Research topics and explanation Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Topics and explanation - Research Paper Example The increasing trend of students being expelled for exam cheating in schools is a matter that has aroused debate in the society. Since the students are expected to be the future leaders, there is need to give them sound bringing up and in the event they commit some mistakes especially in learning institution. It is therefore important to resort to other rehabilitative measures like counseling in cases of examination cheating instead of the ultimate destructive move of expelling them. This issue is therefore critical for the general welfare of the society. Various states have been experiencing high cases of accidents caused by reckless motorists. Most of these accidents can be attributed to lack of safety measures like helmet for the motorcyclists and the passengers (Savageau, 2007). The society has kept blaming transport department and related authorities on laxity of enforcing safety measure rules with particular emphasis on wearing helmet. This topic is relevant as if it is addressed it will significantly mitigate cases of motorcyclists and passengers having head injuries at the slightest contact with the ground or any other object in the event of an accident. The sensitivity of the head to injuries also makes it important to address the issue of wearing helmet as a compulsory requirement for any motorcyclist (Merson, Black, & Mills, 2012). The audience of this subject should be the motorcyclists, general public who forms the passenger community and the transport governing authorities who should ensure rules and regulations on road safety are implemented. The increasing call for safety measures in the roads requires that all the motorcyclists enlist the use of helmet. It is in the interest of the general public that helmets are made available for the passenger and the motorcyclists to minimize case of fatalities in

By contrasting these seven works, discuss the idea of the self (me, Essay

By contrasting these seven works, discuss the idea of the self (me, the artist, my portrait, my body) and what leads the viewer to identify with these works - Essay Example Organized loosely around the principle that a mimetic representation is one that "looks like" the subject, or more specifically has a photographic component to its content, then the self portraits of Chuck Close, Bruce Nauman, Andy Warhol, and arguably Christian Schad are mimetic in nature. Provisionally, while the Christian Schad painting lacks a photographic realism that the others to some degree or another elicit, the facial features of Schad in the self-portrait insofar that they are meant to correspond to the actual features of someone's face do so successfully. One could reasonably suggest that they could imagine a human being looking like the character in the Schad painting. This notion of being human plays an important role in our theoretical development of identity. Our responses to human facial features are deeply programmed into our biology, our ability to recognize pain, ecstasy, surprise or indignation based on the slightest of facial movements is highly refined. Moreove r, our penchant to anthropomorphize animal behaviors speaks to our deep desire to "find the human" in our world. Our concept of identity and self is intimately tied to the species of which we count ourselves as members. Thus some of the other pictures such as the Picasso, or The Tree of Life, or Psyche do not immediately strike us as examples of real people depicting their identity. This resistance derives from an inherent preference for human features, namely the eyes in order to properly judge identity. This preference is intimated by the phrase, "looking a person in the eyes," in order to gather something about who they are as people. This sort of species-mimetic cage of identity of self is exactly the sort of prison that the works of Ana Mendieta and Gina Pane are explicitly trying to escape. Though interestingly the photographically influenced works are not totally submissive to this warden of identity and each in their own way seeks to subtly subvert this dominant paradigm. Chuck Close is most intimately associated with the Photo-Realist school, whose emphasis was on technical mastery and detail. Though Close has worked with a number of different media formats, in this screenprint a photo is gridded and each individual block is then transposed onto a larger canvas. The work is intentionally pixilated to foreground this method, and as a result the notion of a photo-realistic portrayal of Close is oddly transformed into a somewhat fuzzy understanding of the identity of Chuck Close. One can choose to parse that in any number of ways, possibly that one "true" identity can never be literally transposed anywhere. Bruce Nauman's, Self-Portrait as a Fountain, seems less concerned about the nature of identity transposition and more focused on analyzing the semiotic chain between self and object. One might suggest that the print is a picture of some person spitting water out of his mouth and little else. The evidence for this is in fact compelling. Because of the photo-realistic image we are in little doubt that that person is or was in fact a human in existence somewhere in the world. In this sort of tactically blunt interpretation it might also be held that the water flowing out of

A Theoretical Analysis of the Narrative of Migration Essay

A Theoretical Analysis of the Narrative of Migration - Essay Example People migrated to other countries with an aim of making their living standards better (Brah 1996, p. 32). Just like Mohamed who ran away from home to look for a better life, migration has been the order of the day especially people moving from developing countries to those that are well developed. When these people move to other countries, they end up forming Diaspora communities. They are forced to learn the new cultures and cope up with people with different behaviors as compared to theirs thus forming Diaspora identity (Hall 1996, p. 85). In Mohamed’s narrative of migration, it is clear that Mohamed was continuously looking for a way to get a well-paying job in the UK. He worked in Aden for two years but became unhappy with his long working hours with very low pay. As a strong-minded young man, Mohamed decided to move to Hargeisa which was the capital city of Somali. While there, he managed to get a passport that enabled him to move to the United Kingdom to work as a seama n. This clearly indicates that people were moving to foreign countries to better their lives. When he arrived in the UK, Mohamed found the western culture totally different from his own country. There was free mixing of both men and women, unlike his country where nearly everyone is a Muslim and thus their culture do not permit the mixing of men and women in the society. He also realized that the infrastructural facilities such as roads, railway lines, bridges and even buildings were of high standards when compared to his own country. Despite all these, Mohamed felt isolated and it even became difficult to learn the western culture which was different from that of Somaliland (Bauder 2006, p. 77). There are various problems faced by immigrants as they moved to other countries, for example, language barrier, cultural barriers, racism, under employment based on low levels of education, and even homesickness (Brubaker 2005, p. 49). Mohamed went through so many challenges when he arrived in London. He had thought that in the UK, people lived happily and enjoyed life without struggle. Surprisingly the case was different since he rented a house and looked for a job within a span of 6 months with no achievement. The main hindrance was his little English that

Technical Skills Essential to the Role of Secretarial Administration Essay

Technical Skills Essential to the Role of Secretarial Administration - Essay Example The researcher will begin with the statement that his experience in administration began when he was appointed as personal secretary to the Director-General of the Department of Arts and Culture. The researcher’s duties included the giving of administrative support to the Director-General. His main focus was administrative leadership, security and control functions which facilitated internal and external communication of the Head of Department with Top Management, Board Members and Agencies receiving state funding for arts and culture. The author got familiar with the Department’s policy regarding its system of correspondence, which included the drafting of internal memoranda, letters, and submissions for approval of funding proposals according to the system of delegation. In the researcher’s 10 years of employment with the Department, he prepared agendas for board and in-house meetings, took notes and set-up minutes of the meetings. The author had to organize in ternal staff meetings and provide all related documentation to the program managers (heads of the department’s divisions) like the financial executive director. Of his functions were to build a complete and efficient filing system in the form of paper files for back-up as well as an electronic filing system which kept track of each matter under discussion. Each unresolved matter was given a deadline date and the computer programme gave a daily print-out of outstanding matters with regard to urgent bookmarks for immediate attention that day.

