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Copyright Notice: This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted or mass reproduced without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.


N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, M. Maragoudakis, Predicting firms’ resilience to economic crisis using artificial intelligence for optimizing economic stimulus programσ, Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 2023, (to_appear), , indexed in SCI-E, IF =
 

Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to develop a methodology for predicting the resilience of individual firms to economic crisis, using historical government data to optimize one of the most important and costly interventions that governments undertake, the huge economic stimulus programs that governments implement for mitigating the consequences of economic crises, by making them more focused on the less resilient and more vulnerable firms to the crisis, which have the highest need for government assistance and support. Design/methodology/approach – The authors are leveraging existing firm-level data for economic crisis periods from government agencies having competencies/ responsibilities in the domain of economy, such as Ministries of Finance and Statistical Authorities, to construct prediction models of the resilience of individual firms to the economic crisis based on firms’ characteristics (such as human resources, technology, strategies, processes and structure), using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques from the area of machine learning (ML). Findings – The methodology has been applied using data from the Greek Ministry of Finance and Statistical Authority about 363 firms for the Greek economic crisis period 2009–2014 and has provided a satisfactory prediction of a measure of the resilience of individual firms to an economic crisis. Research limitations/implications – The authors’ study opens up new research directions concerning the exploitation of AI/ML in government for a critical government activity/intervention of high importance that mobilizes/ spends huge financial resources. The main limitation is that the abovementioned first application of the proposed methodology has been based on a rather small data set from a single national context (Greece), so it is necessary to proceed to further application of this methodology using larger data sets and different national contexts. Practical implications – The proposed methodology enables government agencies responsible for the implementation of such economic stimulus programs to proceed to radical transformations of them by predicting the resilience to economic crisis of the firms applying for government assistance and then directing/focusing the scarce available financial resources to/on the ones predicted to be more vulnerable, ιncreasing substantially the effectiveness of these programs and the economic/social value they generate. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first application of AI/ML in government that leverages existing data for economic crisis periods to optimize and increase the effectiveness of the largest and most important and costly economic intervention that governments repeatedly have to make: the economic stimulus programs for mitigating the consequences of economic crises.

E. Loukis, M. Maragoudakis, N. Kyriakou, Artificial Intelligence based Public Data Analytics for Economic Crisis Policy Making, Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, 2020, Emerald, (to_appear), indexed in SCI-E
 

Abstract
Purpose: Public sector has started exploiting artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, however mainly for operational and to a lower extent for tactical level tasks. The purpose of this study is to exploit AI for the highest strategic level task of government: to develop an AI-based public sector data analytics methodology for supporting policy-making for one of the most serious and large-scale challenges that governments repeatedly face: the economic crises giving rise to economic recessions (though the proposed methodology has much wider applicability) Design/Methodology/Approach: A public sector data analytics methodology has been developed, which enables the exploitation of existing public and private sector data, through advanced processing of them using a big data oriented AI technique, ‘all-relevant’ feature selection, in order to identify characteristics of firms and their external environment that affect (positively or negatively) their resilience to economic crisis. Findings: A first application of the proposed public sector data analytics methodology has been conducted, using Greek firms’ data concerning the economic crisis period 2009-2014, which has led to interesting conclusions and insights, revealing some factors that affect the extent of sales revenue decrease in Greek firms during the above crisis period, and providing a first validation of our methodology. Research Implications: Our research contributes to the advancement of two emerging highly important for the society, but minimally researched, digital government research domains: public sector data analytics (and especially policy analytics) and government exploitation of AI. It exploits an AI feature selection algorithm, the Boruta ‘all-relevant’ variables identification one, which has been minimally exploited in the past for public sector data analytics, in order to support the design of public policies for addressing one of the most serious and large-scale economic challenges that governments repeatedly face: the economic crises. Practical Implications: The proposed methodology allows the identification of characteristics of firms and their external environment that affect positively or negatively their resilience to economic crisis. This enables a better understanding of the kinds of firms that are more strongly hit by the crisis, which is quite useful for the design of public policies for supporting them; and at the same time reveals firms’ resources, capabilities and practices that enhance their ability to cope with economic crisis, in order to design policies for promoting them through educational and support activities. Social Implications: This methodology can be very useful for the design of more effective public policies for reducing the negative impacts of economic crises on firms, and therefore mitigating their negative consequences for the society, such as unemployment, poverty and social exclusion. Originality/Value: Our research develops a novel approach to the exploitation of public and private sector data, based on a minimally exploited for such purposes AI technique (‘all-relevant’ feature selection), in order to support the design of public policies for addressing one of the most threatening disruptions that modern economies and societies repeatedly face the economic crises.

