Information Technology Platforms: Definition and Research Directions

The concept of an information technology (IT) related platform is broad and covers phenomena ranging from the operating system Linux to the Internet. Such platforms are of increasing importance to innovation and value creation across many facets of industry and daily life. There is, however, a lack of common understanding in both research and industry about what is mean by the term platform when related to IT. This lack of consensus is detrimental to research and knowledge development. Thus, the aims of this study are to: (i) provide a sound definition of the IT-platform concept by identifying its distinguishing dimensions; and (ii) identify important current research directions for the IT-platform concept. To achieve these aims a systematic literature review was undertaken with 133 relevant articles taken from major information systems journals, conferences, and business publications. The study contributes by providing a sound base for future research into IT-platforms.Comment: Research-in-progress ISBN# 978-0-646-95337-3 Presented at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2015 (arXiv:1605.01032

Perceived motivators and inhibitors among prospective academic translators

Academics at higher learning institutions conduct research and write articles for journals and conferences, among others. They have general knowledge as well as that related to their respective areas of expertise and research interest. They possess writing proficiency. A question arises, since writing is second nature to teachers and researchers, are academics generally inclined towards translation? This study was carried out to discover the motivators and inhibitors to translation of academic and non-academic works. Motivators consist of personal as well as organizational factors that encourage academics to engage in translation, whereas inhibitors refer to factors that discourage the academics to be involved in the engagement. The study desires to identify the two opposing factors from the academics in social sciences through open-ended interviews using the social media platform. Target informants were the academics who have been servicing their institution for five years and less in order to compare their contribution towards translation works, if any. The transcribed answers were content-analyzed to identify the underlying factors that motivate or inhibit the academics to be involved in translation. The paper provides suggestions for extended research

On the Design of IT Artifacts and the Emergence of Business Processes as Organizational Routines

Much of the BPM literature views business process design and implementation as a top-down process that is built on strategic alignment and managerial control. This view is inconsistent with the observation that information infrastructures, including a company’s business process infrastructure, are at drift, a term that refers to the lack of top-down management control. The paper contributes to resolving this inconsistency by developing a framework that conceptualizes business processes as emergent organizational routines that are represented, enabled, and constrained by IT artifacts. IT artifacts are developed in processes of functional-hierarchical decomposition and social design processes. Organizational routines have ostensive and performative aspects, forming a mutually constitutive duality. A literature review demonstrates that the propositions offered by the framework have been insufficiently considered in the BPM field. The paper concludes with an outlook to applying the framework to theorizing on the emergence of business processes on online social network sites

Relations Between Actors in Digital Platform Ecosystems: A Literature Review

Digital platform ecosystems are a popular field of study in information systems and an economic structure of significant importance worldwide. However, we know little about what relations exist between and among actors on digital platforms. Findings of mutually beneficial interactions, cooperation, and value creation contrast findings of power, dependency, control, governance, rules, and competition in the ecosystem. To shed light on this issue, we conduct a structured literature review of information systems and management literature. In 144 studies, we find 19 different relations between and among platform owner, complementors, and end-users. We contribute to research in three ways. First, by discovering that instability of roles on digital platforms explains dual roles and the dynamics of roles more holistically than concepts that account for specific dual roles. Second, by finding weighting in the relations. Third, by observing nestedness of relations

From Competence to self-efficacy: measuring student progress in translation company simulations

