Knowledge Management Competence and ISD Vendor Innovativeness in Turbulent Markets

Continuous changes in the technology and the business landscape place high strain on managing knowledge in organisations. Prior researchers highlight a positive connotation with knowledge management competence and organisational innovativeness in a turbulent environment. However, the rapid changes in the market and technology landscape may exert an additional pressure on the employees and such pressures may ultimately hinder organisational innovativeness. Drawing on knowledge management and innovation literature, this research conceptualises a model that investigates this tenacious relationship between knowledge management competence and innovativeness specifically in turbulent dynamic markets, considering information systems development (ISD)-outsourcing as the context. Following a mixed method approach, this research expects to provide guidance for ISD-outsourcing vendors to manage innovation expectations, knowledge management process and performance of the employees in dynamic market conditions

A Teaching Case on Information Systems Development Outsourcing: Lessons from a Failure

Students and academics rarely receive an opportunity to investigate and learn from failed projects even though many organizations restrict access to information about failed projects in order to minimize reputational damage (Chua & Lam, 2005). However, failure cases can provide unique insights that one often ignores or cannot explore in successful projects (Lyytinen & Robey, 1999). To facilitate this learning, we present a teaching case based on an outsourced information systems development project that commenced in 2010 and was terminated in 2013. We observe the project’s failure from the viewpoint of the vendor to illustrate how misspecified requirements and insufficient understanding of the client organization’s specific requirements can lead to project failures. We derived the case description and analyses by conducting seven interviews with project team members and by analyzing 14 business requirement specification documents

Too Tight - Too Loose: Controlling Lessons from a Failed IS Development Project

Information Systems Development outsourcing (ISD-outsourcing) projects are notorious for not providing agreed deliverables within the stipulated time and budget. More alarmingly, it is estimated that 19% of ISD-outsourcing projects fail outright (Standish Group 2015). This study investigates an ISD-outsourcing failure case which was attributed to issues in the requirements engineering process. Adopting a ‘control theory’ perspective and leveraging case study approach, we examine how the weaknesses in control portfolio contributed to project failure. We attribute the failure not to the absence of control portfolios, rather (i) employing particular control mechanisms incorrectly depending on the phase of requirements engineering process, (ii) dominance of a particular control mechanism, and (iii) insufficiency of particular control mechanisms

Enterprise social networking and service innovation: a governance perspective

To innovate, firms need to share knowledge across their different functions. An increasing number of organizations are using enterprise social networking (ESN) for knowledge sharing internally because it is more effective than traditional knowledge management systems. However, ESN use can also have some negative outcomes; for example, it may distract employees from their work and overload them with information, while also providing a channel for leaking confidential information. This study aims to understand how knowledge sharing through ESN affects the level of innovation in firms from the service industry and how this relationship is affected by the governance of ESN. Using data from a survey of 104 participants from global financial firms, we find that the level of innovation in firms is enhanced by the use of ESN for knowledge sharing, and that governance positively moderates this relationship. The paper concludes with some theoretical and practical contributions

How Management Control Portfolios are Developed for Modularized ISD Projects

Information Systems Development projects often modularize the work by decomposing complex tasks to enable better management and control. While the objectives are noble, modularization itself can introduce interdependencies. Using the control theory perspective and leveraging case study research approach, we examine eight projects to unearth the four types of interdependencies in modularized Information Systems Development projects. Next, for the four types of interdependencies derived through the study, corresponding control portfolio is developed, making theoretical contributions and recommendations for practice

Conceptualizing Control Configurations: A Control Theory Perspective on Outsourced Information Systems Development

Past research on information systems development outsourcing (ISD-outsourcing) has found control theory to be a useful perspective for examining the co-ordination between the client and the vendor. Research on ISD-outsourcing has uncovered two distinct control mechanisms: structural and process control mechanisms. The structural control mechanism describes “what”, that is, the structure of the control mode, whereas the process control mechanism explains “how”, that is the process through which the control mode is enacted. Although the control literature discusses structural and process control mechanisms, it does not describe the ways in which control mechanisms can be combined for ensuring project success. Grounded in case study data from fifteen interviews in eight ISD-outsourcing projects, we conceptualise five control configurations describing the different combinative patterns of control mechanisms within and across control modes. Then, we identify the relationship between control configuration types and ISD-outsourcing project success

Introducing System Controls for Control Theory

Control theory focuses exclusively on manual control mechanisms, where the control instructions over the organizational employees are executed by a person (e.g. project manager). With the advancement of computer systems, contemporary organizations have commenced handing over employee control aspects to computer systems. In this research, we introduce “system controls”, where a computer system is executing control instructions over the employees. Moreover, we discuss the characteristics, limitations and issues in system controls when added as a perspective of control theory

INDIVIDUAL INNOVATIVE USE OF ERP SYSTEMS

Although many studies have discussed Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) use at the organizational level, no study according to our knowledge, has identified the factors influncing innovative use of ERP by the end users (Sudzina, 2010). This research-in-progress paper describes the preliminary findings of a survey, which is designed to recognize the factors which can influnce the end user innovative use of ERP systems. Moreover, this study argus that the innovative use on individual levels could impact the productivity of organizations

The impact of modularisation on information system development outsourcing project control

Information systems development (ISD) outsourcing projects employ modularisation to decompose complex tasks into simpler portions. Modularisation enables better management and control. Adopting a ‘control theory’ perspective, this research explored the mechanisms for managing modularised ISD outsourcing projects effectively. Results are drawn using the case study method, employing eight modularised ISD outsourcing projects. Results demonstrate that modularisation increases the use of formal controls and decreases the informal clan controls. Further, it was found that an error in modualrisation creates fluctuations in Business Requirement Specifications

Lessons from a Failed IS Development Outsourcing Project

One of the main challenges of Information Systems education is lack of teaching resources that have been derived from real-world scenarios. This teaching case, which investigates a failed Information Systems Development outsourcing project, is designed to address this knowledge gap. We rarely receive an opportunity to investigate a failed project (Chua and Lam 2005), with many organizations restricting access to failed projects to minimize reputational damage (Chua and Lam 2005; Khalfan 2003). However, it is said that failure cases can provide insights that are often ignored in investigations of successful projects (Lyytinen and Robey 1999). This teaching case explains how the requirement misspecification and lack of clear understanding of the requirements could lead to project failures