N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, Do Strategy, Processes, Personnel and Technology Affect Firm’s Propensity to Adopt Cloud Computing? – An Empirical Investigation., Journal of Enterprise Information Management , 2019, Emerald, (to_appear), indexed in SCI-E
 

Abstract
Purpose – Previous empirical research on Cloud Computing (CC) adoption factors has examined the effects of only a small number of firm’s characteristics on CC adoption, and this has resulted in a limited understanding about firm’s internal conditions that favor and promote it. So, the research objective of this paper is to investigate empirically the effects of a wide set of firm’s characteristics, which concern four important aspects of it, its strategy, processes, personnel, and technology, on the propensity to adopt CC. Design/Methodology/Approach – Having as theoretical background the Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) theory of technological innovation adoption, in combination with Scott-Morton’s framework on firm’s main elements, which is used for elaborating the organizational perspective of this theory, twelve research hypotheses have been developed based on previous CC and management literature. They were tested using data collected through the e-Business W@tch Survey of the European Commission from 676 European firms from three traditional manufacturing sectors. Findings – Our results reveal three characteristics of a firm that affect positively its propensity to adopt CC for all firm sizes: the adoption of ICT investment reduction strategy, the adoption of product/service innovation strategy and the sophistication of firm’s administration support ICT infrastructure. Furthermore, they reveal five additional characteristics of a firm that affect positively the propensity for CC adoption only in the small firms: the adoption of process innovation strategy, the employment of ICT personnel, as well as the sophistication of firm’s production support, e-sales and e-invoicing ICT infrastructures. Research implications/limitations – First, our study proposes a theoretical foundation for the elaboration of the organizational perspective of the TOE theory of technological innovation adoption, which opens a new stream of CC adoption factors research, investigating the effects of a wide range of firm’s characteristics on CC adoption. Second, our study enriches the empirical literature on CC adoption factors, by examining the effects of different kinds of strategies, processes and ICT infrastructures, and also of ICT personnel, which have not been examined in previous relevant empirical literature, on firm’s propensity for CC adoption. The main limitation of our study is that it has been based on data from only three European manufacturing sectors, so findings may have been influenced to some extent by this specific sectoral and national context. Practical implications - Our findings provide new interesting insights concerning specific firm’s characteristics and therefore internal conditions that increase its propensity for CC adoption, and reveal specific kinds of strategy, processes and ICT infrastructures for which CC is more appropriate and beneficial; these are also shedding light on the main aspects of CC usefulness - value potential perceived by firms, as well as the envisioned ways/forms of CC exploitation. These insights can be useful to both CC user firms, as well as CC provider firms, for supporting various CC related decisions. Originality/value – We have developed a theoretical foundation for extending our knowledge concerning the characteristics and internal conditions of firms that favor/promote the adoption of CC, which enables the substantial extension of the existing knowledge base on CC adoption factors, quite useful for both CC user and provider firms. Based on this theoretical foundation we have formulated and tested twelve research hypotheses concerning effects of firm’s strategic directions, processes, ICT infrastructures and ICT personnel, which have not been investigated previously, on CC adoption propensity; our findings provide interesting and practically relevant novel insights concerning kinds of strategy, processes and ICT infrastructures that favor/promote CC adoption, as well as the role of ICT personnel.

E. Loukis, S. Arvanitis, N. Kyriakou, An empirical investigation of the effects of firm characteristics on the propensity to adopt cloud computing, Infornation Systems and E-Business Management, Vol. 15, pp. 963-988, 2017, Springer, indexed in SCI-E
 

Abstract
Cloud computing (CC) is emerging as a new paradigm of resource acquisition and management of information and communication technologies (ICT) by firms, which can offer significant benefits, but at the same time can pose significant risks as well, so its adoption by firms has been lower than the initial expectations. Therefore, it is quite important to gain a better understanding of the factors affecting positively or negatively the adoption of CC. This paper presents an empirical investigation of the effects on a firm’s propensity to adopt CC of a set of firm characteristics referring to technological infrastructure, strategy, personnel skills, size and competition. Its conceptual foundation is the Technology, Organization and Environment theory of technological innovation adoption. Our study is based on data from 676 European manufacturing firms from the glass, ceramics and cement sectors, which have been collected through the e-Business Survey of the European Commission. The results indicate that in the above sectors ICT infrastructure sophistication has the strongest positive effect on CC adoption propensity among all examined firm characteristics. Furthermore, we have found that the existence of an ICT investment reduction strategy, the employment of specialized ICT personnel and the existence of previous experience of ICT outsourcing also have positive effects on a firm’s propensity to adopt CC. On the contrary, employees ICT skills, price and quality competition do not affect CC adoption propensity. Finally, our results also indicate that in the three examined sectors firm size has no significant influence on the propensity to adopt CC.

S. Arvanitis, N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, Why Do Firms Adopt Cloud Computing? A Comparative Analysis Based on South and North Europe Firm Data, Telematics and Informatics, Vol. 34, No. 7, pp. 1322-1332, 2017, Elsevier, indexed in SCI-E, IF = 3.789
 

Abstract
In this paper we empirically investigate and compare to what extent Northern and Southern European firms view cloud computing (CC) as a means of: (a) ICT investment reduction; (b) supporting and facilitating product/service innovation and process innova- tion; (c) experimenting with and exploiting new ICT; and (d) supporting and facilitating electronic innovation collaboration. This is done by estimating econometrically a model of CC adoption propensity containing measures of the four main adoption motives men- tioned above besides further variables that are associated with technology adoption and a series of controls for firm size, sector and country affiliation. Our study is based on a data- set collected through the e-Business W@tch Survey of the European Commission from 556 European firms from the glass, ceramic and cement sectors. These findings indicate that Southern European firms are mainly oriented towards ‘first-level’ cost (and especially investment) reduction related benefits from CC as well as from new emerging ICT, while on the contrary Northern European firms are mainly oriented towards ‘second-level’ trans- formation related benefits from CC, which are associated with support and facilitation of innovation and external collaboration.

