The nature of IT services from a management and IS research point of view

Theory building is not only underdeveloped in IT services management research, but in general in IS. Given the paradigm shift that comes from the development away from a networked economy towards a network economy, the lack of spending enough attention to theorizing in IS becomes even more obvious. In the light of other "megatrends" in IS research, such as the increasing professionalization and use of statistical methods and the exploitation of extremely large sets of data (often harvested from social media sites), we might lose interest in theorizing in the presence of the tremendous amount of available empirical data. In this position paper, the author advocates that services science researchers should focus on rigor and relevance in their research approaches

Factors that Impact Blockchain Scalability

Blockchain systems (more precisely Distributed Ledger Technologies(DLTs)) represent a different digital ecosystem compared with traditional computer systems. One major difference are the performance and scalability factors which will be discussed and analytically investigated in this paper. Indoing so, we provide guidance for defining a research agenda focusing on the investigation of the crucial role of scalability for DLT systems. System performance - measured in terms of (1) consensus response time (blockchain network latency or time to convergence/agreement); (2) number of transactionsper second or throughput, and (3) computing (and power) resources consumed - can be understood by considering the design dimensions of a DLT system, namely: (i) the type of DLT system needed from a requirements perspectivewhich in turn determines; (ii) the complexity of the consensus protocol used; (iii) the topography of the anticipated traffic flow on the network; (iv) the performance and complexity of the domain-specific language that implementssmart contracts; and (v) by the anticipated growth in size and complexity of the distributed ledger itself.Blockchain systems (more precisely Distributed Ledger Technologies(DLTs)) represent a different digital ecosystem compared with traditional computer systems. One major difference are the performance and scalability factors which will be discussed and analytically investigated in this paper. Indoing so, we provide guidance for defining a research agenda focusing on the investigation of the crucial role of scalability for DLT systems. System performance - measured in terms of (1) consensus response time (blockchain network latency or time to convergence/agreement); (2) number of transactionsper second or throughput, and (3) computing (and power) resources consumed - can be understood by considering the design dimensions of a DLT system, namely: (i) the type of DLT system needed from a requirements perspectivewhich in turn determines; (ii) the complexity of the consensus protocol used; (iii) the topography of the anticipated traffic flow on the network; (iv) the performance and complexity of the domain-specific language that implementssmart contracts; and (v) by the anticipated growth in size and complexity of the distributed ledger itself

Effectiveness of Corporate Social Media Activities to Increase Relational Outcomes

This study applies social media analytics to investigate the impact of different corporate social media activities on user word of mouth and attitudinal loyalty. We conduct a multilevel analysis of approximately 5 million tweets regarding the main Twitter accounts of 28 large global companies. We empirically identify different social media activities in terms of social media management strategies (using social media management tools or the web-frontend client), account types (broadcasting or receiving information), and communicative approaches (conversational or disseminative). We find positive effects of social media management tools, broadcasting accounts, and conversational communication on public perception

The Effects of the Quantification of Faculty Productivity: Perspectives from the Design Science Research Community

In recent years, efforts to assess faculty research productivity have focused more on the measurable quantification of academic outcomes. For benchmarking academic performance, researchers have developed different ranking and rating lists that define so-called high-quality research. While many scholars in IS consider lists such as the Senior Scholar’s basket (SSB) to provide good guidance, others who belong to less-mainstream groups in the IS discipline could perceive these lists as constraining. Thus, we analyzed the perceived impact of the SSB on information systems (IS) academics working in design science research (DSR) and, in particular, how it has affected their research behavior. We found the DSR community felt a strong normative influence from the SSB. We conducted a content analysis of the SSB and found evidence that some of its journals have come to accept DSR more. We note the emergence of papers in the SSB that outline the role of theory in DSR and describe DSR methodologies, which indicates that the DSR community has rallied to describe what to expect from a DSR manuscript to the broader IS community and to guide the DSR community on how to organize papers for publication in the SSB

How blockchain impacts cloud-based system performance: a case study for a groupware communication application

