The Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, aims to be the premier Information Systems event in the Asia Pacific region. Its purpose is to provide a high-quality international forum for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to exchange ideas on the adoption of leading information-related technologies and practices.
PACIS was first run in Taiwan in 1993 and subsequently in Singapore in 1995. The papers contained in this volume represent the proceedings of PACIS'97, the 3rd Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, held in Brisbane, Australia, 1-5 April 1997.
All papers in the proceedings were blind reviewed, some by three reviewers, most by two. The international program committee included over 50 accomplished Information Systems researchers from around the world. The Local Program Committee included over 70 members (see following). All reviewers were academics and active researchers in Information Systems. All papers were further summarily reviewed by the PACIS'97 central program committee. These procedures, using Australia as an example, give PACIS'97 papers 'E1' status as full, refereed, international conference research articles according to section 4 of the DEET "1996 Higher Education Financial and Publications Research Data Collection."
Papers were submitted to PACIS'97 from over 20 different countries. Papers from authors representing 14 countries, were selected for presentation at PACIS'97. Approximately half of the papers selected originate from the host country, Australia. Other countries with substantive representation are Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, the United States and the UK. The acceptance rate for papers was approximately 50%, thereby allowing a good number of authors to attend and at the same time ensuring high quality presentations.
The conference proper included 81 papers, 2 panel discussions and 10 keynote speakers spread across 4 parallel streams which ran over two and a half days. The conference was preceded by a Doctoral Consortium and a range of half-and full-day tutorials aimed at both practitioners and researchers. Tutorial topics included: Process Engineering, SAP - a Functional Overview, SAP a Technical Overview, Electronic Commerce, Phenomenography, Qualitative Data Analysis Software (NUDIST) Internet Security, and Insourcing/Outsourcing.
The overarching theme of the conference was 'The Confluence of Theory and Practice', reflecting the PACIS Executive Committee's aim to bring IS research closer to practice. Sub-themes that became apparent from the paper submissions and around which the papers in this volume are organised (here listed in no particular order) are: Electronic Commerce and Internet Applications; Business Process Reengineering and Workflow; Computer Supported Cooperative Work; Decision Support and Executive Information Systems; IS/IT Education and Training; Evaluating IS/IT Effectiveness; Managing the Application Portfolio (maintenance); IT, Government and Industry; IS/IT Planning; Quality Control; Systems Analysis and Design, IS Implementation; and Information Security.
For the first time, PACIS included a Doctoral Consortium. The consortium accepted applications from 13 doctoral candidates. Again we observe that approximately half of the participants were from the host country, Australia, with the others representing a sampling of countries in the region, including: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and New Zealand.
PACIS'97 grew into more than just the conference. In addition to the Doctoral Consortium and the tutorials, other activities of which we are aware, that were scheduled around the conference included: a meeting of the 'Australasian IS Heads of Discipline', a meeting of 'Women in Information Systems', a half-day workshop on Electronic Commerce (following the conference and where a range of further refeed papers were presented) and a meeting of the ICIS'2000 Organising Committee.
PACIS'97 was not available as of this writing, all indications at that time were that we would substantially exceed numbers in attendance in Singapore in 1995. It is expected that with this momentum, given appropriate support, PACIS is on the trajectory to achieve its goal of becoming the most significant Information Systems conference in the region and a mainstay of IS researchers and practitioners in the region and around the world.
We warmly thank all of those who have participated in and supported the conference, and in particular members of the central Organising Committees for their substantial efforts. We would also like to thank the members of the International and Local Program Committees and the Conference Advisory Committee. Finally thanks to our sponsors and supporters for making the conference financially viable. Particular thanks to the Association for Information Systems and the Australian Computer Society, Queensland Branch for their strong support and involvement.
Dr. Guy G Gable
Dr. Ron AG Weber
Published by
ISMRC/QUT
Information Systems Management Research Concentration,
Queensland University of Technology
GPO Bos 2434
Brisbane, Qeensland
Australia 4001