IS Design Principles for Empowering Domain Experts in Innovation: Findings From Three Case Studies

Today a significant part of innovation activities in firms is carried out within innovation networks of cooperating enterprises. In such networks, one key challenge is to provide software that enables to systematically share and adaptively integrate knowledge between the partners’ domains of expertise. One potential answer is to apply application software that allows for end-user or domain expert configuration. We provide preliminary empiric evidence from a field test of an expert-configurable collaborative information system in three innovation networks. In a three-year qualitative study, we have identified challenges to software support originating from knowledge, methodical and relational diversity in the networks. We formulate design challenges and design principles relevant for developing and applying domain expert-configurable software. We provide insights into the significance of related user roles in cooperative innovation projects, and offer the role of ‘facilitators’ as mediating agents in application configuration

Using Information Systems in Innovation Networks: Uncovering Network Resources

In order to innovate, firms progressively combine complementary abilities through forming networks. Such innovation networks represent temporary assemblages of partners that, in collaboration, pursue new product developments. Existing theories suggest that successful participation in such networks depends on firms’ having certain firm-level dynamic capabilities (i.e., skill in sensing the network and its environment, learning about the network, and coordinating and integrating individual resources across the network). In this paper, we argue that firms also have to develop particular networking capabilities (i.e., they have to understand who they are partnering with, what each partner can contribute, and how exactly each partner can cooperate with others across the network). We show that inter-organizational information systems (IS) are vital for facilitating the development of these networking capabilities. IS are also vital in developing unique constellations of resources (i.e., physical, human, and organizational resources) that we term IS-embedded network resources. These resources are manifested in the IS and are unique to the innovation network because they go beyond resources at the firm level. Using three innovation networks as case studies, we provide empiric evidence on how IS support networking capabilities to arrive at unique resource constellations embedded in IS and how the set of IS-embedded network resources is a determining factor for competitive advantage in innovation networks

How To Cope With The Dynamics Of Urban Sustainability: Urban Experimentation Platforms As Tools For Adaptive Policy-Making

The growing challenges of urban population, congestion, consumption and pollution, prompt cities to respond with policies that progress towards Urban Sustainability. Increasingly, Urban Experimentation (UX) engaging diverse stakeholders for local innovations, is viewed an enabler of iterative progress. Yet, despite various ‘smart city’ initiatives, how to cope with the dynamics underlying local innovation processes for urban sustainability is unclear. In this paper, we consider Urban Experimentation Platforms (UXPs) as a tool for coping with such dynamics. Using case data from the UXP of ‘OrganiCity’, our research considers how this UXP interacts with the dynamics of urban experimentation. We present early insights from our problem analysis using System Dynamics and outline our next steps. We find UXPs as both a tool for policy implementation and for adaptive policymaking, with understanding and utilisation of this latter aspect low. We conclude by discussing how IS research on UXPs contributes towards realising the potential of digital infrastructures for societal good

Visualizing Business Ecosystems: Applying a Collaborative Modelling Process in Two Case Studies

Business ecosystems are increasingly gaining relevance in research and practice. Because business ecosystems progressively change, enterprises are interested in analysing their ecosystem, to identify and address such changes. In order to gain a comprehensive picture of the business ecosystem, various stakeholders of the enterprise should be involved in the analysis process. We propose a collaborative approach to model and visualize the business ecosystem and we validate four central roles in the modelling process. The process consists of six steps, namely the definition of the business ecosystem focus, instantiation of the model, data collection, provision of tailored visualizations, collecting feedback and adapting the models, and using the visualization ‘to tell a story’. In this paper, we report case studies of two companies that have instantiated ecosystem models

Experimentation Platforms as Bridges to Urban Sustainability

Despite immense efforts to realize diverse visions of the ‘smart city,’ municipalities still face manifold uncertainties of how governance and the tools of governance can best support public and regional value creation for achieving urban sustainability. To this end, Urban Living Labs have become a known enabling mechanism. In this paper, we extend the lab idea and formulate the concept of Urban Experimentation Platform that focuses on developing urban innovation ecosystems for urban sustainability. We use action design research and participant observation across multiple case studies enacting Urban Experimentation Platforms in order to investigate how the tie-in between governance and the local lab’s innovation process unfolds. Our analysis distills three facets that are instrumental in institutionalizing these platforms as resilient organizational models. With the help of the case studies, we illustrate the three facets, concerning issues of urban ecosystem governance, empowering co-creation, and qualifying local innovation. The facets reinforce the roles of digital instruments and digital capabilities for effective urban governance and platform management. We draw some conclusions for future research and formulate policy recommendations for implementing and operating Urban Experimentation Platforms

