386 research outputs found

    The Software Prototype as Digital Boundary Object – A Revelatory Longitudinal Innovation Case

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    With the availability of lower cost but highly skilled software development labor from offshore regions, entrepreneurs from developed countries who do not have software development experience can utilize this workforce to develop innovative software products. In order to succeed in offshored innovation projects, the often extreme knowledge boundaries between the onsite entrepreneur and the offshore software development team have to be overcome. Prior research has proposed that boundary objects are critical for bridging such boundaries – if they are appropriately used. Our longitudinal, revelatory case study of a software innovation project is one of the first to explore the role of the software prototype as a digital boundary object. Our study empirically unpacks five use practices that transform the software prototype into a boundary object such that knowledge boundaries are bridged. Our findings provide new theoretical insights for literature on software innovation and boundary objects, and have implications for practice

    How Do Project-related Artefacts Qualify for Bridging Boundaries in IS Implementation Projects – An Activity Theoretical Perspective

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    Boundary objects were found to significantly impact the outcomes of IS implementation projects. Despite emphasizing their flexibility, however, prior research is no very precise on the attributes that qualifies project-related artefacts to become boundary objects. To identify the internal characteristics of artefacts that enable business and IT to synchronize IS and business needs, this research offers an activity theoretical view on boundary objects. The usefulness of the concept is demonstrated by means of an in-depth case study. The findings of this research emphasize that –in order to become boundary objects– project-related artefacts need to be part of the IS implementation and the business activity system. Moreover, they need to capture relevant knowledge of both activity systems and enable recognition of contradictions within and between. As to that, utilization of emerging project deliverables by means of internalization or externalization processes is found to facilitate the alignment between IS and business needs

    A Case Study of Enterprise-wide Digital Innovation: Involving Non-IT Employees

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    Today’s incumbent organisations are under pressure to proactively leverage their resources for digital innovation. Enterprise-wide initiatives hold potential in this regard by enabling employees across departments to contribute their knowledge, skills, and creativity towards digital innovation. However, IT units often struggle to transfer the ideas of non-IT employees into marketable digital solutions. Our understanding of how organisations coordinate and integrate employees’ contributions to digital innovation is limited, yet critical to their survival and growth. Taking a resource-based approach, we identify three complementary competences –orchestration, self-orchestration, and choreography– that support enterprise-wide digital innovation. Specifically, we report how these competences helped an incumbent organisation initiate digital innovation with its non-IT employees while making efficient use of its IT resources. Our study further shows that building these competences requires the strategic use of digital artefacts and their multiple roles in the innovation process

    A Case Study of Enterprise-wide Digital Innovation: Involving Non-IT Employees

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    Today’s incumbent organisations are under pressure to proactively leverage their resources for digital innovation. Enterprise-wide initiatives hold potential in this regard by enabling employees across departments to contribute their knowledge, skills, and creativity towards digital innovation. However, IT units often struggle to transfer the ideas of non-IT employees into marketable digital solutions. Our understanding of how organisations coordinate and integrate employees’ contributions to digital innovation is limited, yet critical to their survival and growth. Taking a resource-based approach, we identify three complementary competences –orchestration, self-orchestration, and choreography– that support enterprise-wide digital innovation. Specifically, we report how these competences helped an incumbent organisation initiate digital innovation with its non-IT employees while making efficient use of its IT resources. Our study further shows that building these competences requires the strategic use of digital artefacts and their multiple roles in the innovation process

    An Information Infrastructure to Improve International Containerized Shipping

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    This thesis applies theoretical perspectives from the Information Systems (IS) research field to propose how Information Technology (IT) can improve containerized shipping. This question is addressed by developing a set of design principles for an information infrastructure for sharing shipping information named the Shipping Information Pipeline (SIP). Review of the literature revealed that IS research prescribed a set of meta-design principles, including digitalization and digital collaboration by implementation of Inter-Organizational Systems based on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) messages, while contemporary research proposes Information Infrastructures (II) as a new IT artifact to be researched. Correspondingly, this thesis applies the concept of and design theory for II to improve containerized shipping. Activity Theory has guided the analysis of containerized shipping, following avocados on their journey from the trees in Africa, to the retail shelves in Europe, revealing the plethora of organizations, activities and documents involved. The implication being that containerized shipping becomes inefficiently; costly, unreliably, and risky. These are posited as the major impediments to creating a more efficient shipping industry, and a number of critical issues are identified. These include that shipments depend on shipping information, that shipments often are delayed due to issues with documentation, that EDI messages account for only a minor part of the needed information, that multiple fragmented II are used throughout, and finally, that there is an unleashed potential for IT to support containerized shipping. Based on the above, the SIP was designed, prototyped and evaluated which, through Internetenabled collaboration on shipments, ameliorates the previously mentioned critical issues and major impediments. This is accomplished primarily through increased transparency into the containerized shipping process and through providing direct access to source information about the shipments. Based on the prototypes an accumulated set of design principles for the design of SIP are articulated. In the particular context of Internet-enabled II utilizing the World Wide Web, an extension of design theory is proposed through the formulation of an additional metadesign principle: share meta-information only and govern access to detailed information by the source. Finally, the practical implications of SIP are estimated, including how it facilitates more efficient containerized shipping and in turn sustainable international trade. The positive acknowledgements of SIP prototypes support how II designed in accordance with the developed set of design principles can be used to significantly improve containerized shipping

