IT governance in SMEs: trust or control?

It is believed by many scholars that a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) cannot be seen through the lens of a large firm. Theories which explain IT governance in large organizations and methodologies used by practitioners can therefore not be extrapolated to SMEs, which have a completely different economic, cultural and managerial environment. SMEs suffer from resource poverty, have less IS experience and need more external support. SMEs largely contribute to the failure of many IS projects. We define an out-sourced information system failure (OISF) as a failure of IT governance in an SME environment and propose a structure for stating propositions derived from both agency theory and theory of trust. The theoretical question addressed in this paper is: how and why do OISFs occur in SMEs? We have chosen a qualitative and positivistic IS case study research strategy based on multiple cases. Eight cases of IS projects were selected. We found that trust is more important than control issues like output-based contracts and structured controls for eliminating opportunistic behaviour in SMEs. We conclude that the world of SMEs is significantly different from that of large companies. This necessitates extra care to be taken on the part of researchers and practitioners when designing artefacts for SMEs

Narratives of an outsourced information systems failure in a small enterprise

In this study we investigate a case of an outsourced information systems (IS) failure (OISF) within the collaborative partnership among asymmetric partners. A small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) is dealing with an independent software vendor (ISV) conducting a project of implementing an IS that fails. We used a narrative research methodology for our enquiry. In the construction of our narrative we followed the OISF framework as a theoretical touchstone. As a major conclusion we found that asymmetric collaborations with partners with inadequate managerial and technical IT capabilities are extremely prone to OISF’s. We showed that an outcome-based and fixed price contract is not an adequate instrument to conduct such a partnership and to avoid a failure

Narratives of an outsourced information systems failure in a small enterprise

In this study we investigate a case of an outsourced information systems (IS) failure (OISF) within the collaborative partnership among asymmetric partners. A small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) is dealing with an independent software vendor (ISV) conducting a project of implementing an IS that fails. We used a narrative research methodology for our enquiry. In the construction of our narrative we followed the OISF framework as a theoretical touchstone. As a major conclusion we found that asymmetric collaborations with partners with inadequate managerial and technical IT capabilities are extremely prone to OISF’s. We showed that an outcome-based and fixed price contract is not an adequate instrument to conduct such a partnership and to avoid a failure

Systemic Problems in Information Technology Adoption and Use: A Systems Thinking Perspective

Understanding and creating the conditions under which information systems will be embraced by human organizations (thinking systems) remain a high-priority research issue. Despite numerous benefits associated with Information Technology (IT), there exist some intervening factors (systemic problems or issues) that impede technology’s widespread adoption and use in organisations. Established information technology adoption models like TAM, TRA etc. view technology adoption from the users’ perspective without taking a strategic perspective into account. As an alternative focus we suggest that addressing systemic problems can be a method of reducing fundamental barriers to organizational progress. This paper presents some real life examples of IT projects in organizations which experienced failures or barriers related to IT adoption processes. The issues are framed as systemic problems and are analysed from a ‘systems thinking’ perspective. The paper argues that some of the issues contributing to the failure/barrier cannot be easily explained by traditional user acceptance models like TAM or TAM2. The paper presents a number of systems thinking principles that can be used to analyse organizational contexts. It also provides some recommendations and suggests a new research direction based on the marriage of ‘Systems Thinking’ approaches and ‘Adoption Model Theories’. This research will help in identifying the relationships between the determinant factors of the technology acceptance models and the concepts involved in systems thinking approaches. We believe the integration of the two approaches will facilitate improved technology adoption, organizational learning and change

Rethinking IT governance for SMEs

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to critically rethink the concepts and the theoretical foundations of IT governance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on multiple case studies. In total, eight cases of outsourced information system projects where failures occurred were selected. An outsourced information system failure (OISF) is suggested as a failure of governance of the IT in a SME environment. A structure for stating propositions derived from two competing theories is proposed (Agency Theory and Theory of Trust). Findings - The results reveal that trust is slightly more important than control issues such as output-based contracts and structured controls in the governance of IT in SMEs. Practical implications - The world of SMEs is significantly different from that of large companies, and therefore, the concept of IT governance in SMEs needs reconsideration. For researchers and practitioners, it would be more meaningful to focus on actual, working SMEs instead of on a version of their activities derived from those of large companies. Originality/value - The paper offers two contributions. First, it elaborates the limited research on IT in SMEs and second, it brings theoretical foundations for their IT governance. The value of IT governance in SMEs is explained

Establishing the Trust-Control Balance in Client-Vendor Outsourcing Relationships: Empirical Evidence from Two IS Outsourcing Projects