E. Loukis, N. Kyriakou, K. Pazalos, S. Popa, Inter-Organizational Innovation and Cloud Computing, Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 379-401, 2017, Springer, indexed in SCI-E
 

Abstract
Firms are increasingly shifting from the ‘closed’ innovation paradigm, in which their innovation design and implementation activities were based on their own internal knowledge resources, skills and production facilities, towards the inter-organizational ‘open’ innovation paradigm, which is based to a significant degree on collaboration with other organizations, aiming at the exploitation of external knowledge resources, skills and production facilities as well. This paper investigates empirically the effects of firm’s inter-organizational collaboration for the design and implementation of innovations, and also use of ICT for supporting this collaboration, on firm’s propensity to adopt cloud computing (CC), and in this way it examines in an ‘objective’ manner to what extent firms regard CC as a cost effective means of supporting inter-organizational collaboration for the design and implementation of innovation. Our study is based on a dataset collected in the e-Business Survey of the European Commission from 676 European firms from the glass, ceramics and cement manufacturing sectors. It has been concluded that firms of these sectors regard CC as a cost effective means of supporting collaboration with other firms for the design of innovations in their products, services and processes, and also of reducing the costs and increasing the capabilities and flexibility of already existing electronic support of inter-organizational innovation design collaboration. Furthermore, our results indicate that firms find CC useful for the reduction of the costs and the increase of the capabilities and flexibility of their existing electronic support of the complex operations required for the inter-organizational implementation of innovations.

Conferences


Copyright Notice: This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted or mass reproduced without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.


E. Loukis, N. Kyriakou, Enhancing Firms’ Financial Support Decision-Making with Predictions of Technological Resilience to Economic Crises, 23st Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research DG.O 2022 , (ed), (eds), (to_appear), pp. 7, Jun, 2022, Virtual Event, ACM,
 

Abstract
Economic crises of different durations, intensities and geographic scopes are often appearing in market-based economies, while at the same time the economic stability periods become shorter. They have several negative impacts on firms, which include a decrease of their technological investments in various technological resources (e.g., production equipment, ICT, etc.). This can result in firms’ technological backwardness and obsolescence, and finally lower competitiveness and growth, or even threaten the survival of many firms. At the same time, economic crises can have some positive impacts on firms as well, as they put pressure on them to exploit more efficiently their resources by rationalizing and improving the relevant processes and practices they follow for using and exploiting their resources, including the technological ones, which can have positive impacts on their competitiveness and growth. Therefore, institutions that provide financial support to firms, such as government agencies (through various government firms’ financial support programs), banks (through the provision of various kinds of loans), and institutional investors, in their relevant decision-making should take into account not only criteria concerning firms’ economic performance during normal economically stable periods but also criteria concerning their ‘technological resilience’ (with respect to their main production technologies, ICT, etc.) during economic crises periods as well. This is important because low technological resilience in economic crisis periods can result in severe technological backwardness and obsolescence, and finally lower future competitiveness and growth, and even threaten their survival. This paper proposes a methodology for enhancing government agencies’, banks’ and, institutional investors’ decision-making concerning the financial support of firms by adding to pre-existing relevant criteria predictions of firms’ technological resilience to economic crises. Having as theoretical foundation the resources and capabilities theory from the strategic management domain, we view technological resilience as a two-dimensional concept, which consists of a) the extent of reduction of technological investments during economic crises, and b) the extent of rationalization and improvement of their technological resources’ exploitation processes and practices during economic crises. These predictions are based on existing data from government agencies (Statistical Authorities) which are used to construct relevant prediction models through artificial intelligence techniques from the area of machine learning. Also, an application of this methodology is described, which gives satisfactory results.

N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, I. Damianou, Social Media Use and Absorptive Capacity of Greek Food & Beverage Firms, 25th Pan-Hellenic Conference on Informatics, (ed), (eds), (to_appear), Nov, 2021, Volos, ,
 

Abstract
As the emergence of Web 2.0 and social media increasingly change our lives, all the extensive capabilities they offer are exploited by firms, using them to promote and advertise their products, to improve and strengthen their external communication with their customers, as well as the internal communication among firm’s employees, and even to improve their absorptive capacity, which is of critical importance for their innovativeness. Several different forms of social media use by firms, starting from simpler and advancing to more sophisticated ones, have been developed and are increasingly used by firms. The objective of this study is to understand the extent and the forms of social media usage by firms of the Greek food and beverage sector, which is one of the most important sectors of the Greek economy; and especially to examine to what extent are used the more sophisticated forms of social media use that can contribute to the improvement of firm’s absorptive capacity. Our research methodology is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques. We conduct semi-structured interviews with seven firms from the Greek food & beverage sector, which include questionnaire filling. From the analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data collected it has been concluded that these firms are unter-utilizing the potential of social media, using mainly the simpler forms of social media use, but not the more sophisticated ones, especially the ones that can improve their absorptive capacity.