    At the crossroads of big science, open science, and technology transfer

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    Les grans infraestructures científiques s’enfronten a demandes creixents de responsabilitat pública, no només per la seva contribució al descobriment científic, sinó també per la seva capacitat de generar valor econòmic secundari. Per construir i operar les seves infraestructures sofisticades, sovint generen tecnologies frontereres dissenyant i construint solucions tècniques per a problemes d’enginyeria complexos i sense precedents. En paral·lel, la dècada anterior ha presenciat la ràpida irrupció de canvis tecnològics que han afectat la manera com es fa i es comparteix la ciència, cosa que ha comportat l’emergència del concepte d’Open Science (OS). Els governs avancen ràpidament vers aquest paradigma de OS i demanen a les grans infraestructures científiques que "obrin" els seus processos científics. No obstant, aquestes dues forces s'oposen, ja que la comercialització de tecnologies i resultats científics requereixen normalment d’inversions financeres importants i les empreses només estan disposades a assumir aquest cost si poden protegir la innovació de la imitació o de la competència deslleial. Aquesta tesi doctoral té com a objectiu comprendre com les noves aplicacions de les TIC afecten els resultats de la recerca i la transferència de tecnologia resultant en el context de les grans infraestructures científiques. La tesis pretén descobrir les tensions entre aquests dos vectors normatius, així com identificar els mecanismes que s’utilitzen per superar-les. La tesis es compon de quatre estudis: 1) Un estudi que aplica un mètode de recerca mixt que combina dades de dues enquestes d’escala global realitzades online (2016, 2018), amb dos cas d’estudi de dues comunitats científiques en física d’alta energia i biologia molecular que avaluen els factors explicatius darrere les pràctiques de compartir dades per part dels científics; 2) Un estudi de cas d’Open Targets, una infraestructura d’informació basada en dades considerades bens comuns, on el Laboratori Europeu de Biologia Molecular-EBI i empreses farmacèutiques col·laboren i comparteixen dades científiques i eines tecnològiques per accelerar el descobriment de medicaments; 3) Un estudi d’un conjunt de dades únic de 170 projectes finançats en el marc d’ATTRACT (un nou instrument de la Comissió Europea liderat per les grans infraestructures científiques europees) que té com a objectiu comprendre la naturalesa del procés de serendipitat que hi ha darrere de la transició de tecnologies de grans infraestructures científiques a aplicacions comercials abans no anticipades. ; i 4) un cas d’estudi sobre la tecnologia White Rabbit, un hardware sofisticat de codi obert desenvolupat al Consell Europeu per a la Recerca Nuclear (CERN) en col·laboració amb un extens ecosistema d’empreses.Las grandes infraestructuras científicas se enfrentan a crecientes demandas de responsabilidad pública, no solo por su contribución al descubrimiento científico sino también por su capacidad de generar valor económico para la sociedad. Para construir y operar sus sofisticadas infraestructuras, a menudo generan tecnologías de vanguardia al diseñar y construir soluciones técnicas para problemas de ingeniería complejos y sin precedentes. Paralelamente, la década anterior ha visto la irrupción de rápidos cambios tecnológicos que afectan la forma en que se genera y comparte la ciencia, lo que ha llevado a acuñar el concepto de Open Science (OS). Los gobiernos se están moviendo rápidamente hacia este nuevo paradigma y están pidiendo a las grandes infraestructuras científicas que "abran" el proceso científico. Sin embargo, estas dos fuerzas se oponen, ya que la comercialización de tecnología y productos científicos generalmente requiere importantes inversiones financieras y las empresas están dispuestas a asumir este coste solo si pueden proteger la innovación de la imitación o la competencia desleal. Esta tesis doctoral tiene como objetivo comprender cómo las nuevas aplicaciones de las TIC están afectando los resultados científicos y la transferencia de tecnología resultante en el contexto de las grandes infraestructuras científicas. La tesis pretende descubrir las tensiones entre estas dos fuerzas normativas e identificar los mecanismos que se emplean para superarlas. La tesis se compone de cuatro estudios: 1) Un estudio que emplea un método mixto de investigación que combina datos de dos encuestas de escala global realizadas online (2016, 2018), con dos caso de estudio sobre dos comunidades científicas distintas -física de alta energía y biología molecular- que evalúan los factores explicativos detrás de las prácticas de intercambio de datos científicos; 2) Un caso de estudio sobre Open Targets, una infraestructura de información basada en datos considerados como bienes comunes, donde el Laboratorio Europeo de Biología Molecular-EBI y compañías farmacéuticas colaboran y comparten datos científicos y herramientas tecnológicas para acelerar el descubrimiento de fármacos; 3) Un estudio de un conjunto de datos único de 170 proyectos financiados bajo ATTRACT, un nuevo instrumento de la Comisión Europea liderado por grandes infraestructuras científicas europeas, que tiene como objetivo comprender la naturaleza del proceso fortuito detrás de la transición de las tecnologías de grandes infraestructuras científicas a aplicaciones comerciales previamente no anticipadas ; y 4) un estudio de caso de la tecnología White Rabbit, un sofisticado hardware de código abierto desarrollado en el Consejo Europeo de Investigación Nuclear (CERN) en colaboración con un extenso ecosistema de empresas.Big science infrastructures are confronting increasing demands for public accountability, not only within scientific discovery but also their capacity to generate secondary economic value. To build and operate their sophisticated infrastructures, big science often generates frontier technologies by designing and building technical solutions to complex and unprecedented engineering problems. In parallel, the previous decade has seen the disruption of rapid technological changes impacting the way science is done and shared, which has led to the coining of the concept of Open Science (OS). Governments are quickly moving towards the OS paradigm and asking big science centres to "open up” the scientific process. Yet these two forces run in opposition as the commercialization of scientific outputs usually requires significant financial investments and companies are willing to bear this cost only if they can protect the innovation from imitation or unfair competition. This PhD dissertation aims at understanding how new applications of ICT are affecting primary research outcomes and the resultant technology transfer in the context of big and OS. It attempts to uncover the tensions in these two normative forces and identify the mechanisms that are employed to overcome them. The dissertation is comprised of four separate studies: 1) A mixed-method study combining two large-scale global online surveys to research scientists (2016, 2018), with two case studies in high energy physics and molecular biology scientific communities that assess explanatory factors behind scientific data-sharing practices; 2) A case study of Open Targets, an information infrastructure based upon data commons, where European Molecular Biology Laboratory-EBI and pharmaceutical companies collaborate and share scientific data and technological tools to accelerate drug discovery; 3) A study of a unique dataset of 170 projects funded under ATTRACT -a novel policy instrument of the European Commission lead by European big science infrastructures- which aims to understand the nature of the serendipitous process behind transitioning big science technologies to previously unanticipated commercial applications; and 4) a case study of White Rabbit technology, a sophisticated open-source hardware developed at the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) in collaboration with an extensive ecosystem of companies