Who Causes Collision Essay Example for Free

Who Causes Collision Essay Come aboard the Operation Lifesaver train and take a moment to complete the following quiz. Remember to use your common sense, because failure to do so could be fatal! Thank you for taking part in our quiz. Your quiz score: 14/15 Feel free to take the quiz again or visit www.traintodrive.net for more information. All the questions in the quiz along with their answers are shown below. Your answers are bolded. The correct answers have a green background while the incorrect ones have a red background. The Advance Warning Sign tells you: †¢ There is a railway yard nearby †¢ To slow down, you are approaching a railway crossing †¢ There is only one railway track ahead The advance warning sign warns you in advance of the highway/railway crossing. You should slow down and be alert as you are approaching a crossing. The crossbuck sign tells you: †¢ To hurry across the tracks †¢ There is only one railway track ahead †¢ To slow down, look, listen, and be prepared to yield for an approaching train When you see the crossbuck sign, you know that you are at a railway crossing. It is your responsibility to slow down, look, listen and yield to oncoming trains. Trains sound the engine whistle at most highway/railway crossings as a safety warning. When you are approaching a crossing and hear an engine whistle, you must: †¢ Be prepared to stop †¢ If a train is approaching, stop at least 5 metres from the nearest rail †¢ Ensure all tracks are clear before proceeding †¢ All of the above The locomotive engineer is required, by law, to sound the train whistle when approaching most crossings. When you hear it, be prepared to stop. If a train is approaching, stop at least 5 metres from the nearest rail and ensure all tracks are clear before proceeding. If you are being careful and obeying the traffic signs, you should never find yourself on the tracks while the gates are closing. The crossing lights start flashing before the gates come down. If you should find yourself in this situation, the best thing to do is to: †¢ Keep going †¢ Abandon the vehicle †¢ Stop †¢ Back up If you are being careful and obeying the traffic signs, you should never find yourself on the tracks while the gates are closing. The crossing lights start flashing before the gates come down. If you should find yourself in this situation, the best thing to do is to keep going. Most highway/railway crossing collisions involve drivers living within _____ of the location of the collision. †¢ 10 km †¢ 40 km †¢ 65 km †¢ 100 km 40 km. As you might expect, familiarity with highway/railway crossings breeds complacency. Many collisions occur close to home. A freight train with 80 railcars traveling 100 km/h can take _____ distance to stop. †¢ Less than 500 metres †¢ 1 km †¢ Up to 2 km †¢ More than 2 km Even in an emergency, a train travelling at 100 km/h could take up to 2 km to come to a stop. Remember, locomotives and railcars are a lot heavier than the family vehicle, and it takes a greater distance to stop. You can stop much more quickly! Some vehicles stop at all crossings. These may include: †¢ Public transit and motor coach vehicles carrying paying passengers †¢ School buses †¢ Hazardous material carriers †¢ All of the above In some provinces, public transit and motor coach vehicles carrying paying passengers, school buses and hazardous material carriers may stop at all crossings. So be prepared to stop if you are following one of these types of vehicles. The main contributing factor of a train-vehicle collision is: †¢ Weather conditions †¢ Malfunctioning warning devices †¢ Poor eyesight †¢ Vehicle driver error According to studies, vehicle drivers who do not exercise due caution at crossings are the main reason for highway/railway crossing collisions. These drivers, who fail to obey the warning signs and/or signals, take dangerous risks with their lives and those of others. It is illegal to drive around crossing gates. †¢ True †¢ False It is not only illegal, but also dangerous to drive around gates. Never race a train to the crossing. †¢ True †¢ False The race for the crossing was a highlight of many an old movie comedy; in real life, there is nothing funny about such a scene — it can be deadly, because even in a tie, you lose! It is okay for you to cross when the last car of a train clears the crossing. †¢ True †¢ False Do not proceed until you are sure that all tracks are clear and that all applicable automated warning devices have ceased operation – you might walk or drive right into the path or side of a moving train on the same or other track. Drivers often drive with their headlights off. This explains why many collisions involve a vehicle slamming into the side of a train at night. †¢ True †¢ False At night, some drivers overdrive their headlights. This means that you drive so fast that you cannot stop in the distance illuminated by your headlights. Slow down when you see the advance warning signs and be prepared to stop. Avoid stopping on the tracks in a traffic jam. †¢ True †¢ False Before proceeding across the tracks, be sure there’s enough space for your vehicle on the other side. If it doesn’t fit, don’t commit! A train should be expected on any track at any time. †¢ True †¢ False Don’t fall into the trap of knowing a crossing too well. Trains don’t always run at scheduled times. Extra trains may run at any time. Remember any time is train time. If you stall on the tracks when a train is approaching, get away from your vehicle immediately. †¢ True †¢ False If your vehicle stalls on a crossing, get all the occupants out of the vehicle and away from the track immediately. Do not run! Walk quickly to a point at least 30 metres away from the track. This will prevent you from being struck by flying debris if the train hits the stalled vehicle.

Different Cultures Residing In Close Proximity Cultural Studies Essay

Different Cultures Residing In Close Proximity Cultural Studies Essay This report of cross cultural management on the analysis of different cultures residing in close proximity will discuss the differences and similarities individuals share belonging to different cultures and ethnicity. It also highlights the facts about different cultures and the similarities which caused some troubles or helped during the entire course of PALS. We spent quite a time during this complete course of PALS and experienced a lot of different incidents due to which we concluded lot of information about Pakistani culture as well as the fact that managing diversity in culture while working on any thing is difficult and requires expertise. We had two major ethnicities in our group, Pakistani and Chinese. There were few similarities and little dissimilarity in both the cultures. If discussed with reference to the cross cultural theory of Fons Trompenaars. With the five basic dimensions of the cultural model which depicts the way human beings deal with one another, the differences of Pakistani and Chinese culture we encountered will be discussed. Personal Experience In the entire time during our PALS course, we had different conflicts with each other which we had to sort out but one thing that we all noticed was that all of us were comfortable in working as a team, though in the start the females took time in trusting on Shakoor and myself but once they were comfortable, we made a nice group which actually showed that all of us were used to of being a part of some team, group or a family. We behaved properly and tried to even subjugate our own feelings for the sake of harmony among the group members, especially the girls were peace makers. They most of the time used to communicate in a certain way that it never looked as if they disagree over something it always used to be something like you are absolutely right, we should think about it and later on a better time they used to present their own ideas which maintained the accord of the whole group and it felt like a family of five (5) members. Cross Cultural Theory Individualism vs. Collectivism Individualism refers to the way of living which characterises people with their self as most important; it focuses on I most rather than on We whereas Collectivism refers to the way where the actions are based for the betterment of the whole group, team or community (Arrindell, Hatzichristou, Wensink, Rosenberg, Twillert,, Stedema, Meijer 1997). It was concluded from the above stated example that Chinese and Pakistani, both the cultures are collectivists. One Pakistani though but it was enough to conclude that he was more interested in group work, team and association with a certain group rather than working alone and getting credit for that. Part 2 Focus on Self I being the leader of the group had to intervene and interfere in every matter of the group. The major feelings that I experienced during the whole session of PALS were very nice, it was a very nice experience overall, though with a little up and down. Being a part of majority Chinese based group I did not encounter much difficulty in the communication and interaction in the group yet I felt that when two persons belonging to a culture with high context communication, it becomes a little difficult to judge which way to go. Personal Diary Shakoor, the Pakistani male and I myself were discussing about the Activity related to the implications of differences in cultures in the business management of any organization. During the whole discussion I observed that he never disagreed with me directly, wherever he might have had felt the need of disagreement he fell quiet and said something like it is your opinion and I respect that I observed that his way of communicating was high context based. It had two meanings and a person like me belonging to the same type of culture with high context communication was able to understand his way of avoiding any feud between the members. Therefore he always had an indirect way of interacting. Cross Cultural Theory Applied; High vs. Low Context The famous theory of High vs. Low Context Cultures explains that different cultures have different styles of communication. These can be categorized on the basis of the type of culture, it can be high context and it can be low context. In high context cultures, the real meaning of the statement is hidden and embedded somewhere deep and is not clearly stated or written openly that everyone can understand it. People belonging to low context cultures face difficulty while interacting with the high context cultures (Hall Hall 1990). Low Context cultures are those where interaction and communication style is straight forward and simple. Whatever is said is meant in the same way, no double meanings can be applied to low context culture based communication (Kim, Pan Park 1998). The effects of PALS on My Personality The PALS group was supposed to work in harmony and with coordination, one thing which I lacked before entering in to it. I being a dominant person in nature had to listen to everybody and then decide what to do, this made me realize that working in a team and group is far better than working alone because we used to have lots of ideas at one place and then we used to incorporate them in a unique way of our own with mutual consent of everybody. I learnt to work in a team. Part 3 Focus on Other Individuals PALS was targeted towards learning the differences and the similarities of different cultures and to learn the best ways to deal with these differences and cash them for the benefit of the community and if working in an organization then for organizational goals. Personal Diary Once we all members were sitting and were chatting, nothing related to the studies or the PALS, it was then that Li Ran asked every one of