N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, A. Papanikou, Economic Crisis and Enterprise Systems, 25th Pan-Hellenic Conference on Informatics, (ed), (eds), (to_appear), Nov, 2021, Volos,
 

Abstract
The enterprise systems (ES), such as ERP, CRM, and SCM ones, represent the highest and most mature form of electronic support of firms’ internal activities and co-operation with suppliers and customers. They can offer great benefits, however their implementation is costly and has significant difficulties and risks, which hinder their adoption. Therefore, research has been conducted concerning the factors that affect positively or negatively their adoption, however further research is required on this topic examining a wider range of factors. This paper contributes to filling this research gap by investigating the effect of a highly significant factor, which has not been examined in previous relevant literature, on the extent of ES adoption: the recessionary economic crises, which constitute the most critical disruptions that repeatedly occur in firms’ external environment with quite negative consequences. Furthermore, we compare this effect with the ones of several other factors, which according to previous literature affect firms’ innovation activity. Our study has been based on data collected from 363 Greek firms concerning the economic crisis period 2009-2014. Using these data, a comprehensive ES adoption model, based on the Technology, Organization, Environment (TOE) theory of technological innovation adoption, has been estimated, which includes as independent variables: a) three crisis-related factors that concern the main manifestations of economic crises, and b) some additional factors that have been identified by previous innovation research as promoting firms’ innovation activities, especially concerning technological innovations (ICT use, size, human capital, use of organic forms of organization, competition and sector). It has been concluded that none of the examined crisis-related factors affected the extent of ES adoption; on the contrary, we have found that it was some firm’s characteristics that affected it: size, ICT use, human capital and use of organic forms of organization, as well as the non-price competition.

N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, M. Chatzianastasiadis, Enterprise Systems, ICT Capabilities and Business Analytics Adoption – An Empirical Investigation, 17th European Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems (EMCIS 2020), Nov, 2020, Dubai, UAE, Springer Verlag
 

Abstract
Business Analytics (BA) has attracted great interest among firms of most sectors worldwide, as it enables a more advanced and valuable exploitation of firms’ data assets, beyond operations, for the supporting of decision-making. However, though numerous firms take some first steps in this area, most of them make limited use of BA in some of their activities, and cannot advance to a more extensive adoption of BA throughout their activities, so they do not exploit the full potential of it. For this reason, some first research has been conducted on BA adoption and factors affecting it, however more research is required on this topic. Our study makes a contribution to this research stream, by investigating empirically the effect of the extent of enterprise systems (such as ERP, CRM and SCM ones) adoption, as well as the degree of development of firm’s ICT capabilities, distinguishing between technological and management ones, on the extent of BA adoption. It has been based on the Technology, Organization and Environment (TOE) framework. We have used data collected from 363 Greek firms from both manufacturing and services sectors through a questionnaire, from which ordinal regression models are estimated. It has been concluded that both the adoption of enterprise systems, as well as the development of firm’s ICT capabilities, and especially the ICT management capabilities, affect positively the extent of BA adoption.

E. Loukis, N. Kyriakou, M. Maragoudakis, Using Government Data and Machine Learning for Predicting Firms’ Vulnerability to Economic Crisis, EGOV-CEDEM-EPART 2020, (ed), (eds), (to_appear), Sep, 2020, Linköping, Sweden, Springer Verlag,
 

Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to lead to a severe recessionary economic crisis with quite negative consequences for large numbers of firms and citizens; however, this is an ‘old story’: recessionary economic crises appear re-peatedly in the last 100 years in the market-based economies, and they are rec-ognized as one of the most severe and threatening weaknesses of them. They can result in closure of numerous firms, and decrease of activities of many more, as well as poverty and social exclusion for large parts of the population, and finally lead to political upheaval and instability; so they constitute one of the most threatening and difficult problems that governments often face. For the above reasons it is imperative that governments develop effective public policies and make drastic interventions for addressing these economic crises. Quite useful for these interventions can be the prediction of the vulnerability of individual firms to recessionary economic crisis, so that government can focus its attention as well as its scarce economic resources on the most vulnerable ones. In this direction our pa-per presents a methodology for using existing government data in order to predict the vulnerability of individual firms to economic crisis, based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. Furthermore, a first application of the proposed methodology is presented, based on existing data from the Greek Ministry of Finance and Statistical Authority concerning 363 firms for the economic crisis period 2009-2014, which gives encouraging results.