“So what if ChatGPT wrote it?” Multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges and implications of generative conversational AI for research, practice and policy

Transformative artificially intelligent tools, such as ChatGPT, designed to generate sophisticated text indistinguishable from that produced by a human, are applicable across a wide range of contexts. The technology presents opportunities as well as, often ethical and legal, challenges, and has the potential for both positive and negative impacts for organisations, society, and individuals. Offering multi-disciplinary insight into some of these, this article brings together 43 contributions from experts in fields such as computer science, marketing, information systems, education, policy, hospitality and tourism, management, publishing, and nursing. The contributors acknowledge ChatGPT’s capabilities to enhance productivity and suggest that it is likely to offer significant gains in the banking, hospitality and tourism, and information technology industries, and enhance business activities, such as management and marketing. Nevertheless, they also consider its limitations, disruptions to practices, threats to privacy and security, and consequences of biases, misuse, and misinformation. However, opinion is split on whether ChatGPT’s use should be restricted or legislated. Drawing on these contributions, the article identifies questions requiring further research across three thematic areas: knowledge, transparency, and ethics; digital transformation of organisations and societies; and teaching, learning, and scholarly research. The avenues for further research include: identifying skills, resources, and capabilities needed to handle generative AI; examining biases of generative AI attributable to training datasets and processes; exploring business and societal contexts best suited for generative AI implementation; determining optimal combinations of human and generative AI for various tasks; identifying ways to assess accuracy of text produced by generative AI; and uncovering the ethical and legal issues in using generative AI across different contexts

“So what if ChatGPT wrote it?”:Multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges and implications of generative conversational AI for research, practice and policy

Transformative artificially intelligent tools, such as ChatGPT, designed to generate sophisticated text indistinguishable from that produced by a human, are applicable across a wide range of contexts. The technology presents opportunities as well as, often ethical and legal, challenges, and has the potential for both positive and negative impacts for organisations, society, and individuals. Offering multi-disciplinary insight into some of these, this article brings together 43 contributions from experts in fields such as computer science, marketing, information systems, education, policy, hospitality and tourism, management, publishing, and nursing. The contributors acknowledge ChatGPT’s capabilities to enhance productivity and suggest that it is likely to offer significant gains in the banking, hospitality and tourism, and information technology industries, and enhance business activities, such as management and marketing. Nevertheless, they also consider its limitations, disruptions to practices, threats to privacy and security, and consequences of biases, misuse, and misinformation. However, opinion is split on whether ChatGPT’s use should be restricted or legislated. Drawing on these contributions, the article identifies questions requiring further research across three thematic areas: knowledge, transparency, and ethics; digital transformation of organisations and societies; and teaching, learning, and scholarly research. The avenues for further research include: identifying skills, resources, and capabilities needed to handle generative AI; examining biases of generative AI attributable to training datasets and processes; exploring business and societal contexts best suited for generative AI implementation; determining optimal combinations of human and generative AI for various tasks; identifying ways to assess accuracy of text produced by generative AI; and uncovering the ethical and legal issues in using generative AI across different contexts