us to join her on dinner. We all accepted it except for Shakoor, the Pakistani male; he apologized and said some other time. In our Chinese culture it is taken as an insult if somebody invites you on dinner and one refuses it. But Li Ran did not take it in the same way taken in our culture; she accepted the decline of Shakoor and continued with the discussion in the same pace as it was before Shakoors refusal. I came to the conclusion that Li Ran understood the fact that in Pakistani culture one is free without any obligations of courtesy to refuse and decline any ones invitation to dine together, just with a mere apology. Effects on Each Other Many different incidents took place during PALS which were noteworthy and due to which all the members of the group came to certain rules and the over all harmony of the group was maintained, like at times there was a conflict about the gender biasness from Shakoor, the Pakistani male; he used to be of the favour during discussions and even in the distribution of tasks which depicted that he belongs to a masculine dominant culture, but regardless of that, after some time he became accustomed to the fact that in Chinese culture, gender discrimination is not encouraged, and men and women are dealt at equality. This difference was balanced by both the cultural representatives with mutual understanding and thus the group was based on equality. Cross Cultural Theory Applied Egalitarianism Egalitarianism refers to the belief that explains that everyone is equal; no discrimination should be done on the basis of gender, cast, creed, or ethnicity. It favours the equal free chance to every one (Putterman. L, John. E. R, and Joaquim. S. 1988). Murray N. R. (1970) says that a free market should have liberty for everyone of a fair chance. It should not pose any restrictions on the basis of gender. It was thus concluded that to work in a group or for any betterment of the community or an organization, it is necessary to neglect the factor of gender, cast and creed. Part 4 Focus on Interactions In the PALS course, it was majorly focussed on the interactions and lessening the communication gaps between the members belonging to the different culture and backgrounds. It was so scheduled in the basic course outline that we had to interact and come close to each other in order to reach to certain decisions about the projects, assignments and simultaneously get to know each other. Personal diary I observed that in the start of PALS, the group members were distant from each other, the females became acquainted with each other, but shakoor and I myself were still strangers to the rest of the group. it was shakoor, the Pakistani male; who broke this ice wall and started a proper introduction in a very friendly way, and because of his initiative we got to know each other. It urged me to get to the depth of the fact and I realized that we Chinese are slow and a little reserve with people we dont know and we take quite a time in socializing with people. On the other hand Pakistani culture definitely must be easy in socializing because Shakoor who belonged to Pakistan was at ease in interacting with us, he asked us personal questions as well which according to our Chinese culture were taken as very informal and something to be asked from people you know for years. Another thing which I noticed was that all of us used to use our body language and facial expressions a lot. It was our non verbal communication that established such a relationship among all the members that we never felt a need for disagreement overtly, our facial and body language was enough for that and thus it never came in between us and formed any basis for conflicts in negotiation. Cross Cultural Theory Applied Cultural Influences on Nonverbal Behaviour; Regulators Regulators are the gestures and behaviours that regulate the communication among people in a continuous flow without any hurdle. It is said that regulators are the control factors in interacts and communications (Ekman Friesen, 1969). Thus it was easy to interact in PALS group because of the non verbal communication which all of us were accustomed and attuned to. It did not cause any trouble while discussing and negotiating over something. Part 5 Focus on Cultural Diversity As four (4) out of five (5) of our members of group belonged to china, it was not difficult for me, even as a leader to adjust and control the group. only one person Shakoor was from Pakistani culture. So if discussed from Pakistani and Chinese cultural differences, it can be easily said that there are similarities more as compared to the differences. We came to certain conclusions together as well like both the cultures are high context based, both are family and group oriented, both are good negotiators etc. Personal Diary Once, all of the members of our group went to market. We had to buy few things for our daily use, girls went their way and both I and Shakoor, the Pakistani male went our own separate ways. During my shopping I liked one shirt when I enquired about the price of the shirt I felt it was expensive, I started negotiating on the price and finally settled on the price which was under by budget and the shop keeper was happy too. When all of us friends met for lunch after the shopping and started showing our buying, Shakoor had bought the same shirt I had bought, when I asked about the price thinking that he must have paid higher price for it then I bought on, I was shocked to learn that he had bought on exactly the same price I bought on. I realized then that even Pakistani people are good at negotiating the prices and price factors are important to them in the same way as it is important for us Chinese. Question 2 PALS Group as an Cross Cultural Team If the members of the PALS group were working as a team in an organization, it will have some benefits and some difficulty. Organizations are different from learning institutions, therefore working in organizations on strategies will be different from working on activities and assignments for educational institutes. Cross cultural teams can be managed and trained according to the needs and targets of an organization. There can be many ways to do that like Improving Common Characteristics for effectiveness Improving common characteristics among diverse cultural representatives means that whatever characteristics are common to all (in this cane both) the cultures should be developed in such a way as to target it for the benefit of the organization. For example both Chinese and Pakistani cultures have people with good negotiating skills; it can be so designed that the cross cultural team comprising Chinese and Pakistani could make a nice strategic negotiating team which can be utilized at the time of strategic alliances and bidding negotiations as well as at price settlements. Intercultural Assessment and training Programs We encountered moments in our PALS course where we had to adapt and adjust to the Pakistani culture as well knowing the fact that it is not common in our Chinese Culture, I would come to the conclusion that if same policy is adopted while working in an organization, that is accepting and adjusting to the norms and values and practices of people belonging to other cultures can create a very strong team which in turn will be good for the Companys target and aim. Training programs can be arranged for the team members creating such situations in which it is bound for them to choose the option of way of other cultures and so become accustomed to it. Common Language One of the most important factors that form a basis of successful team is common language that is medium of interaction and communication. If a team with members especially belonging to different cultures have to work together for a common goal should have one common language as well, which in our case was English (Barbara, 2001). One of our members, would not declare the name here, had week English, due to which that person was unable to participate equally in the discussions as others did. This never created any difficulty for us because we had Chinese too as our common language but yet in any organization it could have created troubles during interactions. Dealings with immigrants As Shakoor, Pakistani male is an immigrant, so dealings with an immigrant are different. We four people had one common language, Chinese but he was not aware of Chinese Language so we in the start used to use Chinese language as our common language and he used to feel like an outsider but then suddenly we realized that he was the one to break the ice among we members and then we started using English as our common medium of interaction. Shakoor then was comfortable among us. So if dealing with an immigrant in an organization one must be careful in the language and the words he uses, should be known to everyone belonging to that team.

Benefits of Technological Innovation in Business

Benefits of Technological Innovation in Business 1.0 INTRODUCTION Advances in information systems and technology (IS/IT) are re1garded as major sources of improvement in the competitive position of firms and industries (Mitropoulos and Tatum, 2000). However, the benefits from technological advances depend on the extent to which these technologies are utilized. Indeed, information is becoming critically important in achieving strategic competitive advantage, particularly in todays competitive environment (Claudia, 2005). This proclamation has led organizations to adopt the most advanced enterprise technology to innovate for a change because organizations that maximize and leverage their information assets have a strategic advantage over their competitors (Claudia, 2005). The ability to speed up making decisions, improving operations performance, managing customer profitability as well as increasing the level of control to management are the core benefits to be considered by decision makers when implementing IT/IS. The rapid emergence of enterprise systems has made applications such as enterprise resource technology (ERP) to be among the most popular technologies used in the industries. Despite its importance to decision makers and also researchers in discovering how the emergence of enterprise systems contributes to organizational performance, there is uncertainty about IT payoff and accountants involvement in determining business and information strategy of an organization. The typical judgmental by organizations on investments of IS/IT is always to battle competition by improving productivity, profitability and quality of operations. Hence, to understand the organizations decisions to innovate always remain as the critical topic of discussion among IS/IT scholars particularly when it relates to the perceptions of accountants as the internal provider of information. Historically, organizational innovations were distinguished process from product innovations (Zmud, 1982; Robey, 1986; Swanson, 1994) and further differentiated between administrative and technological process innovations (Robey, 1986; Swanson 1994). Accountants play a significant role as the internal provider of information for business operations and for competitive positions in the market. Accountants are also described as the gatekeeper of the financial markets (Wallman, 1995). Without information expertise of accountants, businesses would not be able to evaluate their cost and profit position, gauge product or business unit performance or to plan for future financial success (Brecht and Martin, 1996). Traditionally, accountants were trapped on standard financial reporting or financial-related information and having historical orientation (Mia, 1993) to support management in making decisions. However, as information technologies grow more advanced and competitive pressure for innovation increased, the responsibility of accountants to furnish decision makers with valuable information in making intelligent decision becomes very crucial. Therefore, accountants must quickly response to this evolving information environment to mak e sure on the efficient business, information strategy and competitive positions in the industry Most of prior researches have extensively addressed and explained the phenomenon about IS/IT innovation (Rogers, 1983), the perspective of users acceptance of new technology (Davis, 1986) and its impact on organizational competitive advantage (Barney, 1991). Indeed, there are various literatures on IS/IT acceptance among researchers (Gallivan, 2001; Rogers, 2003; Swanson and Ramiller, 2004; Zhu, Kraemer and Xu, 2006) and IT-payoff (Brynjolfsson, 1996; Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj and Konsynski, 2000; Devaraj and Kohli, 2000). However, interdisciplinary research between two different schools of thought that discussed issues on information technology and accounting has been given less attention to date. Hence, this research is intended to discover, understand and explain the basis for enterprise systems innovation and accountants involvement in determining the information and business strategy of an organization. In this case, a grounded theory approach is adopted with the aim to explore the o pportunities for accountants to contribute on enterprise systems innovation that leads to the following research questions: What drives organizations innovate for the latest technology? How does it give impact on competitive position of an organization? 