N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, P. Dimitropoulou, Factors Affecting Cloud Storage Adoption by Greek Municipalities, 13th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance – ICEGOV 2020, Sep, 2020, Athens, Greece
 

Abstract
The public sector in many countries is initially experimenting with and then adopting various forms of Cloud Computing (CC) services, in order to take advantage of the important benefits it can offer over the traditional ‘on-premises’ model concerning the electronic support of their operations. This study empirically investigates the extent of use of the simplest form of CC services, the Cloud Storage (CS), by the Greek Municipalities, as well as the factors that affect it. Our theoretical background is Rogers’ 'Diffusion of Innovation Theory'. The study is based on data collected through a questionnaire from 121 Greek Municipalities. The results of this study paint an encouraging picture: some important steps have been taken concerning the utilization of this technology by the Greek Municipalities, and also there are positive future trends. But at the same time, they indicate a rather defensive and conservative approach of the Greek Municipalities towards the adoption of CS. We have found that its adoption is mainly affected by the perceptions of the Municipalities about the level of threats that this technology poses (mainly the risks of loss, destruction or improper modification of their data), its compatibility with existing procedures, needs and culture, as well as its application complexity and difficulty. However, CS adoption does not seem to be affected by Municipalities’ perceptions about the extent of comparative advantages (in comparison with the traditional ‘on-premises’ model) it offers.

E. Loukis, M. Maragoudakis, N. Kyriakou, Economic Crisis Policy Analytics Based on Artificial Intelligence, EGOV-CEDEM-EPART 2019 Conference, Sep, 2019, San Benedetto Del Tronto, Italy, Springer Verlag
 

Abstract
An important trend in the area of digital government is its expansion beyond the support of internal processes and operations, as well as transactions and consultations with citizens and firms, which were the main objectives of its first generations, towards the support of higher-level functions of government agencies, with main emphasis on public policy making. This gives rise to the gradual development of policy analytics. Another important trend in the area of digital government is the increasing exploitation of artificial intelligence techniques by government agencies, mainly for the automation, support and enhancement of operational tasks and lower-level decision making, but only to a very limited extent for the support of higher-level functions, and especially policy making. Our paper contributes towards the advancement and the combination of these two important trends: it proposes a policy analytics methodology for the exploitation of existing public and private sector data, using a big data oriented artificial intelligence technique, feature selection, in order to support policy making concerning one of the most serious problems that governments face, the economic crises. In particular, we present a methodology for exploiting existing data of taxation authorities, statistical agencies, and also of private sector business information and consulting firms, in order to identify characteristics of a firm (e.g. with respect to strategic directions, resources, capabilities, practices, etc.) as well as its external environment (e.g. with respect to competition, dynamism, etc.) that affect (positively or negatively) its resilience to the crisis with respect to sales revenue; for this purpose an advanced artificial intelligence feature selection algorithm, the Boruta ‘all-relevant’ variables identification one, is used. Furthermore, an application of the proposed economic crisis policy analytics methodology is presented, which provides a first validation of the usefulness of our methodology.

N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, ICT Resources & Capabilities, Economic Crisis and CRM Adoption, 13th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS 2019), Sep, 2019, Naples, Italy, AIS,
 

Abstract
Firms are implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems not for reducing their operational costs and increasing their efficiency, as it happens with other kinds of infor-mation systems, but in order to offer better services to their customers and build better relation-ships with them. This fact stems from CRM’s customer facing nature, which is there to improve the relationship a firm has with its most valuable asset: the customers. However, there is limited research about the factors that lead firms to adopt CRM systems. This paper aims to contribute to filling this research gap, by investigating the effects of a wide range of factors on CRM adop-tion by firms; these factors include firm’s ICT resources and capabilities, and also the effects of a major disruption in the environment: economic crisis leading to recession. Our main theoreti-cal foundation is the Technology, Organization, Environment (TOE) theory of technological in-novation adoption. Based on data from 363 Greek firms CRM adoption models have been esti-mated, which indicate that the sophistication of firm’s ICT technological resources has a strong positive effect on CRM adoption, alongside two ICT capabilities: ICT strategic planning, and the rapid internal implementation of various interconnections/integrations of existing applications to achieve interoperability. Human capital, innovativeness and use of ‘organic’ forms of work organization (such as horizontal teamwork) are also important factors that affect positively CRM adoption. On the contrary, the effects of the economic crisis (decrease of domestic demand for products/services from businesses, individual customers and the public sector, reduction of credit limits by banks and non-payment or late payment by customers) do not have impact on CRM systems adoption.

E. Loukis, N. Kyriakou, Contractual and Relational Governance, ICT Skills and Organization Adaptations, and Cloud Computing Benefits, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Jan, 2018, Hawaii, Big Island,
 

Abstract
Cloud Computing (CC) has high potential to offer to firms important benefits, concerning both costs reduction, and in general efficiency improvements, as well as innovation facilitation and support. However, these benefits are not straightforward and auto-matically generated; their realization as well as their magnitude will depend on a variety of factors. Nevertheless, limited empirical research has been conducted in order to identify CC benefits’ determinants. This paper contributes to filling this research gap. It empirically investigates the effects of a) the contractual and relational governance of firm’s relationships with its CC services providers, and b) the adaptations of the skills of firm’s ICT personnel, as well as its internal ICT organization, to this new CC paradigm, on the magnitude of CC bene-fits. Our study uses data collected through a questionnaire from 115 Greek firms using CC services. It has been concluded that all the above four examined factors impact positively the benefits firms obtain from CC; the effect of the adaptation of the skills of firm’s ICT personnel is the strongest, followed by the effect of the relational governance.

