THE ROLE OF SYNERGY IN USING ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE FOR BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

Enterprise architecture (EA) provides an integrated representation of an organization’s current and desirable future business capabilities, processes, systems, data and IT infrastructure. EA can interact with and enhance other organizational capabilities, including business transformation capabilities. De-spite significant interest and investment in EA, there is little understanding of how EA can augment other organizational capabilities. In this research in progress paper, we focus on the role of EA in augmenting a firm’s business transformation capability. We conceptualize a synergistic relationship between EA and a firm’s business transformation capability and the emergent EA-enabled business transformation capability. We propose a research model that uses synergy and EA-enabled business transformation capability to explain how transformation outcomes and organizational benefits can be enhanced using EA. We argue that EA capability can lead to the exploitation of existing resources by sharing and reuse of assets and exploration of new capabilities by reconfiguring and integrating re-sources. At an organizational level, EA can increase flexibility, agility and business-IT alignment. The model forms the basis for planned mixed method empirical work combining case studies and a survey

NEEDMINING: IDENTIFYING MICRO BLOG DATA CONTAINING CUSTOMER NEEDS

The design of new products and services starts with the identification of needs of potential customers or users. Many existing methods like observations, surveys, and experiments draw upon specific efforts to elicit unsatisfied needs from individuals. At the same time, a huge amount of user-generated content in micro blogs is freely accessible at no cost. While this information is already analyzed to monitor sentiments towards existing offerings, it has not yet been tapped for the elicitation of needs. In this paper, we lay an important foundation for this endeavor: we propose a Machine Learning approach to identify those posts that do express needs. Our evaluation of tweets in the e-mobility domain demonstrates that the small share of relevant tweets can be identified with remarkable precision or recall results. Applied to huge data sets, the developed method should enable scalable need elicitation support for innovation managers—across thousands of users, and thus augment the service design tool set available to him

HOW TO GAMIFY INFORMATION SYSTEMS - ADAPTING GAMIFICATION TO INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCES

Gamification refers to the use of game elements in a non-entertainment-based context, and is a well-known approach to motivate users of information systems. Despite the positive effects of games in dai-ly life, more gamification projects fail. A possible explanation for this observation is that game ele-ments are often designed without considering the needs of different groups of users. Consequently, we aim to develop a gamification approach that allows us to adapt the gamification elements to the indi-vidual motivation structures of information system users. To achieve our goal, we rely on self-determination theory to design different specifications of game elements. We exemplarily developed four different specifications for each of the nine gamification elements we found in the literature. We are currently in the process of conducting a discrete choice experiment allowing us to match the moti-vation structures of system users and their preferences regarding the specifications of game elements. Based on our results, we expect to better understand how gamification can motivate users to use sys-tems more regularly. In a subsequent step, we plan to rely on our results to design different gamifica-tion configurations for an information system, allowing us to adapt the gamification elements to indi-vidual preferences of the users

IS IT WORTH IT? DISMANTLING THE PROCESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA RELATED SALES PERFORMANCE

Social media platforms present unique possibilities for companies to interact with their customers and take up a key role in building relationships. A substantial body of research has demonstrated the impact of social media regarding, for example, brand awareness and corporate reputation. However, little is known concerning the financial Return on Investment from social media engagement and specific strategies to leverage it. To this end, the study draws on relationship marketing theory to develop and operationalise a research model, which understands objective firm performance in terms of sales as a result of relationship antecedents (i.e., corporate investment and dyadic similarity) mediated through the customer-perceived relationship strength. To test the assumed research model, we collect and analyse a dataset of over 1.5 million Twitter messages revolving around ten car manufacturers and measure the impact on new car registration volumes. The results of this study suggest that companies can increase their sales volume through greater relationship investment (i.e., by providing interest group-specific information) and by adopting a social media strategy that promotes the users’ relationship satisfaction (i.e., raises the share of voice within user messages)

A CAPABILITIES APPROACH TO INNOVATION: A CASE STUDY OF A TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION HUB IN ZAMBIA

This paper critically examines the linear claim, often made, that innovation leads to development. The orthodox view embedded in this claim, which equates development with industrial development and economic growth, is problematized in this paper partly by counter posing this orthodox concept of economic growth with Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum’s heterodox conceptualisation of human development, which advances a comprehensive view of development that requires evaluation not only of income and wealth, but also of other aspects of well-being and agency that people have reason to value. This research uses interpretive research methods including semi-structured interviews and participant observation to gain insight into technology and innovation hub dynamics. Findings include that those working at tech hubs value belonging to a community of shared interest and contributing to social enterprises. We argue that tech hubs, as collaborative spaces, may contribute to human-centred development processes in ways not directly leading to employment or market-based innovative products