2.0 THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS The evolution of enterprise systems began in the 1950s as inventory control systems (Yen, Chou and Chang, 2001), where the manufacturing systems main focus was to handle inventory control in order to replace the traditional inventory concept. Later, bookkeeping, invoicing and reordering have been introduced to support business operations and management (Yen et al., 2001). Material requirement planning (MRP) was then developed in the 1960s with an objective to translate the master production schedule into requirements of raw material planning and procurement. Subsequently, manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) has evolved into a more advanced system with the objective to optimize the production process and distribution management (Yen et al. 2001). It has been extended to include areas such as corporate finance, personnel management, engineering process and business process management. The robust development of MRP II has encouraged IT experts to develop more advanced technologies such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply-chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM) over some period of time to leverage information about strategic enterprise management, improving operations performance, managing customer profitability, human resource and supply chain information and improving direct/indirect business process (William and William, 2003). These technologies are more sophisticated and efficient in handling multiple business units such as sales and operations planning, inventory/materials management, manufacturing, purchasing, order processing, accounting and finance, human resources, customer relationship management, supply chain management and more. However, due to some limitations particularly in analytical decision-making, these systems could not facilitate the decision support function (Chou et al., 2005). In the 1990s, much adoption of IS/IT was focused on the enterprise systems. The benefits over decisions to adopt IS/IT are basically on cost reduction, transactional efficiency, internal process management, back and front end process automation and transactional status visibility. As businesses continue to use enterprise systems for a growing number of functions, they face the challenge of processing and analyzing huge amount of data into intelligent decision-making. Although current enterprise systems could integrate business transactions data for organizational planning, essentially, it would not support management particularly on analytical and decision support process. The changing of business requirements, new technologies and the software vendors development capabilities has enforced the enterprise applications continue to emerge. The emergence of Business Intelligence (BI) tools in the early 2000s, where its main function is to extract valuable information from existing enterp rise systems, is anticipated to improve organizational performance and competitive advantage (Davis, 2002) and with its capability in conveying intelligent decisions for decision makers (Buytendijk, 2001; Golfareelli and Cella, 2004). Hence, the relevant and suitability of enterprise systems innovation towards competitive position of a firm remain favourable topics of discussion between scholars as it reflects IT-payoff or return on investment of an organization. 3.0 PRIOR RESEARCH The literature provides different definitions of innovations: Rogers (1976) defines innovation as an idea, practice or object perceived as new by an individual or other relevant unit of adoption which is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. Tornatzky and Klein (1982) define it as an idea, practice or material artifact perceived to be new by the relevant unit of adoption. Swanson (1994) defines information system innovation as innovation in the organizational application of digital computer and communications technologies. Swanson (1994) added that organizational innovation refers to the adoption of an idea or behavior that is new to the organization that is adopting it (Daft, 1978). It is further defined as the first or early use of an idea by one set of organizations with similar goals (Becker and Whisler, 1967, quoted by Daft, 1978). Meanwhile, in the year 2000s scholars have defined information system innovation as: Gordon and Tarafdar (2007) describe that innovation process comprised of three broad stages: initiation, development and implementation (Damanpour, 1991; Utterback, 1971; Zmud, 1982). Initiation involves activities leading to an organizations decision to adopt or attempt to adopt an innovation. Motivation could be poor financial or operational performance (Kanter, 1982; Tushman and OReilly, 1997), internal self-criticism combined with a strategic focus on proactive business innovation (Nonaka, 1988; Tushman and Nadler, 1986). Development involves design and development of product and process innovations planned in the initiation stage. This stage has activities such as idea generation and problem solving (Tushman and OReilly, 1997), rapid information process and fast decision making (Eisenhardt and Tabrizi, 1995), new information is acquired from competitors (Tushman and OReilly, 1997) and customers (Drucker, 1998) and connected with existing knowledge (Galbraith, 1982) to create new product/processes. Implementation involves activities surrounding the adoption and assimilation of innovations designed and developed during the ‘development stage. Process and product redesign leads to changes in different processes and control systems (Davenport, 1993), effective and reasonably strict control systems are required for efficiently accomplishing the administration and co-ordination activities necessary for implementation of the innovation (Galbraith, 1982). Innovating with IT, according to Swanson and Ramiller (2004), is a journey that involves four core processes: comprehension, adoption, implementation, and assimilation. First, organizations collect and interpret information from their environments about the existence and basic idea of an IT innovation. Second, this comprehension effort informs organizations decisions on whether to adopt the innovation, plus the articulation of supporting rationales. Third, where adoption is actually pursued, the innovation is deployed—hardware and software are installed, business processes are changed, users are trained, and so on. Fourth, in due course the innovation becomes assimilated into the routines of organizational work systems. Wang and Ramiller (2009) further define IT innovation as an information technology perceived as new by the adopting organization (Rogers 2003; Swanson 1994). Their perspective on innovation is oriented towards adopters and organizations innovate with IT by appl ying new IT to their business processes. Therefore, in this research, enterprise systems innovation could be defined as enterprise systems that comprised an integrated planning and resource management system that coordinates information across all enterprise functions (Bendoly et al, 2008) and the capability of the systems to provide valuable information for managements in determining the business and information strategy of an organization. In recent years, there are a number of researches that examine the organizational adoption of IS/IT, IT payoff and its impact on organizational performance. IT adoption contributes to various competing models that have been tested in several industries (either services or non-services) and are different in terms of methodological approach, conceptual models and constructs, such as a research model on user acceptance of citation database interface (Lin et.al, 2009), mobile wireless (Kim et.al, 2009; Qi et.al, 2009), internet banking (Lee, 2009a), online trading (Lee, 2009b) and more. Indeed, there are various literatures on IT adoption and acceptance among researchers (Gallivan, 2001; Rogers, 2003; Swanson et.al, 2004; Zhu, Kraemer and Xu, 2006, Qi et al, 2009; Kim and Garrison, 2009) and IT-payoff (Brynjolfsson, 1996; Bharadwaj et. al, 2000; Devaraj et. al, 2000). Within this broad area of investigation, there are several streams of research. One stream of research focuses on individ ual acceptance of technology by using behavioural intention as a dependent variable (e.g Davis et.al, 1989; Bhattacherjee, 2001; Bhacttacherjee and Premkumar, 2004; Zhu et.al, 2006). The other streams have focused on implementation success at the organizational levels (Grover, 1998; Karahanna et.al, 1999) and task technology fit (Goodhue and Thompson, 1995). However, due to the nature of the research designs employed, these streams of research have not attributed the effect of usefulness of information from enterprise systems innovation and its impact on organizational performance. Furthermore, scholars have documented many studies that examine the relationship between investments in technology and its payoff in terms of enhanced organizational performance (Brynjolfsson and Yang, 1996; Kohli and Devaraj, 2003). There is evidence that there are significant differences among studies in terms of the level of analyses, methodologies employed, variables and contexts examined. Many economic studies (Roach, 1987; Morrision and Berndt, 1991) observed a negative relationship between technology-related variables and performance. At the industry level, the results were mixed with some studies documenting a positive impact of technological investment (Kelley, 1994; Siegel and Griliches, 1992) while other studies by Berdnt and Morrison (1995) and Koski (1999) detect no significant advantage to IT investment. At a more detailed organizational level, Diewert and Smith (1994), Hitt and Brynjolfsson (1995) and Dewan and Min (1997) present results indicating a positive relations hip between technology and performance. In this research, information use is tightly related to the technology that provides access to such information. The limitations of the enterprise systems as well as resource constraints on