People and Faculty
Byron Marshall
Associate Professor
BIS

Byron Marshall

541-737-6054

byron.marshall@bus.oregonstate.edu

People and Faculty
Byron Marshall
Overview
Overview
Background
Publications

Overview

Career Interests

Byron's research interests include information security and the re-use of organizational data in informal node-link knowledge representations to support analysis tasks. Previous work includes applications in bioinformatics, business intelligence, digital library, law enforcement, and education. He received a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona in May, 2005; an MBA degree with emphasis in Accounting from California State University, Fresno in 1995; and a BA in Business Administration-Computer Applications and Systems from California State University, Fresno in 1988. Byron has 13 years of dynamic industry experience designing, creating, and using computer systems in the cotton industry.

 

Background

Education

2001-2005: University of Arizona, MIS Department, Tucson, AZ PhD - Management Spring 2005 Major: Management Information Systems, Minor: Linguistics Advisor: Dr. Hsinchun Chen

1995: California State University, Fresno Fresno, CA MBA – emphasis in accounting   Graduated with distinction

1988: California State University Fresno Fresno, CA BS – Business Administration – Computer Applications and Systems

Experience

Byron has 13 years of dynamic industry experience designing, creating, and using computer systems in the cotton industry.

Professional Affiliations

Member: AIS, IEEE, ACM, ISACA Academic Advocate

Associate Editor: Journal of Electronic Commerce Research

Publications

Academic Journal
BIS

“Improving IT Assessment with IT Artifact Affordance Perception Priming”

Accurately assessing organizational information technology (IT) is important for accounting professionals, but also difficult. Both auditors and the professionals from whom they gather data are expected to make nuanced judgments regarding the adequacy and effectiveness of controls that protect key systems. IT artifacts (policies, procedures, and systems) are assessed in an audit because they “afford” relevant action possibilities but perception preferences shade the results of even systematic and well-tested assessment tools. This study of 246 business students makes two important contributions. First we demonstrate that a tendency to focus on either artifact or organizational imperative systematically reduces the power of well-regarded IT measurements. Second, we demonstrate that priming is an effective intervention strategy to increase the predictive power of constructs from the familiar technology acceptance model (TAM).
Details

17-28 pages 2015 Michael Curry Byron Marshall Peter Kawalek View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
BIS

“IT Artifact Bias: How exogenous predilections influence organizational information system paradigms”

Efforts in IS research have long sought to bridge the gap between the information technology (IT) function and strategic business interests. Efforts in IS research have long sought to bridge the gap between the information technology (IT) function and the strategic business interests. People perceive affordances (possibilities for action) in information technology artifacts differently as cognitive structures (schema) which bias individual focus. This study explores how an individual’s tendency to perceive the ‘trees’ in an IT ‘forest’ (artifact preference), affects their assessment of efforts to achieve more effective IT outcomes. The effect is demonstrated using a relatively simple IT success model. Further, in a sample of 120 survey responses supported by ten semi-structured interviews we demonstrate that job role and organizational IT complexity systematically impact artifact perception. A better understanding of IT artifact bias promises to help organizations better assess information systems.
Details

427-436 pages 2014 Michael Curry Byron Marshall Peter Kawalek View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
BIS

“Can Intermediary-based Science Standards Crosswalking Work? Some Evidence from Mining the Standard Alignment Tool (SAT)”

We explore the feasibility of intermediary-based crosswalking and alignment of K-12 science education standards. With increasing availability of K-12 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) digital library content, alignment of that content with educational standards is a significant and continuous challenge. Whereas direct, one-to-one alignment of standards is preferable but currently unsustainable in its resource demands, less resource-intensive intermediary-based alignment offers an interesting alternative. But will it work? We present the results from an experiment in which the machine-based Standard Alignment Tool (SAT) —incorporated in the National Science Digital Library (NSDL)— was used to collect over half a million direct alignments between standards from different standard-authoring bodies. These were then used to compute intermediary-based alignments derived from the well-known AAAS Project 2061 Benchmarks and NSES standards. Results show strong variation among authoring bodies in their success to crosswalk with best results for those who modeled their standards on the intermediaries. Results furthermore show a strong inverse relationship between recall and precision when both intermediates where involved in the crosswalking.
Details

1843-1858 pages 2012 Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology Rene Reitsma Byron Marshall Trevor Chart View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
BIS

“Organizational Information Technology Norms and IT Quality”

The effectiveness of IT governance initiatives in improving IT’s contribution to organizational success has been demonstrated but the mechanisms by which improved outcomes are realized have largely remained unexplored. Although IT governance tools such as COBIT and ITIL specify procedures and policies for the management of IT resources, the experts who developed those tools also embedded a set of core principles or ‘norms’ in the underlying frameworks. This article explores these norms and their role in the realization of organizational IT quality. Through analysis of normative messages implicitly expressed in the documentation elements provided by COBIT, we extract two norms (commitment to improvement and a risk/control perspective) thought to indicate that an organization has adopted the spirit of IT governance. Next, we model the relationship between adoption of these norms and IT quality and evaluate the model with data from a survey of 86 individuals who use, manage, and/or deliver organizational IT services. Principal component analysis is used to validate the survey items. Results show statistically significant relationships between norm adoption, participation in norm-driven activities, and organizational IT quality.
Details

