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

A SOCIO-TECHNICAL APPROACH TO SUSTAINABILITY IN ORGANIZATIONS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Research has shown that sustainability is a critical issue for organizations. There are many dimensions to this concept, notably economic, social and environmental sustainability. When considering development of Information Systems, it is necessary to take these factors into account. However, although developers wish to deliver a package of sustainable benefits, the values that these benefits represent to different stakeholder groups will vary. Approaches will be needed that can provide support to resolve divergent and conflicting requirements within a transformation process, and help to surface contextual understandings of sustainable performance. Poorly-designed systems lead to work activity that is less than optimal, and thus fails to achieve a level of excellence in performance that is a significant prerequisite for competitiveness and economic sustainability. This paper introduces an investigation into understanding of a socio-technical systems framework that could function as a trigger for sustainability development where a suitable agenda already exists within an organization. Preliminary results, and their limitations, are discussed and a tentative agenda for further research is presented

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

Institutional perspectives on the process of enterprise architecture adoption

Organizations often adopt enterprise architecture (EA) when planning how best to develop their information technology (IT) or businesses, for strategic management, or generally for managing change initiatives. This variety of different uses affects many stakeholders within and between organizations. Because stakeholders have dissimilar backgrounds, positions, assumptions, and activities, they respond differently to changes and the potential problems that emerge from those changes. This situation creates contradictions and conflicts between stakeholders that may further influence project activities and ultimately determine how EA is adopted. In this paper, we examine how institutional pressures influence EA adoption. Based on a qualitative case study of two cases, we show how regulative, normative, and cognitive pressures influence stakeholders’ activities and behaviors during the process of EA adoption. Our contribution thus lies in identifying roles of institutional pressures in different phases during the process of EA adoption and how it changes overtime. The results provide insights into EA adoption and the process of institutionalization, which help to explain emergent challenges in EA adoption.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Exploring the Willingness-to-Share Data of Digitized Products in B2B Manufacturing Industries

In the digital age, physical products of all kind become infiltrated by technology. Especially for the sophisticated manufacturing industries manifold opportunities, yet in the same way defiances originate. While academia and practice on the one hand show that the value of digitized products for an ecosystem participant increases with the access to data from the surrounding ecosystem, on the other hand research to understand and manage this willingness-to-share data is limited. Accordingly, the Research-in-Progress Paper at hand explores the willingness-to-share data of digitized products in B2B manufacturing industries. In particular, an exploratory case study research design in the Swiss B2B manufacturing industries is carved out. Considering the inherent limitations of this qualitative research approach, preliminary findings show that highly different aspects influence the willingness-to-share data of digitized products in these environments

TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF CONSPIRACY ECHO CHAMBERS ON FACEBOOK

Selective online exposure to information that serves to only affirm people’s opinions or is strongly aligned with their interests is considered to be a major issue in modern societies. Echo chambers, for example, are online environments in which users are only exposed to confirming opinions and alternative voices are excluded or discredited. Echo chambers are considered to be particularly dangerous, because they may lead to polarization and even radicalization. Social media facilitate the formation of echo chambers as described in the Social Identity Theory by means of homophily and depersonalization. This can be especially harmful in the case of conspiracy beliefs, where particularly extreme opinions lead to a stronger seclusion from society, encourage socially destructive actions, and curate Fake News. In our research we will assess different echo chambers in terms of actively established common patterns of consumed online information sources. To that end, we analyse the news source Likes from over 7,000 users with their approximately 1,450,000 Likes on Facebook. We intend to identify different types of Facebook echo chambers with a focus on conspiracy groups, understand distinguishing characteristics in communicative behaviour of the conspiracy groups on Facebook and explore unique characteristics of users in conspiracy echo chambers

Combined Digital Nudging to Leverage Public Transportation Use

The urgency of global climate change is becoming increasingly evident, but current mobility patterns in developed countries continue to cause severe environmental damage. Therefore, developed countries need to change their mobility patterns fundamentally, such as modal changes to public transportation instead of private car use. Digital nudging in IT-enabled mobility applications is a novel and promising way to influence modal changes to public transportation. In this study, we conduct an online experiment with 183 participants in which they are being nudged toward public transportation trip options. Our results show that combining two different digital nudges significantly affects the choice of public transportation options. By contrast, single nudges do not lead to significant changes in the choice of public transportation trips. With our findings, we contribute to the research stream of digital nudging and the transportation literature and provide insights for practice to address the adverse effects of current mobility patterns

Governance in the Blockchain Economy: A Framework and Research Agenda

Blockchain technology is often referred to as a groundbreaking innovation and the harbinger of a new economic era. Blockchains may be capable of engendering a new type of economic system: the blockchain economy. In the blockchain economy, agreed-upon transactions would be enforced autonomously, following rules defined by smart contracts. The blockchain economy would manifest itself in a new form of organizational design—decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO)—which are organizations with governance rules specified in the blockchain. We discuss the blockchain economy along dimensions defined in the IT governance literature: decision rights, accountability, and incentives. Our case study of a DAO illustrates that governance in the blockchain economy may depart radically from established notions of governance. Using the three governance dimensions, we propose a novel IT governance framework and a research agenda for governance in the blockchain economy. We challenge common assumptions in the blockchain discourse, and propose promising information systems research related to these assumptions

HOW BLOCKCHAIN FACILITATES SMART CITY APPLICATIONS– DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTI-LAYER TAXONOMY

A decade after Sathosi Nakamoto published his famous whitepaper, blockchain technology (BT) has started to become widely recognized and used beyond the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. While the financial sector is the most prominent adopter of the technology, numerous other fields of application for the ground-breaking innovation are discussed by researchers and practitioners alike. One key area in which blockchain-based applications are expected to drive radical and disruptive innovation is smart cities. BT provides unique benefits which smart cities can leverage to improve quality of life, adminis-trative processes, and environmental sustainability. However, due to the entrepreneurial dynamics and abundant fields of application for BT in smart cities, an integrated and boundary-spanning analysis is lacking. Thus, our paper aims at analysing how BT is used in different smart city business models to present a multi-layer taxonomy. For this purpose, we identified a global sample of 80 startups which offer products or services for smart cities and examined their business models. The paper explores economic and technological characteristics of blockchain based smart city applications. These unique insights will be useful for researchers, practitioners, and regulators

The Concept of a Smart Action – Results from Analyzing Information Systems Literature

In recent years, the term \u27smartness\u27 has entered widespread use in research and daily life. It has emerged with various applications of the Internet of Things, such as smart homes and smart factories. However, rapid technological development and careless use of the term mean that, in information systems (IS) research, a common understanding of smartness has not yet been established. And while it is recognized that smartness encompasses more than the use of impressive information technology applications, a unified conceptualization of how smartness is manifested in IS research is lacking. To this end, we conducted a structured literature review applying techniques from Grounded Theory. We found that smartness occurs through actions, in which smart things and individuals interact, process information, and make data-based decisions that are perceived as smart. Building on these findings, we propose the concept of a \u27smart action\u27 and derive a general definition of smartness. Our findings augment knowledge about how smartness is formed, offering a new perspective on smartness. The concept of a smart action unifies and increases understanding of \u27smartness\u27 in IS research. It supports further research by providing a concept for describing, analyzing, and designing smart actions, smart devices, and smart services