managerial time devoted to information search such as accessing, understanding, transforming and consolidating the information would give the impact on how effectively information use can be converted into strategic results (Bendoly and Cotteleer, 2008). Indeed, IS/IT research concerned with how to design more useful IS for organization (Legris, Ingham and Collerette, 2003; Elbeltagi, 2005; Jeyaraj, Rottman and Lacity, 2006). However, a useful IS/IT is not one that is simply used by individuals or organizations or the one that possesses specific desirable characteristics (such as output information quality, functionality or interface structure). Rather a useful IS/IT is one which can and does support collective action through the nature of the relationship between technological attributes, individ ual users and organizationally situated tasks (Diez and McIntosh, 2008). Consequently, many prior researchers have struggled to show the direct impact of IT with other disciplines such as accounting on organizational performance. However, several recent studies have shown that the fit between accounting and IT has significant impact on performance (Chan et al, 1991; Cragg et al, 2002) where firms that consider their IT strategy with business strategy perform better than those who do not. Raymond et al (1995) found that firms that align their organizational structure and IT structure also perform better than firms that do not. In another study, Bergeron et al. (2001) found that fit between strategic orientation, organizational structure, and strategic IT management had an impact on firm performance. The issues of matching information requirements and enterprise systems capabilities and also the impact of this matching on performance are important questions which are part of a general debate in accounting information system field (e.g. Galbraith, 1973; Tush man and Nadler, 1978; Van de Ven and Drazin, 1985). Accountants are the internal providers of information to decision makers and accountants must adapt to the competitive pressure and increase their ability to leverage information assets in order to contribute for more effectively to managerial decision making. Therefore, as IS/IT grows more advanced, accountants must react quickly to the changes and need to create and apply non-financial information to achieve organizational performance. Hence, this research will discover the impact of usefulness of information through enterprise system innovation and to investigate the accountants involvement in determining the information strategy of an organization. 4.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The classification of this research is mainly a grounded theory approach as it seeks to understand and explain social phenomenon related to the involvements of accountants on enterprise system innovations in determining the business and information strategy of an organization. This research is not to predict as used by positivists or just to have a subjective explanation or interpretation, but this research is expected to come out with unique explanations that constitute to the theory building and/or to come out with a variation of existing theories for modification to be able to fit into the context of the phenomenon of interest. In order to discover the ontological and epistemological aspects of the social inquiry, the method used in this research is important to be realized. In this study, the epistemology adopted is interpretivism and the qualitative research methodology is used to generate explanations on the phenomenon under study. Grounded theory was first developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and could be best defined as a qualitative research method that uses a systematic set of procedures to develop and inductively derive grounded theory about a phenomenon (Strauss Corbin, 1990). In such a way, grounded theory is suggested to be inductive rather than deductive. Basically, the purpose of grounded theory is to organize many ideas from analysis of the data (Strauss, 1967) and to build a theory that is faithful to and justified the area under study (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The theory developed is not necessarily intended to stand-alone but could be related to existing theories within a field and therefore it will strengthen the current understandings of the phenomena in question. Strauss (1967) summarized grounded theory procedures as the systematic analysis of documents, interview notes or field notes by continually coding and comparing data that produced a well-constructed theory. Hence, Strauss and Corb in (1994) noted that the major difference between this methodology and other approaches to qualitative research was its emphasis upon theory development. Although the collaboration works between Glaser and Strauss have contributed to the development of grounded theory, they show some differences on the epistemological aspects between them (Glaser, 1978, 1992; Strauss, 1987; Strauss Corbin, 1990), which have resulted in the ‘Straussian and ‘Glaserian models (Stern, 1994). The Glaserian approach on qualitative data analysis was said to have the preconceptions or positive perspective on doing grounded theory while Straussian approach has a realistic epistemology into empirical inquiry through grounded theory. Furthermore, Glaserian beliefs were to be more positivism about the objective and external reality, while Straussian beliefs were based on the assumption of having an unbiased position in collecting data and use certain technical procedures to ensure the participants express their own perception (Glaser, 1992; Strauss Corbin, 1990). Based on these two beliefs of grounded theory, the author has chosen Straussian approac h as the qualitative data analysis method in her research due to the following reasons: i) this research did not use comparative methods in the development and understanding of grounded theory as introduced by Glaser (2001); ii) to construct a theory by looking at the perceptions of the participants, analysis of the data and to understand what they tell or the participants realities; iii) Strauss views on human beings as the active agents in their lives and brought notions for human agency, emergent processes, social and subjective meanings, problem-solving and the open-ended study of action to grounded theory (Charmaz, 2007). Moreover, qualitative approach adopted in this research also seeks answers to a question, uncovers social behavior, and understands the interaction between organizations and technology that produces findings which are not determined in advance. Qualitative enquiry examines data which are narrative and non-numeric that emphasize on the qualities of entities, on process and meanings that are not experimentally examined or measured in terms of quantity, amount, intensity or frequency (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). Cassel and Symon (2004) cited that qualitative research is used when researchers would like to understand a circumstance in terms of how and why it occurs. The aim of qualitative methodology is to described and analyze the culture and behavior of humans and their groups from the point of view of those being studied and to collect and analyze data which is uncountable (Cassell and Symon, 2004). In this research, enterprise systems innovation is an emerging issue in the business en vironment. The unique characteristics of the system, for example, a system for data analysis and reporting that provides managers with better analytical and reporting functions which enable them to make intelligent decisions for strategic positioning should be discovered. In view of the above, interpretive research has gained increasing acceptance in the information technology research (Sahay, 1997; Klein and Myers, 1999) as it focuses on producing an understanding of the context of the information systems and the process whereby the information systems influence and is influenced by the context (Walsham, 1993). Therefore, the rationale for choosing the qualitative methodology and grounded theory approach in this research is again reflected to the purpose of the study. 5.0 DATA AND METHOD In this research, grounded theory was developed through data obtained from case studies, involving two private sector companies in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The selection of companies were based on recent technologies adopted in the organizations such as SAP systems and these companies were classified as among the active users of the enterprise application systems. The purpose of using case study as a method of data collection is because the researcher would like to achieve deeper understanding on the process within and outside of the context. According to Yin (1994), data collection for case study may come in a variety of sources for examples documents, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant-observation and physical artefacts and in-depth interviews are the most important source of case study information (Yin, 1994). The strength of an interview is that it focuses directly on the topic to be discovered (i.e the enterprise systems innovation and accountants invol vement in determining the business and information strategy of an organization, as opposed to survey method). Glaser (2001) stated that grounded theory is mainly used for qualitative research. However, when combining methods like grounded theory and case study as data collection method, the utmost care must be exercised to ensure that the norms of case study research do not distort true emergence for theory generation (Glaser, 1998). For example, Yin (1994) stated that theory development prior to the collection of any case study data is an essential step in doing case studies. Based on the statement addressed by Yin (1994), it contravenes from the principle of grounded theory whereby data collection and analysis as a procedure on theory development. Therefore, when combining grounded theory and case study as a way of collecting data, the methodology driving the investigation should be clearly specified. In view of the above, grounded theory was used as an overall methodology to study data obtained from case studies and to drive data acquisition activities within the case study. Indeed, the reasons for using the grounded theory approach were consistent with the three main reasons suggested by Benbasat (1987) for using a case study strategy in information systems research as follows: i) The research can study information systems in a natural setting, learn the state of the art, and generate theories from practice; ii) The researcher can answer the questions that lead to an understanding of the nature and complexity of the processes taking place; and iii) It is an appropriate way to research a previously little studied area. For these reasons, seeking to generate theory grounded in case study data was a particularly appropriate strategy in this research. Table 1 provides some detailed information about the cases. The interviews were held with Chief Financial Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Finance Manager, Accountants and Information Technology Officer. Interviewees were selected to ensure both varieties across disciplines and consistency across cases. They were also selected on the basis that each had an important role with respect to enterprise systems innovations and accountants involvement in making the implementation a success. Meanwhile, the sampling technique used in this research was purposeful sampling. Patton (1990) stated that a qualitative inquiry typically focuses in depth on relatively small samples and uses purposeful sampling, as opposed to quantitative methods that