Business transactions and standards : towards a system of concepts and a method for early problem identification in standard implementation projects

To summarize, with respect to research question one we constructed a system of concepts, while in answer to research question two we proposed a method of how to apply this system of concepts in practice in order to identify potential problems in early stages of standard\ud implementation projects

Analyzing Living Labs as part of the complete innovation development process

Living labs which provide research and development environments for innovative eCustoms solutions for cross-border trade have recently received a lot of attention and have provided rich grounds for research (Tan et al., 2006, Kartseva et al, 2006; Liu et al., 2006; Baida et al., 2008; Baida et al., 2007; Liu et al., 2007; Razmerita & Bjorn-Anderson, 2007; Frößler et al.2007; Rukanova et al., 2007). Two studies (Frößler et al., 2007 and Rukanova et al., 2007) on Living Labs are particularly relevant from the point of view of innovation development and adoption. While these earlier studies zoom in on specific aspects of the innovation processes related to the Living Labs (i.e. management or adoption), they do not provide a holistic understanding of the innovation process that takes place and how a specific phase forms part of the whole process. The goal of this paper is to bring such holistic understanding of the innovation processes that take place in the context of Living Labs. To do so, we make use of the innovation-development processes of Rogers (1995) and we apply them to analyze the setting of Living Labs. In our analysis, we further extend the processes of Rogers to capture specific aspects of Living Labs. With this paper, we contribute to the existing research on Living Labs by providing a thorough understanding of the processes through which Living Labs develop as platforms for innovation development through business/government collaboration. The findings can also be of use for practitioners in setting-up and managing Living Labs

The changing role of Customs:Customs aligning with supply chain and information management

The World Customs Organization (WCO) Framework of Standards to Secure andFacilitate Global Trade (SAFE) introduced concepts of supply chain supervision and authorised operator schemes. While it has been implemented in many countries, supply chain supervision still requires further exploration and development. In this article we present a vision on how the role of Customs could change in the coming years, taking into account innovations in supply chain management and information technology. We present how the Customs Administration of The Netherlands adapts their supervision, based on these innovations. The innovations range from the data pipeline to collect extra data to cross-validate customs declarations, the use of big data and data analytics, new advances in detection technology, handheld apps to check goods and drones to support surveillance

Rethinking EU Trade Procedures – The Beer Living Lab

The EU is currently reshaping its customs legislation and practices. Main pillars in the new vision are an intensive use of IT (Customs becomes e-Customs), partnerships between Customs administrations and businesses, and collaboration between national Customs administrations. These concepts should support coping with the dilemma of on the one hand increasing security, safety, financial and health requirements, and on the other hand the need to reduce administrative burden, to keep the EU a competitive economic zone. Two main concepts in coping with this challenge are Single Window and Authorized Economic Operators. The EU is investigating how to transform these abstract concepts into a tangible reality. The Beer Living Lab is an EU-funded pilot research project that implements this EU vision in the beer industry. In this paper we provide results from the Beer Living Lab and we introduce the fourth step in e3-control, a theoretical framework for procedure redesign. We discuss the application of e3- control in the Beer Living Lab, where modeling is a means to facilitate innovation and network transformation

Moving an eInnovation from a Living Lab to the Real World: Politically Savvy Framing in ITAIDE\u27s Beer Living Lab

Living Labs have been established as real-life pilot settings in which IT innovations are developed and validated. Once these steps have been completed, these innovations are ready to be moved out of the Living Lab environment into the real world. In many cases Living Lab innovations require not only technological but also socio-political and institutional changes to be made in order for them to be adopted. The need of socio-political and institutional changes becomes especially visible in cases where Living Lab participants attempt to propose innovative solutions for domains that are highly regulated. The reason for that is that in such cases, often the existing legal requirement would need to be adjusted first, in order to create grounds for the further adoption of the innovation. The question as to how to achieve such legal changes related to Living Lab innovations in a highly regulated environment has received vey limited attention. In this paper, we specifically focus on understanding of framing processes and how they are used by the Living Lab participants in a politically savvy way to mobilize a multi-level network of actors in their attempts to bring institutional change. We further investigate this framework through a case study involving a variety of framing processes that took place in the Beer Living Lab. The Beer Living Lab is part of the ITAIDE project that aims to develop and test an eCustoms solution for international trade. In addition to our contribution of the conceptual framework and the accompanying empirical case study, we also identify further implications for practitioners who are involved in similar Living Labs in highly regulated environments

eCustoms Innovation and Transformation: A Research Approach

A major challenge for European governments is solving the dilemma of increasing security and control of international trade, while at the same time reducing the administrative overhead carried by commercial and public administration organisations. Electronic Customs, the transformation of paper-based trade documents to electronic ones, and the corresponding redesign of customs procedures, seems to be very promising approach to deal with this dilemma. However, while ICT is widely perceived as a key component of a solution, we argue in this paper that the complexity of the redesign of these electronic documents and procedures for international trade is far more problematic than traditional business process and network innovations. We identify key challenges facing the development and introduction of innovative eCustoms solutions and we outline conceptual and methodological approaches to address these challenges. In such a way, we outline a research approach for eCustoms innovation and transformation

