Phylogeny and Power in the IS Domain: A Response to Benbasat and Zmud\u27s Call for Returning to the IT Artifact

We question a call by Benbasat and Zmud (2003) to narrow the focus of information systems research to a set of core properties. We first discuss three limitations of their argument and then offer two alternative viewpoints for analyzing the state of our profession. One viewpoint casts the arguments of Benbasat and Zmud in terms of power in the domain of scholarship. The second viewpoint, based on colonial systems, sees fresh perspectives, discipline newcomers, boundary spanners, and topical outliers as the likely source of the field¡¯s creativity, vitality, and long-term survival. We conclude that the discipline is best served by focusing on supporting diverse and novel research. We proffer neither an alternative research agenda nor a research-appropriate evaluation mechanism since we demonstrate that such restrictive policies hinder both our relevance and potential survival. We suggest some administrative changes for the IS discipline intended to encourage and nurture creativity without sacrificing academic rigor

What is a learning town? Reflections on the experience at Wirksworth.

This paper explores the legacy of regeneration project work and knowledge management and transfer as a result of intervention through a charity designed to support new business opportunities, specifically in arts and entertainment, tourism, skills development and training. As part of the University of Derby’s own work-related learning and problem-based learning, a project team was assigned to work alongside the charity ‘New Opportunities in Wirksworth!’ (NOW!). A participant observation, action research approach has been used to elicit and analyse the knowledge transfer, both explicit and implicit. Staff and students from the University of Derby have been contracted to research tourism development specifically in festival supply and demand, the attractiveness of the destination and its key features the market, mining heritage and volunteer railway. Staff and students also committed to an events strategy, marketing the destination and finance for start-ups. The University is engaged in tacit and explicit knowledge transfers. Key stakeholders have reflected on a decade of achievements and both fails and success stories. Agendas for the future have been identified and the project NOW! Has a legacy of both tacit and explicit knowledge for the benefit of other communities. There is an ongoing desire to explore how both public and private sectors can benefit from knowledge sharing and to benefit ongoing problem-based learning in education and training.N/

The Encyclopedia of Neutrosophic Researchers - vol. 1

This is the first volume of the Encyclopedia of Neutrosophic Researchers, edited from materials offered by the authors who responded to the editor’s invitation. The authors are listed alphabetically. The introduction contains a short history of neutrosophics, together with links to the main papers and books. Neutrosophic set, neutrosophic logic, neutrosophic probability, neutrosophic statistics, neutrosophic measure, neutrosophic precalculus, neutrosophic calculus and so on are gaining significant attention in solving many real life problems that involve uncertainty, impreciseness, vagueness, incompleteness, inconsistent, and indeterminacy. In the past years the fields of neutrosophics have been extended and applied in various fields, such as: artificial intelligence, data mining, soft computing, decision making in incomplete / indeterminate / inconsistent information systems, image processing, computational modelling, robotics, medical diagnosis, biomedical engineering, investment problems, economic forecasting, social science, humanistic and practical achievements

Balancing exploration and exploitation in public management: Proposal for an organizational model

Over the last 30 years, a wave of reforms has reshaped the panorama of public administrations around the world, which have also stimulated debates on the subject reform in public sector relations. Much research has focused on discussing the validity of New Public Management (NPM) as a paradigm, including the recognition of regional versions of a number of universal problems in the Public Governance, NPM, and Public Value areas. This debate is focused on the need to give concrete answers to the new management needs of policy makers and to the growing demands of citizens. Increasingly public administration is based on meeting two needs: society requires creative, flexible, and innovation-oriented approaches, whilst economic pressures and budget cuts are forcing uses and models oriented toward efficiency, competitiveness, and cost savings. As regard the changing requirements of the public government, the new organizational system needs to incorporate the creativity, innovation capacity, and flexibility necessary to achieve sustainability and public value. The purpose of this research is to offer an organizational model, which balances exploration activities with those of exploitation, thus being able to meet the changing needs within the Administration, and the actions envisaged for its operations. This article also introduces the requirements for a decision support system to measure regional performance and service quality. It is hoped that we add to our knowledge and understanding of coordinated public policy and good governance that is effective even in these radically demanding Covid-19 times

Enabling Sustainable Management through Kalman Filtering in glossaLAB: a case study on Cyber- Subsidiarity

The article describes the approach of applying the cybersubsidiarity model, based on Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model, to the management of a project oriented to the setting up of a sustainable platform for interdisciplinary knowledge co-creation. The application to this project is shown as a case study for the institution of sustainable organizations based on a subsidiary information management architecture which intends to serve as an innovative alternative to the information management driven by big-data technologies. According to this architecture, the information flow is significantly alleviated and substituted by synthetic in-formation which percolates ‘meaningfully’ across organizational levels.2020-2

Information systems, software engineering, and systems thinking: challenges and opportunities

This article traces past research on the application of the systems approach to information systems development within the disciplines of information systems and software engineering. Their origins historically are related to a number of areas, including general systems theory. While potential improvement of software development practices is linked by some leading experts to the application of more systemic methods, the current state of the practice in software engineering and information systems development shows this is some way from being achieved. The authors propose possible directions for future research and practical work on bringing together both fields with systems thinking

An Interpretary for the IS Discipline, a Compendium of Interpretations of Basic IS Concepts and Methods from Different Theoretical Perspectives

This article proposes the development of an interpretary, a compendium of interpretations of IS concepts and methods from different theoretical perspectives. Such an interpretary would recognize the importance of different theoretical perspectives while also moving toward an organized body of knowledge for the IS discipline. An idealized interpretary can be viewed as a two-dimensional concept interpretation matrix whose cells contain interpretations of specific concepts from specific theoretical perspectives. The first column is a list of important IS concepts. The other columns represent specific theoretical perspectives. Each cell contains an interpretation of a particular concept from a particular perspective Thus, the row for “user” would contain interpretations of that term from different perspectives. After explaining the idea of an interpretary, this article presents an illustrative example that compares interpretations of seventy-five selected IS concepts from two theoretical perspectives: (1) systems are technical artifacts that are used by users and (2) systems are IT-reliant work systems whose components include human participants. The first perspective is consistent with most systems analysis and design textbooks. The second is based on work system theory, the basis of the work system method. A more complete interpretary would include many other perspectives. The conclusion summarizes some of the challenges related to creating a more complete interpretary for the IS discipline

Pandemic pains to Instagram gains! COVID-19 perceptions effects on behaviours towards fashion brands on Instagram in Sub-Saharan Africa: Tech-native vs non-native generations

This study represents a novel attempt to investigate the cascading effects of COVID-19 perceptions onto behavioural patterns towards fashion brands on Instagram and across two generations tech-native vs tech non-native) in a Sub-Saharan African context. We drew our study on a sample of 338 Instagram users that experienced fashion brands on Instagram in two Sub-Saharan African countries: Uganda and Nigeria. We used partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypothetical model. We found that COVID-19 perception positively predicted enjoyment and usefulness, leading to more satisfaction with fashion brand accounts on Instagram and hence greater intention to follow and recommend those accounts. Finally, running a multigroup analysis (MGA), we found the effects of COVID-19 perceptions pronounced into both intentions to follow and intention to recommend via the sequence of mediators: enjoyment and satisfaction were only valid amongst the tech-native generational cohort. Our research suggested a new generational categorisation based on technology nativity – offering a new direction of generational studies in digital marketing communications