typically depend on larger samples selected randomly. Patton (1990) added that the logic and power of purposeful sampling, is that one can learn a great deal about issues of central importance to the purpose of the research. The unit of analysis in this research is the organizations and holistic (according to Yin 1994, holistic is a single unit of analysis). The selection of organizations as unit of analysis instead of individuals, dyads or groups is to ensure that the answers to research question will be achieved. In this research, literal replication and multiple cases with holistic design were used to allow for more generalizability and transferability rather than the single case design. The reason of selecting literal replication was due to the researchers wishes to obtain as much information as possible in investigating the phenomenon of enterprise systems innovations and the accountants involvement in determining the business and information strategy of an organization until no new information emerges. The appropriate sample size for qualitative research was answered by ‘theoretical saturation (Glaser Strauss, 1967; Strauss Corbin, 1998). Theoretical saturation, according to Glaser Strauss (1967) and Strauss Corbin (1998), occurs when no new or relevant data seems to emerge regarding a category where the category is well developed in terms of its properties and dimensions demonstrating variation and the relationships among categories are well established and validated (Strauss Corbin, 1998). A schedule of interviewees is provided in Table II. In total, six interviews were undertaken. The interviews lasted about fourty five minutes to an hour on an average. Each interview was preceded by a brief explanation on the purpose of the research and the broad area of interest. The key instruments that were used for collecting evidence were open-ended questions and were asked in a naturalistic manner. These were designed to draw participants interpretations of their day to day actions as they affected and were affected by their perceptions on enterprise systems innovations and the accountants involvement in ensuring the business and information strategy of an organization. With the consent from the interviewees, all interviews were tape-recorded. Tape recording helps to prevent the researcher from being too occupied writing notes during the interview so that the researcher could concentrate on the issues discussed (Yin, 1994). Short notes during the interviews were taken and six i nterviews were transcribed. Table I: Company Profiles Table II: Interviewee Details 6.0 DATA ANALYSIS Using Strauss and Corbins (1990) approach, data was analyzed through various stages of coding to produce an ordered data set which was integrated into a theory. The process of deriving the categories from the interviews was driven by the criteria of open, axial and selective coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Open coding is the early conceptual names assigned to data fragments (Lockee, 2001) and is the process of selecting and naming categories from the analysis of the data. This initial stage of data acquisition would describe the overall features of the phenomenon under study. In this research, the categories emerged from the open coding of interview were identified mostly through line by line analysis. Variables involved in the phenomenon were then identified, labeled and categorized in an outline form so that the researcher could see and understand the processes. To ensure the internal consistency, the emerging categories were compared between interviewees and notes being taken. The next step of coding process is axial coding. According to Strauss and Corbin (1990), axial coding is the process that relates the categories to subcategories. In axial coding, data were put together in new ways and this was achieved by utilizing a coding paradigm (i.e. a system of coding that seeks to identify causal relationships between categories). The aim of the coding paradigm is to make explicit connections between categories and sub-categories. This process is often referred to as the ‘paradigm model and involves explaining and understanding relationships between categories in order to understand the phenomenon to which they relate (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The final procedure was the process of selective coding. Selective coding involves the process of selecting and identify Benefits of Technological Innovation in Business Benefits of Technological Innovation in Business 1.0 INTRODUCTION Advances in information systems and technology (IS/IT) are re1garded as major sources of improvement in the competitive position of firms and industries (Mitropoulos and Tatum, 2000). However, the benefits from technological advances depend on the extent to which these technologies are utilized. Indeed, information is becoming critically important in achieving strategic competitive advantage, particularly in todays competitive environment (Claudia, 2005). This proclamation has led organizations to adopt the most advanced enterprise technology to innovate for a change because organizations that maximize and leverage their information assets have a strategic advantage over their competitors (Claudia, 2005). The ability to speed up making decisions, improving operations performance, managing customer profitability as well as increasing the level of control to management are the core benefits to be considered by decision makers when implementing IT/IS. The rapid emergence of enterprise systems has made applications such as enterprise resource technology (ERP) to be among the most popular technologies used in the industries. Despite its importance to decision makers and also researchers in discovering how the emergence of enterprise systems contributes to organizational performance, there is uncertainty about IT payoff and accountants involvement in determining business and information strategy of an organization. The typical judgmental by organizations on investments of IS/IT is always to battle competition by improving productivity, profitability and quality of operations. Hence, to understand the organizations decisions to innovate always remain as the critical topic of discussion among IS/IT scholars particularly when it relates to the perceptions of accountants as the internal provider of information. Historically, organizational innovations were distinguished process from product innovations (Zmud, 1982; Robey, 1986; Swanson, 1994) and further differentiated between administrative and technological process innovations (Robey, 1986; Swanson 1994). Accountants play a significant role as the internal provider of information for business operations and for competitive positions in the market. Accountants are also described as the gatekeeper of the financial markets (Wallman, 1995). Without information expertise of accountants, businesses would not be able to evaluate their cost and profit position, gauge product or business unit performance or to plan for future financial success (Brecht and Martin, 1996). Traditionally, accountants were trapped on standard financial reporting or financial-related information and having historical orientation (Mia, 1993) to support management in making decisions. However, as information technologies grow more advanced and competitive pressure for innovation increased, the responsibility of accountants to furnish decision makers with valuable information in making intelligent decision becomes very crucial. Therefore, accountants must quickly response to this evolving information environment to mak e sure on the efficient business, information strategy and competitive positions in the industry Most of prior researches have extensively addressed and explained the phenomenon about IS/IT innovation (Rogers, 1983), the perspective of users acceptance of new technology (Davis, 1986) and its impact on organizational competitive advantage (Barney, 1991). Indeed, there are various literatures on IS/IT acceptance among researchers (Gallivan, 2001; Rogers, 2003; Swanson and Ramiller, 2004; Zhu, Kraemer and Xu, 2006) and IT-payoff (Brynjolfsson, 1996; Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj and Konsynski, 2000; Devaraj and Kohli, 2000). However, interdisciplinary research between two different schools of thought that discussed issues on information technology and accounting has been given less attention to date. Hence, this research is intended to discover, understand and explain the basis for enterprise systems innovation and accountants involvement in determining the information and business strategy of an organization. In this case, a grounded theory approach is adopted with the aim to explore the o pportunities for accountants to contribute on enterprise systems innovation that leads to the following research questions: What drives organizations innovate for the latest technology? How does it give impact on competitive position of an organization? 2.0 THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS The evolution of enterprise systems began in the 1950s as inventory control systems (Yen, Chou and Chang, 2001), where the manufacturing systems main focus was to handle inventory control in order to replace the traditional inventory concept. Later, bookkeeping, invoicing and reordering have been introduced to support business operations and management (Yen et al., 2001). Material requirement planning (MRP) was then developed in the 1960s with an objective to translate the master production schedule into requirements of raw material planning and procurement. Subsequently, manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) has evolved into a more advanced system with the objective to optimize the production process and distribution management (Yen et al. 2001). It has been extended to include areas such as corporate finance, personnel management, engineering process and business process management. The robust development of MRP II has encouraged IT experts to develop more advanced technologies such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply-chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM) over some period of time to leverage information about strategic enterprise management, improving operations performance, managing customer profitability, human resource and supply chain information and improving direct/indirect business process (William and William, 2003). These technologies are more sophisticated and efficient in handling multiple business units such as sales and operations planning, inventory/materials management, manufacturing, purchasing, order processing, accounting and finance, human resources, customer relationship management, supply chain management and more. However, due to some limitations particularly in analytical decision-making, these systems could not facilitate the decision support function (Chou et al., 2005). In the 1990s, much adoption of IS/IT was focused on the enterprise systems. The benefits over decisions to adopt IS/IT are basically on cost reduction, transactional efficiency, internal process management, back and front end process automation and transactional status visibility. As businesses continue to use enterprise systems for a growing number of functions, they face the challenge of processing and analyzing huge amount of data into intelligent decision-making. Although current enterprise systems could integrate business transactions data for organizational planning, essentially, it would not support management particularly on analytical and decision support process. The changing of business requirements, new technologies and the software vendors development capabilities has enforced the enterprise applications continue to emerge. The emergence of Business Intelligence (BI) tools in the early 2000s, where its main function is to extract valuable information from existing enterp rise systems, is anticipated to improve organizational performance and competitive advantage (Davis, 2002) and with its capability in conveying intelligent decisions for decision makers (Buytendijk, 2001; Golfareelli and Cella, 2004). Hence, the relevant and suitability of enterprise systems innovation towards competitive position of a firm remain favourable topics of discussion between scholars as it reflects IT-payoff or return on investment of an organization. 