OPERATIONAL BUSINESS-IT MISALIGNMENT AS STRESS FACTOR FOR ORGANIZATIONS

Alignment between business and IT functions is a critical yet unsolved problem of many organizations. Despite considerable amount of research devoted to address this issue, the quest for alignment re-mains challenging, particularly in light of the rapid and widespread digitization of the business world. This paper argues that a research-practice gap exists in the alignment field, and that academic litera-ture fails to discuss key aspects of high practical relevance: alignment as an (emergent) process ra-ther than a state, and operational realities rather than strategic goals. To reduce this gap, we draw on extant alignment research and psychological approach-avoidance theory to develop a model of misa-ligned organizations, emphasizing the need for coordination between strategy and operations and in-vestigating the adverse effects of operational misalignment. Results from two case companies facing operational misalignment provide preliminary confirmation for our propositions and support the call for more practice-oriented research in this highly complex domain

Barriers to Open-Source Software Adoption: Review and Synthesis

Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) has had a profound impact on the field of Information Technology. While the adoption rates of FLOSS have been growing, extant research reports various significant barriers that inhibit widespread adoption. To develop a comprehensive overview of FLOSS adoption barriers, this study reviewed and synthesized 44 relevant articles published between 2003 and 2016. Based on the organizing logic of the Technology, Organization, Environment and Individual (TOEI) framework, we categorized the challenges and identified major adoption barriers in each dimension. Technology barriers include vendor lock-in, lack of maturity, and lack of external support. At the organizational level, companies often lack financial and human resources, as well as adequate managerial support. Environmental aspects include culture, policies, and legal frameworks. Individual factors, such as employees’ resistance to change and risk-averse leadership may also negatively influence the adoption process

Peer Review in the Classroom: The Benefits of Free Selection in a Time-Restricted Setting

This study examines the potential of a peer review approach in the time-restricted setting of a class session. In the free selection setting we explored, students had access to all peer work and they were allowed to select which work they want to read and review. The study was conducted during the 8th week of the course, right after students’ first deliverable. A total of 18 Master students were asked to provide structured feedback to their peers, using a review template. In the 2-hour period of the peer review activity, students had to review two peer deliverables: one that was randomly assigned to them and one they could choose freely from the remaining set. Result analysis showed that while half of the students followed a minimum effort strategy, reading and reviewing only two peer deliverables, the other half read several deliverables before deciding which one to review. We maintain that reviewing peer work can be beneficial for the students, offering to them multiple perspectives (i.e., those of the reviewees). As such, the suggested approach could be proven more beneficial for the students, than the widely applied paired approach, in which two students review each other’s work. The study also examines the criteria students use for selecting which peer work to review and comments on the limited overhead opposed to the teacher, making the method a useful and efficient instructional tool

Concurrent and Retrospective Metacognitive Judgements as Feedback in Audience Response Systems: Impact on Performance and Self-Assessment Accuracy

Asking questions in classrooms can produce metacognitive judgements in students about their confidence in being able to answer correctly. In audience response systems (ARSs), these judgements can be elicited and used as additional feedback metrics. This study (n = 79) explores how online concurrent item-by-item judgments (OCJ) and retrospective composite judgments of performance accuracy (RJPA) can enhance students’ performance and self-assessing accuracy (i.e., calibration – as measured by sensitivity, specificity, and absolute accuracy index). In each of eight weeks, the students answered a multiple-choice quiz and had to denote their level of confidence that their answers were correct (OCJ) and estimate their final score (RJPA). The quizzes followed the voting/revoting paradigm according to which students answer all the quiz questions, receive feedback, and answer the same questions again before the correct answers are shown. The students were randomly grouped into two conditions based on the feedback they received in the ARS: the OCJ group (n = 41) received the percentage distribution and peers’ OCJs as feedback metrics, while the RJPA group (n = 38) received the percentage distribution and peers’ RJPAs. Data analysis showed a systemic underconfidence that affected students’ OCJ judgments. As a result, students in the RJPA group scored significantly higher than the ones in the OCJ one, were more accurate in self-assessing in the revoting phase, and felt overall more confident in the revoting phase. The study also discusses the relationship between the two judgments employed and the calibration variability between the two study phases