This dissertation investigates how the professional abilities of translation students can be monitored in translation company simulation courses. Translation company simulation is a pedagogical approach in which students carry out translation projects in self-organising teams. A broad set of translation production workflow activities is explored from two angles: 1) students’ understanding of the activities and 2) theoretical conceptualisations of the abilities required for performing them. For measuring progress, the construct of self-efficacy is proposed to complement the construct of competence. A translation service provision self-efficacy model is designed as a theoretical framework and operationalised as a survey instrument for monitoring student progress. The dissertation comprises five previously published articles and a thesis summary. The first article presents the simulation course and introduces a multicomponent competence model for identifying students’ abilities. The second article explores translation students’ understanding of workflow from a competence perspective through content analysis of essays. The third article introduces a meta-level model of revision and post-editing competence and defines their place within the simulation and the translator education curriculum. The fourth article shifts the perspective from competence to self-efficacy and constructs a translation service provision model based on a translation service provision standard and a business process model of a translating organisation. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis is used to operationalise the model as a survey scale. The fifth article tests the scale using longitudinal multilevel modelling. A theoretical contribution is the translation service provision model that organises various business processes and workflow activities into a coherent whole. A methodological result is the translation service provision self-efficacy scale and the method for analysing self-efficacy through multilevel modelling. The findings support that translation company simulations enhance students’ self-efficacy in translation management and translation-related tasks. The results may have theoretical and practical implications for the pedagogy of translation company simulations.Tutkin väitöskirjassani, miten kääntämisen opiskelijoiden ammatillisten valmiuksien kehittymistä voidaan seurata käännösyrityssimulaatiokursseilla. Käännösyrityssimulaatio on pedagoginen menetelmä, jossa opiskelijat toteuttavat käännösprojekteja itseorganisoituvissa tiimeissä. Tutkin käännöstuotannon työnkulun toimintoja kahdesta näkökulmasta: 1) opiskelijoiden käsitystä toiminnoista ja 2) valmiuksien käsitteellistämistä. Tutkimukseni päätyy ehdottamaan minäpystyvyyttä täydentäväksi vaihtoehdoksi kompetenssiin perustuville mittauksille. Mittausten teoreettiseksi viitekehykseksi kehitän käännöspalveluiden tuottamisen minäpystyvyysmallin. Operationalisoin mallin kyselyinstrumentiksi ja testaan käännösyrityssimulaatiossa mallin soveltuvuutta opiskelijoiden edistymisen kuvaamiseen. Väitöskirja sisältää viisi aiemmin julkaistua artikkelia sekä yhteenvedon. Ensimmäinen artikkeli esittelee simulaatiokurssin ja luo monikomponenttisen kompetenssimallin opiskelijoiden valmiuksien kuvaamiseen. Toinen artikkeli tutkii sisällönanalyysin avulla kääntämisen opiskelijoiden käsityksiä käännösprojektin työnkulusta. Kolmas artikkeli esittelee metatason mallin käännöksentarkistuksen ja jälkieditoinnin kompetenssien kuvaamiseen ja määrittelee näiden toimintojen aseman simulaatiokurssilla sekä kääntäjänkoulutuksen opetussuunnitelmassa. Neljäs artikkeli rakentaa käännöspalvelujen minäpystyvyysmallin ja operationalisoi sen minäpystyvyyskyselyksi. Viides artikkeli testaa minäpystyvyyskyselyä käännösyrityssimulaatiossa. Väitöskirjan teoreettinen tulos on käännöspalvelujen tarjoamisen malli, joka jäsentää käännösorganisaation erilaiset liiketoimintaprosessit ja työnkulun toiminnot yhtenäiseksi kokonaisuudeksi. Menetelmien osalta keskeinen tulos on käännöspalvelujen tarjoamisen minäpystyvyyskysely sekä menetelmä minäpystyvyyden analysoimiseksi monitasomallinnuksen avulla. Käytännön tulokset viittaavat siihen, että käännösyrityssimulaatiot lisäävät opiskelijoiden alakohtaista minäpystyvyyttä käännösprojektinhallinnassa ja kääntämiseen liittyvissä tehtävissä. Tutkimuksen tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää teoreettisesti ja käytännössä käännösyrityssimulaatioiden pedagogiikassa

Reconceptualizing platforms in information systems research through the lens of service-dominant logic

Platforms have gained significant attention in the field of information systems (IS) research. However, the concept of platforms remains fluid and complex due to the diverse phenomena associated with it. Research to date tends to cluster around two predominant perspectives: the economic network perspective and the architectural design perspective. To reconcile the divergent perspectives of platforms and establish a more cohesive foundation for IS theorizing, we undertake an interpretive literature review through the lens of service-dominant (S-D) logic. Drawing on an extensive analysis of the literature, we develop an S-D Platform Framework that provides a deep understanding of the multifaceted nature of platforms as a vital IS capability for value co-creation. This framework sheds light on the fundamental facets of relationality, ambidexterity, and cooperativity, which explain the deep structure of platforms in the realm of IS research. Building on our proposed framework, we put forth an agenda that aims to guide future studies towards a more theoretically compelling trajectory

Estrutura Conceptual do Relato Financeiro : Da Definição de um Domínio à Sua Análise para uma Sociedade em Rede

