Defining the Role for Information Systems in Environmental Sustainability Measurement

Information Systems scholars have played a limited role in addressing the problem of environmental sustainability, resulting in calls for our community to become more actively involved in tackling this critical problem. One of the most significant hurdles standing in the way of progress is measurement. Sustainability measurement represents a complex issue requiring the expertise of many different fields. We propose that sustainability measurement principles, which represent adopted rules or methods for conducting measurement in practice, provide an important mechanism for building the necessary linkages between disciplines, while at the same time moving us forward in protecting our global environment. In this paper we outline eight essential measurement principles and provide illustrative examples of how IS can support and embody these principles. We conclude the paper with research directions in relation to the potential role of IS in sustainability measurement

IT DYNAMIC CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF DATA GENESIS CAPABILITY

Dynamic Capabilities are often considered as the factor justifying the different degrees of success of organizations in turbulent environment. However Dynamic Capability development remains a difficult issue to research, with a paucity of work directly addressing this question, despite its importance. The explanation of the development of Dynamic Capabilities would give organizations the instruments to rationally improve their chance of success and to more likely sustain their competitive advantage. We contribute to the emerging literature on Information Technology (IT) Dynamic Capability development by proposing a research framework grounded in the three sources of Dynamic Capabilities: organizational processes, firm history and firm's assets. Our model takes into consideration also the moderating role played by environmental turbulence on Dynamic Capability development and on process performance. In this contribution we lay the theoretical and methodological groundwork and we foresee the test of the model using Data Genesis (DG) capability as the context. DG is the Dynamic Capability of (1) choosing IT to generate and capture data in digital form, (2) integrating the technology in the appropriate business processes, and (3) managing the digital data so produced.IT capability; Dynamic Capability; capability development; Data Genesis

Creating Value from Business Analytics Systems: A Process-oriented Theoretical Framework and Case Study

Business analytics can potentially create value and improve competitive advantage for firms. We argue that dynamic and operational capabilities, enabled by business analytics technology, lead to improved firm performance. We develop a process-oriented theoretical framework that explains how dynamic and operational capabilities interact over time to create value. We use the framework to explain how business value was achieved from business analytics systems in a case study at a financial institution. A number of implications of the study are discussed and suggestions for future work are provided

Mobile information systems and organizational control: A Foucauldian approach

Dynamic Capabilities are often considered as the factor justifying the different degrees of success of organizations in turbulent environment. However Dynamic Capability development remains a difficult issue to research, with a paucity of work directly addressing this question, despite its importance. The explanation of the sources of Dynamic Capabilities would give organizations the instruments to rationally improve their chance of success and to more likely sustain their competitive advantage. We contribute to the emerging literature on Information Technology (IT) Dynamic Capability by proposing a research framework grounded in the three sources of Dynamic Capabilities: organizational processes, firm history and firm’s assets. Our model takes into consideration also the moderating role played by environmental turbulence on Dynamic Capability and on process performance. In this contribution we lay the theoretical and methodological groundwork and we foresee the test of the model using Data Genesis (DG) capability as the context. DG is the Dynamic Capability of (1) choosing IT to unobtrusively generate and capture data in digital form, (2) integrating the technology in the appropriate business processes, and (3) managing the digital data so captured

Towards a business analytics capability maturity model

Business analytics (BA) systems are an important strategic investment for many organisations and can potentially contribute significantly to firm performance. Establishing strong BA capabilities is currently one of the major concerns of chief information officers. This research project aims to develop a BA capability maturity model (BACMM). The BACMM will help organisations to scope and evaluate their BA initiatives. This research-in-progress paper describes the current BACMM, relates it to existing capability maturity models and explains its theoretical base. It also discusses the design science research approach being used to develop the BACMM and provides details of further work within the research project. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of how the BACMM might be used in practice.<br /