This paper examines the performance trade-off when implementing a blockchain architecture for a cloud-based groupware communication application. We measure the additional cloud-based resources and performance costs of the overhead required to implement a groupware collaboration system over a blockchain architecture. To evaluate our groupware application, we develop measuring instruments for testing scalability and performance of computer systems deployed as cloud computing applications. While some details of our groupware collaboration application have been published in earlier work, in this paper we reflect on a generalized measuring method for blockchain-enabled applications which may in turn lead to a general methodology for testing cloud-based system performance and scalability using blockchain. Response time and transaction throughput metrics are collected for the blockchain implementation against the non-blockchain implementation and some conclusions are drawn about the additional resources that a blockchain architecture for a groupware collaboration application impose

How Emotions Unfold in Online Discussions After a Terror Attack

In the wake of a terror attack, social media is used for sharing thoughts and emotions, accessing and distributing information, and memorializing victims. Emotions are a big part of this, but there is a gap in our understanding on how those emotions evolve and what kinds of social media uses they are related to. Better understanding of the emotional and topical developments of online discussions can serve not only to fill the aforementioned gap, but also assist in developing better collective coping strategies for recovering from terror attacks. We examine what types of conversations unfolded online after the Boston Marathon Bombing and what kinds of emotions were associated with them, accounting for regional differences, and present a process model covering the general trends of such conversations. Although the phases apply to reactions to terror attacks on a general level, there are proximity-based differences to the location of the terror attack

Mindfully Resisting the Bandwagon – IT Implementation and Its Consequences in the Financial Crisis

Although the ”financial meltdown” between 2007 and 2009 can be substantially attributed to herding behaviour in the subprime market for credit default swaps, a “mindless” IT implementation of participating financial services providers played a major role in the facilitation of the underlying bandwagon. The problem was a discrepancy between two core complementary capabilities: (1.) the (economic-rationalistic) ability to execute financial transactions (to comply with the herd) in milliseconds and (2.) the required contextualized mindfulness capabilities to comprehend the implications of the transactions being executed and the associated IT innovation decisions that enabled these transactions

The Development of a Temporal Information Dictionary for Social Media Analytics

Dictionaries have been used to analyze text even before the emergence of social media and the use of dictionaries for sentiment analysis there. While dictionaries have been used to understand the tonality of text, so far it has not been possible to automatically detect if the tonality refers to the present, past, or future. In this research, we develop a dictionary containing time-indicating words in a wordlist (T-wordlist). To test how the dictionary performs, we apply our T-wordlist on different disaster related social media datasets. Subsequently we will validate the wordlist and results by a manual content analysis. So far, in this research-in-progress, we were able to develop a first dictionary and will also provide some initial insight into the performance of our wordlist

Artificial Intelligence for the Financial Services Industry: What Challenges Organizations to Succeed?

As a research field, artificial intelligence (AI) exists for several years. More recently, technological breakthroughs, coupled with the fast availability of data, have brought AI closer to commercial use. Internet giants such as Google, Amazon, Apple or Facebook invest significantly into AI, thereby underlining its relevance for business models worldwide. For the highly data driven finance industry, AI is of intensive interest within pilot projects, still, few AI applications have been implemented so far. This study analyzes drivers and inhibitors of a successful AI application in the finance industry based on panel data comprising 22 semi-structured interviews with experts in AI in finance. As theoretical lens, we structured our results using the TOE framework. Guidelines for applying AI successfully reveal AI-specific role models and process competencies as crucial, before trained algorithms will have reached a quality level on which AI applications will operate without human intervention and moral concerns

You'll Be Surprised - Digital Business Strategy as Driver of Organizational Innovativeness

The presence of digital infrastructures fundamentally changes market conditions, business and IT strategy, and consequently organizational structures. This research investigates how the concept of a digital business strategy leads to increased organizational innovativeness and firm performance. We demonstrate how IT capabilities contribute to organizational innovativeness and induce the CIO’s positive role for IT-enabled business innovation. By means of an online survey among 228 IT decision makers in knowledge-intensive industries in the U.S., the results reveal organizational innovativeness being significantly higher influenced by the IT knowledge of business employees in organizations giving the digital business strategy high importance, whereas the top management team IT knowledge plays a greater role when digital business strategy is given low priority. By this research, we deliver first results of consequences for organizations conducting a digital business strategy and contribute to the discussion on IT-enabled innovation, CIO leadership, and the increasing relevance of organization-wide IT capabilities