Impact of Information Technology Investments on Firm Productivity in Peripherals Countries: The Case of Portugal

IS/IT investments are seen has having an enormous potential impact on the competitive position of the firm, on its performance, and demand an active and motivated participation of several stakeholder groups. The shortfall of evidence concerning the productivity of IT became known as the ‘productivity paradox’. As Robert Solow, the Nobel laureate economist stated “we see computers everywhere except in the productivity statistics”. An important stream of research conducted all over the world has tried to understand these phenomena, called in the literature as «IS business value» field. However, there is a gap in the literature, addressing the Portuguese situation. No empirical work has been done to date in order to understand the impact of Information Technology adoption on the productivity of those firms. Using data from two surveys conducted by the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics (INE), Inquiry to the use of IT by Portuguese companies (IUTIC) and the Inquiry Harmonized to (Portuguese) companies (accounting data), this study relates (using regression analysis) the amounts spent on IT with the financial performance indicator Returns on Equity, as a proxy of firm productivity, of Portuguese companies with more than 250 employees. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the Portuguese situation concerning the impact of IS/IT on the productivity of Portuguese top companies. Empirically, we test the impact of IT expenditure on firm productivity of a sample of Portuguese large companies. Our results, based on firm-level data on Information Technology expenditure and firm productivity as measured by return on equity (1186 observations) for the years of 2003 and 2004, exhibit a negative impact of IT expenditure on firm productivity, in line with “productivity paradox” claimants.

Novas abordagens à visualização e interacção com dados turísticos

Com o forte crescimento tecnológico tem-se verificado, cada vez mais, o crescente aumento de Web sites, voltados para o contacto directo com o consumidor, onde é possível procurar, escolher e adquirir um determinado produto I serviço directamente ao fornecedor. As plataformas de suporte à pesquisa de produtos de turismo possibilitam a entrega de um grande volume de dados mediante a pesquisa efectuada. Esta informação é, na sua maior parte, informação textual e é geralmente disponibilizada ao utilizador (via uma página Web) sob a forma de uma listagem ou tabela. Este trabalho incide então sobre a proposta e implementação de um conjunto de interfaces com elevada ergonomia, que permitam uma interacção simples e intuitiva entre o utilizador e os dados de turismo, mais concretamente com reservas de aviação e hotel. Para este propósito foi desenvolvida uma Rich Internet Application que permite ao utilizador o ajuste de determinados factores, que influenciam estes produtos de turismo, de modo a encontrar com maior facilidade o que mais se enquadra nos seus gostos I objectivos no vasto conjunto de resultados da pesquisa. ABSTRACT; With the constant growth of information technology tools we have witnessed increase in the number of web Sites aimed to direct contact with the consumer, where users can search, select and purchase a product/service directly to the supplier. The platforms that support the search for tourism data enable the delivery of a large volume of data, as a result of the search that was done. This information is mostly textual and is, in general available to the user (via a web page) in a form of a large list or table. This work focuses on a proposal and implementation of a set of interfaces with high ergonomics. allowing a simple and intuitive interaction between the user and the tourism data, more specifically with air fares and hotels reservations. For this purpose was developed an Rich Internet Application that allows the user to adjust some factors that influence the tourism products, in order to more accurately find what fits their tastes objectives in the wide range of search results.