Blockchain to Rule the Waves - Nascent Design Principles for Reducing Risk and Uncertainty in Decentralized Environments

Many decentralized, inter-organizational environments such as supply chains are characterized by high transactional uncertainty and risk. At the same time, blockchain technology promises to mitigate these issues by introducing certainty into economic transactions. This paper discusses the findings of a Design Science Research project involving the construction and evaluation of an information technology artifact in collaboration with Maersk, a leading international shipping company, where central documents in shipping, such as the Bill of Lading, are turned into a smart contract on blockchain. Based on our insights from the project, we provide first evidence for preliminary design principles for applications that aim to mitigate the transactional risk and uncertainty in decentralized environments using blockchain. Both the artifact and the first evidence for emerging design principles are novel, contributing to the discourse on the implications that the advent of blockchain technology poses for governing economic activity

A Shared Vision for Digital Transformation: Codification of The Operating Model Canvas Approach

Digital transformations are essential for organisations to stay competitive in modern economy. A digital transformation demands the business and IT departments of an organisation to be aligned and have a shared vision on the organisation’s future. To aid the generation of a shared vision as a basis for digital transformation, we propose the Operating Model Canvas (OMC) Approach. Its result is the OMC, a model that visualises the organisation’s value propositions, primary and supporting business activities, channels, and actors. We have performed a retrospective case study to codify the process and deliverables of the OMC Approach, to define its scientific fundamentals, and demonstrate its results. We found that the OMC provides a shared language for business and IT departments and subsequently generates them a shared vision. The key elements for generating a shared vision during the approach are the usage of existing client documentation and the active client participation throughout the entire process. We think the OMC can therefore be a solid starting point for a digital transformation project. The scientific contribution of this paper is to add to the theory of digital transformation design by codifying the OMC Approach

Impact of Cloud Computing on Business Process Outsourcing - Case: Accounting in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Cloud computing is a model for providing on-demand access to a shared pool of computational resources in a cost-efficient and convenient manner, involving minimal interaction with the cloud provider. Within the last eight years cloud computing has evolved from a promising, emerging technology to a credible alternative for fulfilling organizations' IT needs. Previous research has addressed a variety of issues including cloud sourcing and implementation in organizations. However, there is a gap in our understanding when it comes to the implications of cloud-based information systems on business process outsourcing (BPO). The objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the understanding of how the introduction of cloud-based-information systems affects BPO arrangements. The context of this research is professional business-to-business (B2B) services outsourcing by small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). This setting is depicted as an outsourcing triangle, which includes a client company, a professional service provider, and a cloud-based information system. The four essays included in this dissertation investigate the implications of cloud computing from the perspective of the three sides of the triangle. The first essay seeks to understand factors behind cloud computing adoption in organizations. The second and third essays investigate the outsourcing patterns of client companies and BPO decision-making in the context of cloud-based information systems. Finally, the fourth essay addresses changes in the organization of professional service providers. The main theoretical contributions of the dissertation include (1) a revised cloud computing adoption framework, (2) a conceptualization of the outsourcing continuum, (3) an enhanced understanding of transaction costs in the cloud context, and (4) a framework of virtual organization for professional B2B service providers. For practitioners, this dissertation offers a set of guidelines for the implementation of cloud-based information systems in BPO arrangements, and the reorganization of work to suit the technology

PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CO-EVOLUTION OF BUSINESS AND IT: A COMPLEXITY PERSPECTIVE

The Business and IT Co-evolution (BITC) is a growing concern for researchers and practitioners alike. Extant literature on implementation and management of BITC is still in infancy and lacks especially empirical guidelines. This paper makes two contributions to the study of BITC. First, we summarize and systematically organize 10 BITC principles from prior literature to guide management efforts. Second, we build a system dynamics model based on the 10 principles to apply these principles as a means to improve the BITC management. The model embraces the emergent behaviors driven by the interactions of business and IT, and guides the BITC governance shaped by the principles. The development of this model forms a necessary step towards suggesting guidance how to implement BITC in companies. The paper also shows the capability of a system dynamic method to capture some of the holistic behaviors that emerge from implementing the 10 principles