    Open e-learning platforms and the design–reality gap : an affordance theory perspective

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    Purpose The dropout rates of open e-learning platforms are often cited as high as 97%, with many users discontinuing their use after initial acceptance. This study aims to explore this anomaly through the lens of affordances theory, revealing design-reality gaps between users' diverse goals and the possibilities for action provided by an open IT artefact. Design/methodology/approach A six-month case study was undertaken to investigate the design implications of user-perceived affordances in an EU sustainability project which developed an open e-learning platform for citizens to improve their household energy efficiency. Thematic analysis was used to reveal the challenges of user continuance behaviour based on how an open IT artefact supports users in achieving individual goals (e.g. reducing energy consumption in the home) and collective goals (lessening the carbon footprint of society). Findings Based on the findings, the authors inductively reveal seven affordances related to open e-learning platforms: informing, assessment, synthesis, emphasis, clarity, learning pathway and goal-planning. The findings centre on users' perception of these affordances, and the extent to which the open IT artefact catered to the goals and constraints of diverse user groups. Open IT platform development is further discussed from an iterative and collaborative perspective in order to explore different possibilities for action. Originality/value The study contributes towards research on open IT artefact design by presenting key learnings on how the designers of e-learning platforms can bridge design-reality gaps through exploring affordance personalisation for diverse user groups. This can inform the design of open IT artefacts to help ensure that system features match the expectations and contextual constraints of users through clear action-oriented possibilities.Peer reviewe

    Ethnographie Stories for i\/iari(et Learning

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    Although ethnography has become a popular research approach in many organizations, major gaps exist in the field's understanding of the way it operates in the corporate world, particularly in how ethnography facilitates market learning. Drawing from extensive fieldwork in the world of commercial ethnography, the authors describe how ethnographic stories give executives a unique means of understanding market realities. By working through the rich details of ethnographic stories infused with the tensions, contradictions, and emotions of people's everyday lives, executives are better able to grasp the complexity of consumer cultures. Overall, this research should help managers leverage the catalytic effects of ethnographic storytelling in their efforts to learn about and understand market contexts
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