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Reihe Begriffe des digitalen Bildes Das DFG-Schwerpunktprogramm ‚Das digitale Bild‘ untersucht von einem multiperspektivischen Standpunkt aus die zentrale Rolle, die dem Bild im komplexen Prozess der Digitalisierung des Wissens zukommt. In einem deutschlandweiten Verbund soll dabei eine neue Theorie und Praxis computerbasierter Bildwelten erarbeitet werden

What\u27s in an SME? Considerations for Scoping Research on Small and Medium Enterprises and Other Organisations in the IS Discipline

We propose an approach to better scope an IS research project for the context of small and medium organisations (SMOs), depending on the project’s topic and goals. SMOs are of a fundamentally different nature compared to large organisations, yet IS research often implicitly assumes the context of large organisations. This may lead to IS research outcomes not being applicable to the SMO context due to incompatible boundary conditions. Simultaneously, common criteria to distinguish SMOs (employee count, turnover) are often not particularly useful to include or exclude distinct classes of SMOs from the scope of a specific research project. Our proposed scoping approach thus considers research topic-dependent criteria to classify SMOs to be included. We illustrate our approach with examples from our own research. Other researchers can draw on our approach to include/exclude suitable SMOs of interest more clearly and thus produce research that is applicable to clearly delineated SMO classes

Designing a Reference Model for Digital Product Configurators

Since the manufacturing industry is nowadays facing increasingly heterogeneous customer requirements, digital product configurators (DPC) have become a popular means for integrating customers into organizational value creation. DPC are information systems, which serve as a frontend to the customer and enable the individualization of products. The design of such a DPC is time consuming, expensive and lacks appropriate models offering guidance for its development. The paper at hand addresses these issues by providing a reference model (RM) for DPC development. The model has been constructed by means of an extensive literature review and was subsequently demonstrated and evaluated in a real world scenario. In order to ensure a flexible and individual development of company specific DPC the RM includes adaptation mechanisms. Therefore, our research provides a first building block to the endeavor of facilitating or even automating DPC development