N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, Hard and Soft ICT Capital and Cloud Computing Benefits, 11th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS 2017), Sep, 2017, Genova, Italy, AIS,
 

Abstract
The Cloud Computing (CC) is a new innovative model of sourcing the information and commu-nication technologies (ICT) services required by firms for supporting their activities, so it is nec-essary to investigate the level of benefits that CC offers to firms, as well as their determinants. However, limited empirical research has been conducted in this direction. Our paper contrib-utes to filling this research gap. It formulates a set of research hypotheses concerning the effects of firm’s ‘hard ICT capital’, and also some types of firm’s ‘soft ICT capital’, on the benefits of-fered by CC, having as theoretical foundation the ‘resource-based view’ theory. These research hypotheses are tested using data collected through a survey from 115 Greek firms, from which CC benefits regression models are estimated. It has been concluded that the sophistication of firm’s ICT infrastructure (an overall measure of firm’s hard ICT capital) has a positive impact on CC benefits. Furthermore, three of the examined types of soft ICT capital have been found to impact positively CC benefits: the information systems (IS) interconnection/integration capabil-ity, the ICT strategic planning and alignment capability, and the internal relationship between firm’s ICT unit and business units. Our findings reveal some aspects of firm’s ICT capital that affect the generation of value from this new innovative CC paradigm, which can be useful to CC service providers, and also management and ICT firms’ practitioners and consultants.

N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, Cloud Computing Business Value and Human Determinants – An Empirical Investigation, 21st Panhellenic Conference on Informatics (PCI 2017), Sep, 2017, Larisa, Greece,
 

Abstract
There are high expectations that cloud computing (CC) can generate sizeable business value (BV) for firms, which includes important benefits, associated with costs reduction, agility enhancement and innovation facilitation and support. However, limited empirical research has been conducted in this direction, in order to investigate to what extent these high expectations are fulfilled, as well as the level of business value that firms realize from CC, the magnitudes of the specific benefits that firms really obtain from it, and their determinants. Our paper contributes to filling this research gap. It investigates the effects of a set of human factors, which concern firm’s general human capital, ICT specific human capital, as well relevant relational capital, i.e. the relationship and co-operation between the personnel of the ICT unit and the personnel of the business units, on the BV generated by CC. our study has as theoretical foundation the ‘resource-based view’ of the firm theory. We have used data collected through a survey from 115 firms from technologically developed sectors of the Greek economy, from which a CC BV regression model has been estimated. It has been concluded that neither firm’s general human capital (quantified by the share of firm’s employees having tertiary-level formal education), nor its ICT human capital (quantified by the share of ICT employees), per se impact the BV generated by CC. On the contrary the relationship and co-operation between the ICT unit personnel and the business units’ personnel have a positive effect on the BV from CC usage. Our findings indicate that it is not the mere acquisition of human resources (highly educated business and ICT employees), but their utilization for the development of a capability for productive and effective co-operation and relation-ship among the ICT and business personnel, that can lead to higher levels of BV from CC usage.

N. Kyriakou, M. Maragoudakis, E. Loukis, M. Themistocleus, Prediction of Propensity for Enterprise Cloud Computing Adoption, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Jan, 2017, Hawaii, Big Island
 

Abstract
Cloud computing (CC) can offer significant benefits to enterprises. However, it can pose some risks as well, and this has led to a lower adoption than the initial expectations. For this reason, it would be very useful to predict which enterprises will exhibit a propensity for CC adoption. In this direction, we investigate the use of six well-established classifiers (fast large margin Support Vector Machine, Naive Bayes, Decision Tree, Random Forest, k-Nearest Neighbor, and Linear Regression) for the prediction of enterprise level propensity for CC adoption. Having as our theoretical foundation the Technology – Organization – Environment (TOE) framework, we are using for this purpose of set of technological (concerning enterprise information systems), organizational and environmental characteristics. Our first results, using a dataset of 676 manufacturing firms of the glass, ceramic and cement sectors from six European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, and UK), collected through the e-Business W@tch Survey of the European Commission, are encouraging. It is concluded that among the examined characteristics the technological ones, concerning enterprise systems, seem to be the most important predictors.