Architecture of networked value added communities of textile industries

Die Wertschöpfungsgemeinschaften der Textilwirtschaft weisen traditionell gewachsene Strukturen auf. Diese sind heute gegenüber ihrem turbulenten Umfeld ineffizient und ineffektiv geworden; sie werden den Anforderungen der heutigen unternehmerischen Umwelt nicht mehr gerecht. Gleichzeitig erwächst aus diesen Beziehungen das Potenzial, sich den neuen Anforderungen zu stellen und ihnen aktiv zu begegnen. Um dieses Potenzial nutzen zu können, fehlen dem Management der Unternehmen jedoch die geeigneten Mittel, um bessere, flexiblere Strukturen zu schaffen und um in diesen neuen Strukturen kooperieren und führen zu können. Es werden neue organisatorische Kompetenzen benötigt, um in der Zukunft Kooperationen aktiv gestalten zu können. Das Management muß hierzu seinen Handlungsrahmen um geeignete Mittel erweitern. Das Ziel der dieser Arbeit zugrundeliegenden Forschungstätigkeit bestand darin, zunächst für ein konkretes, komplexes Koordinationsproblem der Textilwirtschaft eine praktikable Lösungsidee zu entwickeln und zu erproben. Daraus sollte in einem zweiten Schritt, mit der vorliegenden Arbeit, ein Beitrag zum wissensorientierten Management zukünftig verstärkt auftretender Typen netzwerkartiger Kooperationen innerhalb der Textilwirtschaft entstehen. Die Ausarbeitung folgt dazu einer konstruktiven, integrativen Methodik, mithilfe derer die geforderten neuen Mittel für Management entwickelt werden. Sie setzen einen neuen Handlungsrahmen für Management, der die Partner der Wertschöpfungsgemeinschaften dazu befähigen soll, ihre vernetzten Gemeinschaften und ihre Kooperation in diesen Gemeinschaften besser gestalten zu können. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird eine Architektur der vernetzten Wertschöpfungsgemeinschaften der Textilwirtschaft erarbeitet. Sie liefert die methodische Grundlage für wissensorientiertes Management. Bei der Gestaltung der Kooperation kommt dabei der Modellierung und der Koordination ein besonderer Stellenwert zu. Die erfolgreiche Kooperation innerhalb der netzwerkartigen Wertschöpfungsbeziehungen beruht auf der geeigneten Gestaltung der entstehenden neuen Wertschöpfungsgemeinschaften. Insbesondere die Form des Gemeinschaftshandelns erzeugt Communities, innerhalb derer Wertschöpfungspartner Netzwerke bilden können, welche definierte netzwerkartige Ausprägungen von Kooperationen sind, an denen die Partner über unterschiedliche Koordinationsmechanismen partizipieren. Der erste Teil der Ausarbeitung untersucht eine praktischen Problemstellung. Es wird die Kooperation innerhalb einer konkreten Wertschöpfungsgemeinschaft der Textilwirtschaft im Bereich Heimtextilien betrachtet. Die Arbeit stellt zunächst den anwendungsorientierten Forschungsansatz vor und formuliert die konkrete Problemstellung. Dabei werden drei grundlegende Probleme identifiziert. Dies sind das Vernetzungsproblem, hinsichtlich der dynamischen Gestaltung der Partnerschaftsbeziehungen, das Navigationsproblem, hinsichtlich der systematischen Orientierung in der komplexen Beziehungsstruktur der Wertschöpfungsgemeinschaft sowie das Problem der Wissensteilung, hinsichtlich der systematischen Erschließung von Wissen für die Kooperation. Lösungsidee ist es, diesen drei Problemen durch Einführung eines neuen organisatorischen Konzeptes, durch Etablierung entsprechender methodischer Grundlagen und durch die Anwendung geeigneter Technologien zu begegnen. Zielsetzung ist die Erarbeitung eines Lösungsvorschlages für die Neugestaltung der Integration der Community-Partner. Insbesondere wird untersucht, welche Merkmale die neuen Wertschöpfungsgemeinschaften, die Communities, aufweisen. Es wird hierbei das Managementkonzept der Community Governance entwickelt. Die Umsetzung dieses Konzeptes fordert von den Unternehmen der Gemeinschaften die Etablierung der neuen Organisationsform Dynamisch Vernetzter Unternehmen. Dies geschieht mithilfe einer Gestaltungsmethode, die auf einer wissensorientierten Analyse und Modellierung basiert. Es wird ein konkretes Gestaltungsprojekt erläutert, das diese Methode praktisch umsetzt. Das Ergebnis ist ein neuer Handlungsrahmen für Management, der neue methodische und technologische Instrumente und Tools umfasst. Letztere werden im zweiten Teil der Ausarbeitung im Hinblick auf eine generalisierte Problemstellung erörtert. In diesem Zusammenhang wird ein Wissensmodell als generisches Framework für wissensorientiertes Management formuliert. Es ermöglicht die Untersuchung eines allgemeinen konzeptionellen Modells der Community Governance. Aus dem Blickwinkel von Systemtheorie und Kybernetik wird im folgenden die Community Governance als komplexes ökonomisches System charakterisiert. Abschließend werden die Potenziale der Community Governance als Managementkonzept im Umfeld anderer dynamischer Gemeinschaftsstrukturen erörtert. Die Community Governance kann zu diesem aktuellen Thema der anwendungsorientierten Forschung bereits praxiserprobte Elemente beitragen.Value added communities of textile industries have traditionally developed as economically and socially networked structures. In front of today's turbulent environmental conditions, these freely grown structures have become ineffective and inefficient. They are no longer apt to face the challenges of the economy. At the same time, originating from these grown relationships is a potential, to actively meet these new challenges. For unleashing this potential however, the management of the communities' enterprises lacks the necessary means for creating better, and more flexible, structures, and it lacks the means facilitating co-operation and leadership within these structures. It is each enterprise's management duty, to adapt their perception of co-operation and coordination, and to seize the grown relationships as a chance. New organisational competences are required for actively managing co-operations in the future. Management must therefore enlarge their operational framework by deploying appropriate new means. Objective of the applied research work in advance to this thesis has been to develop and to practically prove a solution for a complex coordination problem of textile industry. The academic work presented here is intended to contribute to the knowledge-oriented management of those major types of networked co-operations in textile industries which presumably will prevail in the future. The thesis follows a constructive, integrative methodology, which allows to develop the postulated new means for management. They are setting new operational boundaries, and are intended to enable the partners of value added communities to actively shape their networked communities and to improve their co-operation within the communities. Hence, this thesis elaborates an architecture of networked value added communities of textile industries. This architecture lays the methodological foundation for knowledge-oriented management. For managing co-operation, modelling and coordination are of increased significance. Successful co-operation within networked value added relationships depends on the appropriate governance of the evolving new value added communities. Especially the character of cooperative operations creates communities, in which partners can create networks that constitute well-defined networked co-operations - within the networks, the partners are participating through different coordination mechanisms. In the first part of the thesis the co-operation within a real value added community of home textile industries is presented. Three basic problems are identified, first, the networking problem - dynamic networking of partnerships, second, the navigation problem - systematic orientation within complex relationship structures of a value added community, and third, the problem of shared knowledge - systematic opening of knowledge sources for co-operation. Objective is first, to introduce a new organisational concept, by establishing the adequate methodical basics and by deploying the appropriate technological tools, and second, to develop a concept for re-engineering the integration of the community partners with each other. Particularly, the characteristics featured by the new value added communities are explored. For governing the new communities, co-operation and coordination play a significant role. In this respect, the management concept of Community Governance is developed. Establishing Community Governance demands the positioning of community partners as Dynamically Networked Enterprises. Subsequently, the principal methodical procedure of a method for forming a community (Gestaltungsmethode) is presented as a governance project. A basis is laid by knowledge-oriented analysis and modelling of the value added community. The performed project, resulting in a governance concept for the community, as well as the means deployed during this project, are documented in detail. The second part of the thesis elaborates the newly developed means for management from a more general perspective. They provide practical instruments for the management of co-operation within communities. Consequently, a knowledge model as a Generic Framework for Knowledge-oriented Management can be formulated. This allows for a knowledge-oriented development and discussion of a general conceptual model of Community Governance. From the perspective of system theory and cybernetics, Community Governance is formulated in form of a complex hierarchical management (governance) system. With a forecast perspective, finally the potentials of Community Governance as a management concept for other evolving community structures like Breeding Environments, are discussed. It is shown that Community Governance can contribute crucial and practically proven elements to this current issue of applied research