2011 Byron Marshall Michael Curry Rene Reitsma View on: Google Scholar

Conference
BIS

“World vs. Method: Educational Standard Formulation Impacts Document Retrieval”

Although initiatives are underway in the educational community to consolidate disparate collections of educational standards, little has been done to explore the impact of educational standard formulation on information retrieval. Recent research contrasts two categories of educational standards: ‘World’ (topical domain-related concepts) and ‘Method’ (investigative and epistemological principles). This paper explores the information retrieval implications of the World vs. Method distinction. We find that experts are more likely to agree about which educational resources align with a Method standard but that a typical automatic standard assignment tool is more likely to assign a World standard to an educational resource. Further, a text-based information retrieval system is more likely to be accurate in retrieving documents relevant to a World standard as compared to a Method standard. These findings have implications both for educational standard formulation (combining World and Method components in a standard may improve retrieval) and for digital library builders who want to help teachers identify useful, standards-aligned learning objects.
Details

2011 Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL'11),Ottawa, Canada. Byron Marshall Rene Reitsma View on: Google Scholar

Academic Journal
BIS

“Aspects of 'Relevance' in the Alignment of Curriculum with Educational Standards”

Retrieval of useful digitized learning objects is a key objective for educational digital libraries, but imprecise definitions of alignment hinder the development of effective retrieval mechanisms. With over 63,000 U.S. K-12 science and mathematics education standards and a rapid proliferation of Web-enabled curriculum, retrieving curriculum that aligns with the standards to which teachers must teach is increasingly important. Previous studies of such alignment use single-dimensional and binary measures of relevance. Perhaps as a consequence they suffer from low inter-rater reliability (IRR), with experts agreeing about alignments only some 20-40% of the time. We present the results of an experiment in which the dependent variable ‘alignment’ is operationalized using the Saracevic model of relevance in which; i.e., alignment is defined and measured through ‘clues’ from the everyday practice of K-12 teaching. Results show higher inter-rater reliability on all clues with significantly higher IRR on several specific alignment dimensions. In addition, a (linear) model of ‘overall alignment’ is derived and estimated. Both the structure and explanatory power of the model differ significantly between searching vs. assessment. These results illustrate the usefulness of clue-based relevance measures for information retrieval and have important consequences for both the formulation of automated retrieval mechanisms and the construction of a gold standard set of standard-curriculum alignments.
Details

362-376 pages 2010 Rene Reitsma Byron Marshall Malinda Zarske View on: Google Scholar

Conference
BIS

“IT Governance Norms and IT Success”

The checklists included in well-known IT governance frameworks may be a good fit for
large organizations that face regulatory pressure and a need for large-scale coordination
but may be less appropriate for smaller organizations. Core IT governance principles
embedded in the structure of CobiT, ITIL, and ISO2000 can be expressed as a set of IT
governance norms including business alignment, a risk/control perspective, systematic
measurement, accountability, and continuous improvement. In this study, we model IT
effectiveness and willingness to comply with best practices as effects of adopting these
norms. We propose a set of survey items tailored to help assess the constructs in this
model then partially validate them using principal components analysis. Survey
responses (n=86) reveal a significant connection between evidence of norm adoption in
organizations and IT success. This norms-based paradigm may be useful in bringing
some of the benefits of IT governance to the smaller organizations that are thought to
drive economic growth and employment.
Details

2010 2nd annual Pre‐ICIS Workshop on Accounting Information Systems Byron Marshall Michael Curry Rene Reitsma View on: Google Scholar

Conference
BIS

“Does Using CobiT Improve IT Solution Proposals?”

The CobiT (Control Objectives for Information and related Technology) framework is designed to help organizations implement IT governance practices by systematically shaping identifiable IT processes to better leverage IT expenditures. The control structure advocated in CobiT embodies governance notions including business alignment, a risk/control perspective, systematic measurement, accountability, and continuous improvement. Despite the rise of internal control regulation, not all organizations have implemented systematic IT controls and many, notably small, organizations may never do so. This study explores whether exposing decision makers to CobiT positively affects the IT solutions they generate. We present a framework (drawn primarily from the structure of CobiT) for identifying normatively better IT plans as measured by application of governance principles. We report on 115 IT solution proposals created by business students. The proposals developed using CobiT more frequently took a risk/control approach, addressed the need for continuous improvement, referred to general IT processes, identified the people who should implement a solution, and proposed more measures of success. Thus, exposing decision makers to a systematic IT governance framework promises to help them generate more comprehensive solutions to IT challenges.
Details

2010 AAA Annual Meeting, IS Section Byron Marshall Michael Curry Rene Reitsma