E. Loukis, S. Arvanitis, N. Kyriakou, A. Famelou, M. Chatzianastasiadis, F. Michailidou, ERP, e-Commerce, Social Media and Absorptive Capacity of Greek Firms - An Empirical Investigation, 20th Panhellenic Conference on Informatics (PCI2016), Nov, 2016, Patra, Greece
 

Abstract
The absorptive capacity (ACAP), defined as firm’s ability to identify useful knowledge in its external environment, assimilate it, transform it and finally apply it for achieving firm’s objectives, has become quite important for the survival and the achievement of high financial performance of firms, in the rapidly changing, competitive and ‘knowledge intensive’ modern economy. It has been recognized that information and communication technologies (ICT) can be quite useful for the enhancement of firm’s ACAP. However, there has been no empirical investigation of the effects of the various types of information systems (IS) currently used by firms, mainly for efficiency improvement purposes, on their ACAP. This paper makes a contribution towards filling this research gap, by empirically investigating and comparing the effects of the use of three important types of IS, the ERP and e-commerce ones, and also a recently emerged one, the social media (SM), on the ACAP of Greek firms. Our study is based on data collected through a survey from 122 Greek firms from both manufacturing and services sectors. It has been concluded that the use of ERP systems affects positively firms’ ACAP, while this does not hold for the e-commerce ones. Furthermore, the use of external and internal SM both affect positively the ACAP, with the effect of the former being the strongest among the three examined IS types.

E. Loukis, S. Arvanitis, N. Kyriakou, A. Famelou, M. Chatzianastasiadis, F. Michailidou, The Effects of Enterprise Systems on the Absorptive Capacity of Greek Firms, Tenth Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS), Sep, 2016, Paphos, Cyprus
 

Abstract
In the highly dynamic, competitive, complex and ‘knowledge intensive’ modern economy the exploita- tion and management of external knowledge has become of critical importance for the success of firms, and this has led to increasing interest of both researchers and practitioners in the concept of firm’s absorptive capacity (ACAP). It has been recognized that information and communication tech- nologies (ICT) can be quite useful for the improvement of firms’ ACAP. Some empirical research has been conducted in this direction, which however has not examined the role from this perspective of the most important ICT investments of firms: the different types of enterprise systems (ES) implemented by firms increasingly, which become critical infrastructures of their operation. This paper contributes to filling this research gap, by presenting an empirical investigation of the effects of the five most im- portant and widely used types of enterprise systems (ERP, CRM, SCM, business intelligence/business analytics and collaboration support systems) on the ACAP of Greek firms. It is based on data collect- ed through a survey from 122 Greek firms from both manufacturing and services sectors, which are used for the estimation of regression models of firm’s ACAP. It has been concluded that the use of three of the above types of ES, the ERP, the CRM and the business intelligence/business analytics ones, have positive effects on firm’s ACAP, which concern mainly two of its dimensions: the internal diffusion and analysis of external knowledge, and also the assimilation/integration in the knowledge base of the firm.

N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, S. Arvanitis, Enterprise Systems and Innovation - An Empirical Investigation, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) 2016, January 5-8 2016, Maui, Hawaii, Jan, 2016, Maui, Hawaii
 

Abstract
Information and communication technologies (ICT) have been initially used mainly for supporting or automating firms’ pre-existing business processes, in order to improve their efficiency. Subsequently it was realised that much more value can be generated from ICT if we exploit their great potential to drive innovations in firms’ products/services and processes. However, limited empirical research has been conducted concerning the effects of the many different types of enterprise systems (ES) that firms use on their innovation performance. This paper contributes in this direction. It investigates empirically and compares the effects of six important and widely used types of ES (ERP , CRM, e-sales, telework and collaboration support systems) on firms’ product/service and process innovation. Our study is based on a large dataset collected from 14.065 European firms through the e- Business Watch Survey of the European Commission, which has been used for estimating innovation models. We have been found that all examined types of ES have some positive effect on both product/service and process innovation; however, these effects differ in magnitude. Our results indicate that the e-sales are the strongest drivers of product/service innovation, followed by the CRM and external collaboration support systems; with respect to the process innovation the e-sales the strongest drivers of it as well, followed by the telework systems.

E. Loukis, N. Kyriakou, Cloud Computing Adoption Motivation in the European North and South, 9th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS 2015), Oct, 2015, Samos
 

Abstract
The European North-South divide has been one of the most important and widely debated problems of Europe for long time. The countries of the European South have for decades lower levels of economic and technological development and performance than the countries of the European North; though there has been a convergence between the European North and South for some time, recently, due to the economic crisis, this trend has stopped, and on the contrary a divergence is observed. It is widely recognized that in order to overcome this negative situation, and achieve a gradual convergence be- tween these two regions, it is important not only to cut wages and public expenditure in the European South (which has been the dominant approach so far), but also to make wider and better use of new technologies and boost innovation. This paper contributes in this direction, comparing empirically the European North and South with respect to one of the most important, innovative and disruptive new information and communication technologies (ICT): the cloud computing (CC). CC is emerging as a new paradigm of providing ICT support of firms’ and activities, which can not only reduce costs (es- pecially investments), but also enable the rapid and low cost experimentation with and exploitation of new emerging technologies, and also support and facilitate innovation and external collaboration. In particular, we empirically investigate and compare Northern and Southern European firms with re- spect not to the ‘quantity’ of CC use, but to its ‘quality’: their CC adoption motivations and orienta- tions. Our study has been based on a dataset collected through the e-Business W@tch Survey of the European Commission from 556 European firms from the glass, ceramic and cement sectors. It has been concluded that Southern European firms of the above sectors view CC as a means of reducing ICT investment, while Northern European ones view it as a means of supporting and facilitating prod- uct/service innovation, and also of reducing cost and increasing capabilities of their existing external electronic collaboration (with business partners and experts) for the development of innovations. Fur- thermore, both Northern and Southern European firms of the above sectors view CC as a means of experimentation with and exploitation of new emerging technologies.