Considerando a língua como um produto da sociedade, mas também como um meio fundamental para o estabelecimento de relações entre os homens, procuramos perceber o seu lugar na sociedade globalizada, com o objectivo de desenvolver uma metodologia de análise terminológica que contribua para uma maior qualidade da comunicação especializada na sociedade em rede. Este trabalho está organizado em duas partes, sendo a primeira dedicada à reflexão sobre o papel da língua na sociedade em rede, focando questões essenciais em torno da tensão existente entre o multilinguismo e a hegemonia do inglês enquanto lingua franca, sobretudo no espaço europeu. Interessa-nos, por um lado, reflectir sobre a definição de políticas linguísticas, concretamente na Europa multilingue dos 28, e, por outro, salientar o papel preponderante que a língua tem na transmissão do conhecimento. A segunda parte deste trabalho concretiza a investigação efectuada na primeira com base na análise do relato financeiro, um domínio do saber que não só é inerentemente multilingue ¾ porque a sua aplicação é transnacional ¾ mas também reflecte a tensão identificada na primeira parte, na medida em que o inglês assume, no mundo dos negócios em geral e nos mercados financeiros em particular, o papel hegemónico de lingua franca. A abordagem terminológica que defendemos é semasiológica para fins onomasiológicos, pelo que partimos da análise do texto de especialidade, organizado em corpora de especialidade. Discutimos subsequentemente os resultados da nossa análise com os especialistas que os irão validar e cuja colaboração em diversos vi momentos do processo de análise terminológica e conceptual é fundamental para garantir a qualidade dos recursos terminológicos produzidos. Nesta óptica, exploramos um corpus de textos legislativos no âmbito do Sistema de Normalização Contabilística (SNC), de modo a delinearmos uma metodologia de trabalho que, no futuro, conduzirá à construção de uma base de dados terminológica do relato financeiro. Concomitantemente, efectuamos também um estudo sobre a Estrutura Conceptual do SNC, para o qual elaboramos uma comparação ao nível da tradução especializada no relato financeiro, com base num corpus paralelo composto pela legislação contabilística internacional endossada pela União Europeia. Utilizamos o corpus paralelo constituído por textos redigidos originalmente em inglês e traduzidos para português, em articulação com o corpus de especialidade criado com a legislação relativa ao normativo contabilístico português, para testar uma metodologia de extracção de equivalentes. Defendemos, por fim, que a harmonização no relato financeiro para além de se reger por políticas contabilísticas comuns, deve ter subjacentes questões terminológicas. É necessário, portanto, harmonizar a terminologia do relato financeiro, possibilitando aos especialistas uma comunicação em português isenta da interferência do inglês herdado das normas internacionais, através dos dois processos que identificamos: a tradução e a adaptação das Normas Internacionais de Contabilidade.Conceiving language as a social product, as well as an essential means of connecting people, we attempt to understand the role it plays in our global society with the aim to develop a methodology for terminological analysis that can contribute to improve the quality of specialized communication in the network society. This thesis is organized into two parts. In the first part we consider the role that language plays in the network society, focussing on essential issues prompted by the existing tension between multilingualism and the pervasiveness of English as a lingua franca, particularly in Europe. We propose both to reflect on the development of language policies, especially in the 28 Member States of a multilingual Europe, and to highlight the prominent role language plays in the transmission of knowledge. The second part of the work substantiates the research conducted in the first part by analysing financial reporting, which is intrinsically multilingual due to its transnational application. Additionally, it also echoes the tension we detail in the first part, in view of the fact that English undoubtedly acts as a lingua franca in the business world in general and in the financial markets in particular. The terminological approach we uphold is semasiological for onomasiological purposes. Therefore, we start by analysing specialized texts ¾ organized into specialized corpora ¾ and subsequently discuss our outcomes with the experts who can validate them. Experts are asked to collaborate at several stages of the terminological process, which is essential to ensure the quality of the terminological resources we aim to produce. viii Accordingly, we explore a corpus comprised of legislative texts produced in the context of the standardization of the Portuguese accounting system ¾ Sistema de Normalização Contabilística (SNC) ¾ in order to develop a working methodology that will lay the foundations for the creation of a terminological database for financial reporting. Concurrently, we also examine the Conceptual Framework of the Portuguese accounting system in the scope of specialized translation. To this end, we built a second corpus composed of the international accounting standards as initially endorsed by the European Union. The legislative texts collected to build this parallel corpus were originally written in English and subsequently translated into Portuguese. We use the parallel specialized corpus in conjunction with the aforementioned specialized corpus composed of Portuguese accounting legislation to test a methodology for the extraction of equivalents. Finally, we argue that harmonization in financial reporting should not be limited to defining common accounting standards and policies; it should also focus on the underlying terminology. Hence our belief that a harmonized financial reporting terminology would enable experts to communicate in Portuguese without the interference of the English terminology inherited from the double process of translation and adaptation of the International Accounting Standards/International Financial Reporting Standards