3.0 PRIOR RESEARCH The literature provides different definitions of innovations: Rogers (1976) defines innovation as an idea, practice or object perceived as new by an individual or other relevant unit of adoption which is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. Tornatzky and Klein (1982) define it as an idea, practice or material artifact perceived to be new by the relevant unit of adoption. Swanson (1994) defines information system innovation as innovation in the organizational application of digital computer and communications technologies. Swanson (1994) added that organizational innovation refers to the adoption of an idea or behavior that is new to the organization that is adopting it (Daft, 1978). It is further defined as the first or early use of an idea by one set of organizations with similar goals (Becker and Whisler, 1967, quoted by Daft, 1978). Meanwhile, in the year 2000s scholars have defined information system innovation as: Gordon and Tarafdar (2007) describe that innovation process comprised of three broad stages: initiation, development and implementation (Damanpour, 1991; Utterback, 1971; Zmud, 1982). Initiation involves activities leading to an organizations decision to adopt or attempt to adopt an innovation. Motivation could be poor financial or operational performance (Kanter, 1982; Tushman and OReilly, 1997), internal self-criticism combined with a strategic focus on proactive business innovation (Nonaka, 1988; Tushman and Nadler, 1986). Development involves design and development of product and process innovations planned in the initiation stage. This stage has activities such as idea generation and problem solving (Tushman and OReilly, 1997), rapid information process and fast decision making (Eisenhardt and Tabrizi, 1995), new information is acquired from competitors (Tushman and OReilly, 1997) and customers (Drucker, 1998) and connected with existing knowledge (Galbraith, 1982) to create new product/processes. Implementation involves activities surrounding the adoption and assimilation of innovations designed and developed during the ‘development stage. Process and product redesign leads to changes in different processes and control systems (Davenport, 1993), effective and reasonably strict control systems are required for efficiently accomplishing the administration and co-ordination activities necessary for implementation of the innovation (Galbraith, 1982). Innovating with IT, according to Swanson and Ramiller (2004), is a journey that involves four core processes: comprehension, adoption, implementation, and assimilation. First, organizations collect and interpret information from their environments about the existence and basic idea of an IT innovation. Second, this comprehension effort informs organizations decisions on whether to adopt the innovation, plus the articulation of supporting rationales. Third, where adoption is actually pursued, the innovation is deployed—hardware and software are installed, business processes are changed, users are trained, and so on. Fourth, in due course the innovation becomes assimilated into the routines of organizational work systems. Wang and Ramiller (2009) further define IT innovation as an information technology perceived as new by the adopting organization (Rogers 2003; Swanson 1994). Their perspective on innovation is oriented towards adopters and organizations innovate with IT by appl ying new IT to their business processes. Therefore, in this research, enterprise systems innovation could be defined as enterprise systems that comprised an integrated planning and resource management system that coordinates information across all enterprise functions (Bendoly et al, 2008) and the capability of the systems to provide valuable information for managements in determining the business and information strategy of an organization. In recent years, there are a number of researches that examine the organizational adoption of IS/IT, IT payoff and its impact on organizational performance. IT adoption contributes to various competing models that have been tested in several industries (either services or non-services) and are different in terms of methodological approach, conceptual models and constructs, such as a research model on user acceptance of citation database interface (Lin et.al, 2009), mobile wireless (Kim et.al, 2009; Qi et.al, 2009), internet banking (Lee, 2009a), online trading (Lee, 2009b) and more. Indeed, there are various literatures on IT adoption and acceptance among researchers (Gallivan, 2001; Rogers, 2003; Swanson et.al, 2004; Zhu, Kraemer and Xu, 2006, Qi et al, 2009; Kim and Garrison, 2009) and IT-payoff (Brynjolfsson, 1996; Bharadwaj et. al, 2000; Devaraj et. al, 2000). Within this broad area of investigation, there are several streams of research. One stream of research focuses on individ ual acceptance of technology by using behavioural intention as a dependent variable (e.g Davis et.al, 1989; Bhattacherjee, 2001; Bhacttacherjee and Premkumar, 2004; Zhu et.al, 2006). The other streams have focused on implementation success at the organizational levels (Grover, 1998; Karahanna et.al, 1999) and task technology fit (Goodhue and Thompson, 1995). However, due to the nature of the research designs employed, these streams of research have not attributed the effect of usefulness of information from enterprise systems innovation and its impact on organizational performance. Furthermore, scholars have documented many studies that examine the relationship between investments in technology and its payoff in terms of enhanced organizational performance (Brynjolfsson and Yang, 1996; Kohli and Devaraj, 2003). There is evidence that there are significant differences among studies in terms of the level of analyses, methodologies employed, variables and contexts examined. Many economic studies (Roach, 1987; Morrision and Berndt, 1991) observed a negative relationship between technology-related variables and performance. At the industry level, the results were mixed with some studies documenting a positive impact of technological investment (Kelley, 1994; Siegel and Griliches, 1992) while other studies by Berdnt and Morrison (1995) and Koski (1999) detect no significant advantage to IT investment. At a more detailed organizational level, Diewert and Smith (1994), Hitt and Brynjolfsson (1995) and Dewan and Min (1997) present results indicating a positive relations hip between technology and performance. In this research, information use is tightly related to the technology that provides access to such information. The limitations of the enterprise systems as well as resource constraints on managerial time devoted to information search such as accessing, understanding, transforming and consolidating the information would give the impact on how effectively information use can be converted into strategic results (Bendoly and Cotteleer, 2008). Indeed, IS/IT research concerned with how to design more useful IS for organization (Legris, Ingham and Collerette, 2003; Elbeltagi, 2005; Jeyaraj, Rottman and Lacity, 2006). However, a useful IS/IT is not one that is simply used by individuals or organizations or the one that possesses specific desirable characteristics (such as output information quality, functionality or interface structure). Rather a useful IS/IT is one which can and does support collective action through the nature of the relationship between technological attributes, individ ual users and organizationally situated tasks (Diez and McIntosh, 2008). Consequently, many prior researchers have struggled to show the direct impact of IT with other disciplines such as accounting on organizational performance. However, several recent studies have shown that the fit between accounting and IT has significant impact on performance (Chan et al, 1991; Cragg et al, 2002) where firms that consider their IT strategy with business strategy perform better than those who do not. Raymond et al (1995) found that firms that align their organizational structure and IT structure also perform better than firms that do not. In another study, Bergeron et al. (2001) found that fit between strategic orientation, organizational structure, and strategic IT management had an impact on firm performance. The issues of matching information requirements and enterprise systems capabilities and also the impact of this matching on performance are important questions which are part of a general debate in accounting information system field (e.g. Galbraith, 1973; Tush man and Nadler, 1978; Van de Ven and Drazin, 1985). Accountants are the internal providers of information to decision makers and accountants must adapt to the competitive pressure and increase their ability to leverage information assets in order to contribute for more effectively to managerial decision making. Therefore, as IS/IT grows more advanced, accountants must react quickly to the changes and need to create and apply non-financial information to achieve organizational performance. Hence, this research will discover the impact of usefulness of information through enterprise system innovation and to investigate the accountants involvement in determining the information strategy of an organization. 4.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The classification of this research is mainly a grounded theory approach as it seeks to understand and explain social phenomenon related to the involvements of accountants on enterprise system innovations in determining the business and information strategy of an organization. This research is not to predict as used by positivists or just to have a subjective explanation or interpretation, but this research is expected to come out with unique explanations that constitute to the theory building and/or to come out with a variation of existing theories for modification to be able to fit into the context of the phenomenon of interest. In order to discover the ontological and epistemological aspects of the social inquiry, the method used in this research is important to be realized. In this study, the epistemology adopted is interpretivism and the qualitative research methodology is used to generate explanations on the phenomenon under study. Grounded theory was first developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and could be best defined as a qualitative research method that uses a systematic set of procedures to develop and inductively derive grounded theory about a phenomenon (Strauss Corbin, 1990). In such a way, grounded theory is suggested to be inductive rather than deductive. Basically, the purpose of grounded theory is to organize many ideas from analysis of the data (Strauss, 1967) and to build a theory that is faithful to and justified the area under study (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The theory developed is not necessarily intended to stand-alone but could be related to existing theories within a field and therefore it will strengthen the current understandings of the phenomena in question. Strauss (1967) summarized grounded theory procedures