implementation of large-scale, computer-based systems, one must go beyond recognizing risk factors enumerated in the literature to analyze the dynamic interplay among the new system’s content, its multilevel context, and changes that may occur over time.
From this project, I have published two journal articles and two case studies. Unlike most of my fieldwork, the two papers published from this research are co-authored. I acknowledge the contribution of Mark Keil in helping develop the literature review and editing the papers. “De-escalating Information Technology Projects: Lessons from the Denver International Airport,” MIS Quarterly, 2000, focuses on the key decisions that were made in order to bring the automated baggage system fiasco under control so that the airport could open. While prior research has identified many factors that contribute to the escalation of commitment to failing courses of action, there has been comparatively little research on the factors contributing to the de-escalation of commitment. This paper is significant in that it presents a process framework based on one of the first in-depth, longitudinal studies of de-escalation. An earlier version of this paper received the 1998 Best Paper Award of the Organizational Communication and Information Systems (OCIS) Division of the Academy of Management.
In a second paper, "Cutting Your Losses: Extricating Your Organization When a Big Project Goes Awry," Sloan Management Review, 2000, to show the general applicability of the process framework developed in the first paper, the framework is applied to a well-documented case study of de-escalation: the London Stock Exchange’s Taurus system. A set of recommendations for executives are developed on how to extricate themselves and their organizations from failing courses of action. Evidence of the quality and impact of this paper can be found in the letters received by the editor of the Sloan Management Review and published in the Summer 2000 issue of the journal. These reviews were written by Kalle Lyytinen, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland; Gopal K. Kapur, President of the Center for Project Management; Robert L. Glass, President of Computing Trends; Capers Jones, Chief Scientist at Artemis Management Systems; Nigel Birch, Senior Business Consultant; Chris Sauer, Professor at the Oxford Institute of Information Management at Oxford University; and Joseph B. Murphy, Managing Director at Keane, Inc.