Architectural Design for Service Supported Collaborative Work in Extended Enterprises

The idea of service-orientation has contributed to an increased interest in Enterprise Architecture (EA) within information systems research and business. One central, yet often underestimated factor of service-orientation is the integration of services. This paper discusses the issue of service integration in the context of Extended Enterprises (EE) from an architectural perspective. Following a design science approach, the design of a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) integration platform is aligned with collaboration characteristics in EE. The platform enables the creation of collaborative information and communication technology (ICT) applications built from services, and facilitates the development of shared service repositories in EE contexts. The paper reflects aspects of the architectural design process leading to the platform design. An observational field study allows a qualitative assessment of the resulting service repositories. It suggests that shared service repositories lead to synergy effects within EE contexts

Holistic Design of Visual Collaboration Arenas and Intelligent Workspaces

Future industrial and societal projects must be designed for sustainable operations, evolutionary capabilities, and business operations. To exploit the potential of digitalization, we must design practical cases and roles, workspaces and collaboration spaces, creating evolutionary action- and work-sensitive contexts. Intelligent workspaces and operation models will complement, enhance, and replace natural language specifications, coded systems and information flows. Design of visual knowledge models, enabled by Active Knowledge Architectures, will revolutionize industrial computing and collaboration. The MADONE partners have performed industrial and public pilot projects verifying that sector adaptable platforms give actors agile approaches and evolving collaboration capabilities and services. Evolutionary workplaces and collaboration spaces resolve present challenges and open new opportunities, supporting flexibility, adaptability, reusability, traceability, predictability and sustainability. Holistic design of projects and operations is the industry case demonstrator described.acceptedVersio