Scrum in Practice: an Overview of Scrum Adaptations

Agile software development practices have gained widespread acceptance and application across all industries. Scrum, as one of the most widely used agile methods, has been adopted in countless organizations. However, while there is an understanding that practitioners rarely apply Scrum by the book , only little research addresses the actual adaptations and modifications that are made to fit Scrum to real world requirements: whether it is to solve methodological drawbacks, to fit the method to specific contextual constraint, or to add additional value to the method by augmentation or combination with other tools and methods. To get an overview of the proposed adaptations and their implications, this study presents a systematic review of literature reporting on challenges and motivations that lead to modifications of the Scrum method. Based on 31 relevant studies we extract seven distinct motivations for modifying Scrum, as well as six generic solution strategies to adapt the method

Integrating Research and Teaching in the IS Classroom: Benefits for Teachers and Students

Creating a link between research and teaching activities in higher education is a common and recurring challenge for many academics. Especially in practice-driven areas like Information Systems (IS), educators as well as students can benefit substantially from well-designed course curricula that facilitate research-driven learning processes. In this paper, we discuss the benefits and challenges of research-driven education from the perspective of both teachers and students and propose a research-driven course design in the case of a graduate course in IS development and implementation. The suggested approach includes a set of different techniques that allow for a successful integration of research content and activities throughout the whole course lifecycle. In order to validate our design empirically, we conduct a survey among course participants (n=194) and discuss the results. Our findings provide initial support for the proposed design, which can be the basis for future research and guide the composition of research-driven courses in the IS field

Analysis of Heuristic Validity, Efficiency and Applicability of the Profile Distance Method for Implementation in Decision Support Systems

This article seeks to enhance acceptance of the profile distance method (PDM) in decision support systems. The PDM is a multiple attributive based decision making as well as a multiple method approach to support complex decision making and uses a heuristic to avoid computationally complex global optimization. We elaborate on the usability of the method and question the heuristic used. We present a bisection algorithm, which efficiently supports the discovery of transition profiles needed in a user-friendly and practical application of the method. Additionally, we provide empirical evidence showing that the proposed heuristic is efficient and delivers results within 5% of the global optimizer for a wide range of data sets

Pairwise comparison techniques for preference elicitation: using test-retest reliability as a quality indicator

This study aims at augmenting the profile distance method (PDM) with techniques that support the elicitation of a relative weight vector. Therefore, prominent methods from the field of preference elicitation and related research are investigated according to their task fitness. Preference elicitation is widely regarded as one integral part of decision support. It has found broad attention in multiple scientific fields, such as psychology of choice or behavioural decision making. The technique of pairwise comparison, often utilized in applied decision support, is examined according to practicability and validity for the estimation of a relative weight vector. The concrete task of weight vector assessment is tested in an experimental setting using widely accepted scales and techniques derived from the literature survey conducted. We distinctly identify two key figures for the measurement of outcome quality, accounting for both mathematical consistency and internal (or human) consistency. Preliminary experimental results from a web-based study with sixty two (62) distinct users provide for valuable insights in consistency ratio and test-retest reliability, indicating that unmodified pairwise comparisons are a suboptimal method for criteria preference elicitation. Additionally, we propose a number of improvements to practical preference elicitation, such as the use of a guided, process-based weight elicitation process

Corporate Accelerators: Transferring Technology Innovation to Incumbent Companies

The recent phenomenon of corporate accelerators is an excellent opportunity for incumbent companies to participate in promising innovations from startups all over the globe. Incumbent companies introduce structured accelerator programs for cohorts of startups, which in turn benefit from resources, mentoring and networks. The underlying research analyzes the growing interdisciplinary scientific literature on corporate accelerators to shed light on this uprising topic. We conducted a literature review according to the guideline of Webster and Watson (2002) by analyzing 20 scientific references. The results show that researchers applied qualitative methods to explore accelerators in detail and quantitative methods are used to analyze secondary data on startups and accelerators. Overall, most findings of recent research are of exploratory nature and our results summaries the main findings of the articles. Finally, we extracted a list of success factors for incumbent companies running corporate accelerators as well as for startups participating in such programs. In terms of theoretical impact, the articles analyzed apply open innovation theory, the resource based view and institutional theory to explain corporate accelerators. Our study reveals that Information Systems research has so far neglected to conduct studies researching corporate accelerators although the findings of our review show large potential for future research