The impact of strategy on business analytics success

Business analytics systems are an important strategic investment for many organisations and can potentially contribute significantly to firm performance. In this paper we develop a theoretical model, based on the resource-based view, that explains how business analytics capabilities lead to benefits. We argue that the type of strategy, represented as enterprise architecture, moderates the benefits achieved. Two case studies are then presented, each with a different type of strategy, and we explain how and why benefits were achieved from business analytics systems in each. We then identify the similarities and differences between the two case studies and discuss these using five dimensions that emerge from the case studies: strategic alignment, governance, people, organizational culture and data and technology infrastructure.<br /

Enhancing Information Security Risk Management with Security Analytics: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

The importance of information security risk management (ISRM) and its potential strategic role in protecting organisational information assets is widely studied in literature. Less attention is given to how ISRM can be enhanced using security analytics to contribute to a competitive advantage. This paper proposes a model showing that security analytics capabilities (the ability to effectively use security data for informed security related decision making) and ISRM capabilities (the ability to effectively identify and protect organizational information assets) indirectly influence competitive advantage in ISRM through two key mediating links: analytics-enabled ISRM capabilities (the ability to effectively leverage insights gleaned from security data to make informed ISRM decisions) and ISRM dynamic capabilities (the ability to reconfigure analytics-enabled ISRM capabilities to address turbulent environments). Environmental turbulence moderates the process by which security analytics and ISRM capabilities influence competitive advantage. The paper concludes by calling for evaluation and refinement of the research model

Online Reviews as a Measure of Service Quality

The proliferation of socialized data offers an unprecedented opportunity for designing customer service measurement systems. In this paper we address the problem of adequately measuring service quality using socialized data. The theoretical basis for the study is the widely used SERVQUAL model. The analysis is based on a database of online reviews generated on the website of the leading price comparison engine in Italy. We use a weakly supervised topic model to extract relevant dimensions of service quality from the user-generated content. Despite its exploratory nature the study offers two contributions. First, it demonstrated that socialized textual data, not just quantitative ratings, provide a wealth of customer service information that can be used to measure the quality offered by service providers. Second, it shows that the distribution of topics in opinions differs significantly between positive and negative reviews. Specifically, we find that concerns about merchant responsiveness dominate negative reviews

ANTECEDENTS OF IT DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE DIGITAL DATA GENESIS

Dynamic capabilities represent an important determinant of competitive advantage in turbulent environments. However, despite intense work in the area, the topic of dynamic capability antecedents remains heavily under-researched. Understanding the sources of dynamic capabilities would give organizations the instruments to rationally improve their chance to obtain and sustain competitive advantage. We contribute to the literature on information technology dynamic capabilities focusing on three sources of dynamic capabilities: organizational processes, firm history and firm\u27s assets. We lay the theoretical and methodological groundwork for our explanation and we empirically test the model focusing on an emerging capability we term Digital Data Genesis (DDG) . We define DDG as the dynamic capability of (1) choosing information technology to unobtrusively generate and capture data in digital form, (2) integrating the IT in the appropriate business processes, and (3) managing the digital data so captured. Our results show that the organizational processes of sensing and learning, the historical information dynamic capability, and the historical IT dynamic capability influences the DDG dynamic capability

Proactive Privacy Practices In The Trend Of Ubiquitous Services: An Integrative Social Contracts Perspective

Privacy is a strategic issue that deserves great attention from enterprises because the convergence of customer information and advanced technologies that they engage in diverse business processes in response to competitive pressure, particularly when businesses promote their traditional e-services to ubiquitous services (u-services). The underlying vision of u-services is to overcome spatial and temporal boundaries in traditional services, such as m-services and e-services. U-services will be the next wave and can be recognized as a logical extension of traditional e-services because u-services are initiated by e-services based on current potential customer pool and further propagated by m-services. In the context of u-services, customers are always connected seamlessly in context-awareness networks so that a higher degree of customized and personalized services can be timely provided. While people are served with more convenience and efficiency, they may also well be aware of privacy threats behind that. Hence, privacy concerns have been recognized as a critical impediment for boosting u-services. Drawing upon integrative social contracts theory, this study undertakes to explore a proactive privacy practices framework that embraces technical and non-technical elements such as human, legal, and economic relevant perspectives. The results of this study are expected to shed light on privacy practices