Inter-Organisational Network Formation and Sense-Making: Initiation and Management of Public-Private Collaboration

The paper analyses the initiation and management of inter-organisational networks, spanning both the public and private domain. Specifically, bracketing the institutional level and combining literature on communities-of-practice and network management, we turn our attention to managerial activities which are no longer de-contextualized but understood as highly situated activities. By doing so, the paper elucidates the crucial role boundary spanners have in alleviating discontinuities across institutional boundaries. Furthermore, we untangle the temporal process which led to the successful formation of an innovative network, namely stabilising the network, initiating a cognitive shift towards a network strategy, and developing a supportive culture and practices. These ideas are developed by presenting a processual account of an interpretive case study on inter-organisational network formation which was part of a research programme for designing and studying the feasibility and implications of electronic government/industry interaction

A Collective Action Perspective on Technological Innovation in Business/Government Networks

The history of Information Systems knows numerous examples of IT-enabled innovations which fail to get adopted due to social, political and legal issues. This is especially the case in highly regulated environments, where regulation or existing industry practices need to be changed first, in order to establish grounds for the further adoption of the innovative IT-based solutions. In this paper we explore the domain of customs (with a focus on cross-border trade) as an example of a highly regulated environment. Our main objective is to provide insights into how such institutional practices can be changed by using the lens of “the collective action model for institutional innovation” (Hargrave and Van de Ven, 2006). The collective action model builds on the dialectic theory of change, where an established thesis is confronted with an anti-thesis to lead to a synthesis, which becomes the thesis for the new dialectic cycle (Van de Ven and Poole, 1995). We applied the model to a specific kind of eCustoms innovation project for cross-border trade, the Beer Living Lab, to see whether it is helpful to explain the attempts of the innovators to bring their ideas further. We found out that the dialectic theory of change, which is the basis for the model, as well as the key concepts: framing contest, construction of the networks, enactment of institutional arrangements (and specifically the notion of political opportunity structures) were very helpful sensitizing devices and useful in understanding and discussing in a structured way the developments that we observe in the Beer Living Lab. Even though we did not have sufficient data with respect to the fourth concept of the model, i.e.“collective action process”, we consider the concept was helpful as it stimulated us to think and formulate a number of questions that we can further explore during the forthcoming stages in the Beer Living Lab. Based on the case analysis, we came to a number of insights which may be used to further develop the collective action model, as well as for developing strategies for bringing IT-based innovations in highly regulated environment. First of all, we observed that the notion of construction of networks proposed by Hargrave and Van de Ven is very general and we proposed further conceptualization by using the analytical categories: levels, horizontal interaction and vertical interaction. This further conceptualization allowed capturing, in a structured way, the diversity of actors and interactions that play a role in the mobilization of the network in the Beer Living Lab. Second, from the case analysis we found out that the Beer Living Lab solution was framed very closely to the relevant problems that the EU struggles to address and states in its strategic reports. This indicates a clear linkages between the categories “Framing contests” and “Political opportunity structure” (the latter being part of “Enactment of institutional arrangement”) proposed by Hargave and Van de Ven. A possible field for further research is to provide extension of the collective action model by explicitly explore further the linkage between “Framing” and “Political opportunity structures”. It may be that the innovative solutions have better chance to be institutionalized if they are properly framed according to the existing political opportunity structures. Third, from the case we also gained insights that it may be worth exploring the linkage between the categories “Framing contests” and the “construction of networks”. In the specific networks that we explored in the Beer Living Lab it is not sufficient that only one type of actors commit to the solution, rather all the actors involved in the transaction will need to commit. The further exploration of such linkages may provide insight on strategic choices that can be made when mobilizing a collective action for institutional innovation in the context of cross-border trade. While we applied the model in the specific context of eCustoms, we consider that our findings may be relevant for bringing IT-based innovations in other highly-regulated domains (e.g. energy and heath care). The explorations of these other domains can be a subject for further research