Nowadays, intense global competition requires companies to reposition themselves in value networks and build more sustainable and long-term relationships with their outsourcing partners. Trust and formal controls are critical issues in contemporary outsourcing arrangements today. This paper contributes to the understanding of the trust-control nexus in dynamic outsourcing relationships and argues that the achieved level of balance leads to a different course of the development of an outsourcing arrangement. These issues are explored in two case studies, where the knowledge on trust and controls is constructed in the form of organisational narratives. The analysis of the cases reveals how the client and vendor’s actions oscillate between different balancing levels of trust and controls in the relationship dynamics and how this leads to contrasting outsourcing outcomes

HR outsourcing trends and its effects on the roles of HR professionals

The main purpose of this study was to explore HR outsourcing trends and its effects on the roles of HR professionals. The research had two main research questions: What changes can there be seen in HRO and how the ideas of TCT and RBV have been achieved in companies? What are the intended and actual changes to the roles of HR professionals? The study was done as a qualitative multiple interview study. In the research eight different people were interviewed. Respondents consisted of HR researchers, HR consultants and HR professionals. The interviews were gathered in different cities from mid April to June 2010. According to the research results HR’s role is becoming more and more strategic and it’s being seen more as a core function in company’s decision-making process. Due to this transformation in HR the roles of HR professionals have been influenced and they need to adopt to a more strategic and business-thinking role.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

On the usage of theories in the field of Wirtschaftsinformatik : a quantitative literature analysis

The development of theories is a central goal of every scientific discipline. Hence, theory development is also of considerable importance to the field of Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI), which seeks to progress as a scientific discipline. WI is the discipline focussing on research and design of information systems conducted by the German-speaking community. WI has slightly different objectives, focusses on different methods and different desired results compared to the Anglo-American Information Systems (IS) research discipline. Although both disciplines deal with information systems as their main research object, Mertens et al. (2014) propose to consider both disciplines as halfsister disciplines (in German: Halbschwesterdisziplinen). Against the background of the growing importance of theory development in WI, a lot of WI research contributions use and reference existing theories and theoretical models for different purposes, e.g. to derive and test hypotheses or to justify design decisions in the context of information systems’ design and development. Often, these theories originate from related scientific disciplines like economics or psychology. However, as it is still not clear which theories are of particular importance to WI research, this report aims at presenting a detailed analysis of the current usage of theories in WI and addresses the following research questions: Which theories are used in WI research and where do they originate from? and How has the usage of theories developed over time? These questions were examined based on a systematic analysis of a broad amount of scientific literature. Thus, this report is supposed to make a contribution to the ongoing discussion on the theoretical foundations of WI. Our analysis shows that 1,160 WI articles from 2000 to 2011 do, in large part, reference the same theories as Anglo-American Information Systems (IS) research. These findings are discussed and implications are highlighted

Organisatorische Gestaltung der Softwareentwicklung unter Berücksichtigung von Offshore-spezifischen Besonderheiten und Risiken. Eine Fallstudie

Seit Jahrzehnten vergeben Unternehmen Aufträge an andere Unternehmen, um individuelle Softwareprodukte entwickeln zu lassen. In Zeiten wachsender Globalisierung werden dabei auch immer häufiger Unternehmen aus fernen Ländern wie zum Beispiel Indien beauftragt. Für diese Art der Entwicklung hat sich der Begriff Offshore-Entwicklung etabliert. Doch welche Besonderheiten und Risiken sind mit einer solchen Offshore-Entwicklung verbunden? Wie kann eine solche Offshore-Entwicklung organisatorisch gestaltet werden, damit sowohl der Auftraggeber als auch der Auftragnehmer ihre individuellen Ziele erreichen? Diesen Fragen wird in der vorliegenden Dissertation an der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität zu Köln nachgegangen. Um Offshore-Entwicklungen vollständig und systematisch darzustellen, wurde zunächst ein allgemeiner Betrachtungsrahmen aufgestellt, um dann im Rahmen einer Fallstudien-Untersuchung drei Offshore-Projekte zwischen einem indischen Anbieter und einem Schweizer Kunden näher zu betrachten. Eine wesentliche organisatorische Maßnahme, die in den untersuchten Projekten identifiziert wurde, um Offshore-spezifische Besonderheiten und Risiken zu überwinden, ist die Rolle des Onsite-Koordinators. Hierbei handelt es sich um einen Mitarbeiter des Anbieters, der im Rahmen konkreter Projekte permanent beim Kunden vor Ort tätig ist. Dabei werden mit der Rolle des Onsite-Koordinators unterschiedliche Wirkungen erzielt, die in der vorliegenden Arbeit herausgestellt werden