as the systematic analysis of documents, interview notes or field notes by continually coding and comparing data that produced a well-constructed theory. Hence, Strauss and Corb in (1994) noted that the major difference between this methodology and other approaches to qualitative research was its emphasis upon theory development. Although the collaboration works between Glaser and Strauss have contributed to the development of grounded theory, they show some differences on the epistemological aspects between them (Glaser, 1978, 1992; Strauss, 1987; Strauss Corbin, 1990), which have resulted in the ‘Straussian and ‘Glaserian models (Stern, 1994). The Glaserian approach on qualitative data analysis was said to have the preconceptions or positive perspective on doing grounded theory while Straussian approach has a realistic epistemology into empirical inquiry through grounded theory. Furthermore, Glaserian beliefs were to be more positivism about the objective and external reality, while Straussian beliefs were based on the assumption of having an unbiased position in collecting data and use certain technical procedures to ensure the participants express their own perception (Glaser, 1992; Strauss Corbin, 1990). Based on these two beliefs of grounded theory, the author has chosen Straussian approac h as the qualitative data analysis method in her research due to the following reasons: i) this research did not use comparative methods in the development and understanding of grounded theory as introduced by Glaser (2001); ii) to construct a theory by looking at the perceptions of the participants, analysis of the data and to understand what they tell or the participants realities; iii) Strauss views on human beings as the active agents in their lives and brought notions for human agency, emergent processes, social and subjective meanings, problem-solving and the open-ended study of action to grounded theory (Charmaz, 2007). Moreover, qualitative approach adopted in this research also seeks answers to a question, uncovers social behavior, and understands the interaction between organizations and technology that produces findings which are not determined in advance. Qualitative enquiry examines data which are narrative and non-numeric that emphasize on the qualities of entities, on process and meanings that are not experimentally examined or measured in terms of quantity, amount, intensity or frequency (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). Cassel and Symon (2004) cited that qualitative research is used when researchers would like to understand a circumstance in terms of how and why it occurs. The aim of qualitative methodology is to described and analyze the culture and behavior of humans and their groups from the point of view of those being studied and to collect and analyze data which is uncountable (Cassell and Symon, 2004). In this research, enterprise systems innovation is an emerging issue in the business en vironment. The unique characteristics of the system, for example, a system for data analysis and reporting that provides managers with better analytical and reporting functions which enable them to make intelligent decisions for strategic positioning should be discovered. In view of the above, interpretive research has gained increasing acceptance in the information technology research (Sahay, 1997; Klein and Myers, 1999) as it focuses on producing an understanding of the context of the information systems and the process whereby the information systems influence and is influenced by the context (Walsham, 1993). Therefore, the rationale for choosing the qualitative methodology and grounded theory approach in this research is again reflected to the purpose of the study. 5.0 DATA AND METHOD In this research, grounded theory was developed through data obtained from case studies, involving two private sector companies in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The selection of companies were based on recent technologies adopted in the organizations such as SAP systems and these companies were classified as among the active users of the enterprise application systems. The purpose of using case study as a method of data collection is because the researcher would like to achieve deeper understanding on the process within and outside of the context. According to Yin (1994), data collection for case study may come in a variety of sources for examples documents, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant-observation and physical artefacts and in-depth interviews are the most important source of case study information (Yin, 1994). The strength of an interview is that it focuses directly on the topic to be discovered (i.e the enterprise systems innovation and accountants invol vement in determining the business and information strategy of an organization, as opposed to survey method). Glaser (2001) stated that grounded theory is mainly used for qualitative research. However, when combining methods like grounded theory and case study as data collection method, the utmost care must be exercised to ensure that the norms of case study research do not distort true emergence for theory generation (Glaser, 1998). For example, Yin (1994) stated that theory development prior to the collection of any case study data is an essential step in doing case studies. Based on the statement addressed by Yin (1994), it contravenes from the principle of grounded theory whereby data collection and analysis as a procedure on theory development. Therefore, when combining grounded theory and case study as a way of collecting data, the methodology driving the investigation should be clearly specified. In view of the above, grounded theory was used as an overall methodology to study data obtained from case studies and to drive data acquisition activities within the case study. Indeed, the reasons for using the grounded theory approach were consistent with the three main reasons suggested by Benbasat (1987) for using a case study strategy in information systems research as follows: i) The research can study information systems in a natural setting, learn the state of the art, and generate theories from practice; ii) The researcher can answer the questions that lead to an understanding of the nature and complexity of the processes taking place; and iii) It is an appropriate way to research a previously little studied area. For these reasons, seeking to generate theory grounded in case study data was a particularly appropriate strategy in this research. Table 1 provides some detailed information about the cases. The interviews were held with Chief Financial Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Finance Manager, Accountants and Information Technology Officer. Interviewees were selected to ensure both varieties across disciplines and consistency across cases. They were also selected on the basis that each had an important role with respect to enterprise systems innovations and accountants involvement in making the implementation a success. Meanwhile, the sampling technique used in this research was purposeful sampling. Patton (1990) stated that a qualitative inquiry typically focuses in depth on relatively small samples and uses purposeful sampling, as opposed to quantitative methods that typically depend on larger samples selected randomly. Patton (1990) added that the logic and power of purposeful sampling, is that one can learn a great deal about issues of central importance to the purpose of the research. The unit of analysis in this research is the organizations and holistic (according to Yin 1994, holistic is a single unit of analysis). The selection of organizations as unit of analysis instead of individuals, dyads or groups is to ensure that the answers to research question will be achieved. In this research, literal replication and multiple cases with holistic design were used to allow for more generalizability and transferability rather than the single case design. The reason of selecting literal replication was due to the researchers wishes to obtain as much information as possible in investigating the phenomenon of enterprise systems innovations and the accountants involvement in determining the business and information strategy of an organization until no new information emerges. The appropriate sample size for qualitative research was answered by ‘theoretical saturation (Glaser Strauss, 1967; Strauss Corbin, 1998). Theoretical saturation, according to Glaser Strauss (1967) and Strauss Corbin (1998), occurs when no new or relevant data seems to emerge regarding a category where the category is well developed in terms of its properties and dimensions demonstrating variation and the relationships among categories are well established and validated (Strauss Corbin, 1998). A schedule of interviewees is provided in Table II. In total, six interviews were undertaken. The interviews lasted about fourty five minutes to an hour on an average. Each interview was preceded by a brief explanation on the purpose of the research and the broad area of interest. The key instruments that were used for collecting evidence were open-ended questions and were asked in a naturalistic manner. These were designed to draw participants interpretations of their day to day actions as they affected and were affected by their perceptions on enterprise systems innovations and the accountants involvement in ensuring the business and information strategy of an organization. With the consent from the interviewees, all interviews were tape-recorded. Tape recording helps to prevent the researcher from being too occupied writing notes during the interview so that the researcher could concentrate on the issues discussed (Yin, 1994). Short notes during the interviews were taken and six i nterviews were transcribed. Table I: Company Profiles Table II: Interviewee Details 6.0 DATA ANALYSIS Using Strauss and Corbins (1990) approach, data was analyzed through various stages of coding to produce an ordered data set which was integrated into a theory. The process of deriving the categories from the interviews was driven by the criteria of open, axial and selective coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Open coding is the early conceptual names assigned to data fragments (Lockee, 2001) and is the process of selecting and naming categories from the analysis of the data. This initial stage of data acquisition would describe the overall features of the phenomenon under study. In this research, the categories emerged from the open coding of interview were identified mostly through line by line analysis. Variables involved in the phenomenon were then identified, labeled and categorized in an outline form so that the researcher could see and understand the processes. To ensure the internal consistency, the emerging categories were compared between interviewees and notes being taken. The next step of coding process is axial coding. According to Strauss and Corbin (1990), axial coding is the process that relates the categories to subcategories. In axial coding, data were put together in new ways and this was achieved by utilizing a coding paradigm (i.e. a system of coding that seeks to identify causal relationships between categories). The aim of the coding paradigm is to make explicit connections between categories and sub-categories. This process is often referred to as the ‘paradigm model and involves explaining and understanding relationships between categories in order to understand the phenomenon to which they relate (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The final procedure was the process of selective coding. Selective coding involves the process of selecting and identify