N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, Firm Characteristics and Propensity for Cloud Computing Adoption, Twenty-first Americas Conference on Information Systems, Puerto Rico, 2015, Aug, 2015, Puerto Rico
 

Abstract
Cloud Computing (CC) is emerging as a new paradigm of providing IT support of firms’ processes and activities, which has a great potential to offer important benefits, but at the same time firms perceive that it poses some risks as well. Its adoption by firms has been lower than the initial expectations. So it is quite important to conduct research on its adoption by firms and identify factors that affect it positively or negatively. Our study makes a contribution in this direction by empirically investigating and comparing the effects of a wide range of firm characteristics, which concern firm’s strategy, processes, technology, personnel on the propensity to adopt CC. Its theoretical foundation the Leavitt’s Diamond framework. It has been based on a dataset collected through the e-Business W@tch Survey of the European Commission from 676 European firms from the glass, ceramic, cement and sectors. Our findings provide interesting insights as to the kind of firms for which the CC is perceived as more appropriate and beneficial.

E. Loukis, N. Kyriakou, K. Pazalos, Operational and Innovation Collaboration and Cloud Computing, European, Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems 2015 (EMCIS2015), Jun, 2015, Athens, Greece
 

Abstract
A major trend in the modern economy is the increasing collaboration among firms having complementary resources, both at the operational and at the product/service and process innovation level. At the same time another major trend in the area of information and communication technologies (ICT) is the emergence of cloud computing (CC), which changes radically the way firms access and use ICT for supporting their activities. It has been argued that there is an association between these two trends: that CC can significantly support and facilitate business collaboration at a low cost. However, there has been no empirical investigation of this association based on large datasets. This paper contributes to filling this research gap, by presenting an empirical investigation of the effects of firm’s operational and innovation collaboration with other firms, and also the use of ICT for supporting it, on firm’s propensity to adopt CC. It is based on a dataset collected in the e-Business Survey of the European Commission from 676 European firms from the glass, ceramics and cement industries. It has been concluded that innovation collaboration with other firms, and also the use of ICT for supporting it, have positive effects on the propensity to adopt CC; positive effects has also, mainly in the smaller firms, the use of ICT for supporting some forms of operational collaboration with other firms.

E. Loukis, N. Kyriakou, Organizational Factors Affecting Propensity to Adopt Cloud Computing, Hawai, Jan, 2015, Grand Hyatt Kauai
 

Abstract
Cloud computing (CC) is emerging as a new paradigm of ICT resources acquisition and management by firms. This paper empirically investigates and compares the effects of a set of organizational factors on the propensity to adopt CC, based on data from 676 European firms from the glass, ceramics and cement industries, collected through the e-Business Watch Survey of the European Commission. Our results do not confirm the initial expectations that CC would be adopted primarily by the SMEs, as they indicate that the size has a positive effect on the propensity to adopt CC. Furthermore, we have found that the latter is associated with ICT investment reduction strategy (quite usual today due to the existing economic crisis), and only to a lower extent with innovation oriented strategy. Our results also indicate that previous experience of ICT outsourcing and employment of ICT specialized personnel have positive effects on the propensity to adopt CC. Finally, we have found that firms with higher ICT infrastructure sophistication have higher CC adoption propensity.

N. Kyriakou, E. Loukis, The Effect of ICT Infrastructure Sophistication and Interconnection on the Propensity for Cloud Computing Adoption, European, Mediterranean & Middle Eastern Conference on Information Systems 2014 (EMCIS2014), Oct, 2014, Doha, Qatar
 

Abstract
Cloud computing (CC) is expected to lead to new highly beneficial models of information and communication technologies (ICT) acquisition and management in firms. According to relevant literature CC enables firms having weak ICT support to create sophisticated ICT infrastructures rapidly and at a low cost. However, the adoption of CC has been below expectations. Therefore, it is important to conduct further research on factors affecting CC adoption positively or negatively. In this paper is presented an empirical investigation of the effects of two important firm’s ICT infrastructure characteristics, its sophistication and electronic interconnection with suppliers and customers, on firm’s propensity to adopt CC. It is based on a large dataset collected from 676 European firms from the glass, ceramics and cement industries through the e-Business Survey of the European Commission. It has been concluded that in these industries both the sophistication and the electronic interconnection of firm’s ICT infrastructure have a positive effect on its propensity to adopt CC. This finding is not in agreement with the high expectations from and promises of CC: in this context it is not the firms lacking a highly sophisticated and interconnected ICT infrastructure that have more interest and propensity to use CC services in order to obtain it, but on the contrary the firms having such a strong infrastructure in order to reduce its cost.

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Copyright Notice: This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted or mass reproduced without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.