How do Practitioners Understand External Platforms and Services? A Grounded Theory Investigation

In this article, we investigate how practitioners understand external platforms, whose core offering is shared and utilized by a number of heterogeneous and interconnected organizations in an ecosystem. We especially look into situations where organizations wish to extend their own capability instead of building services that extend the functionality of the platform. Such dependencies to external platforms can be envisioned as the contemporary evolution from traditional outsourcing service models. We interviewed twenty-four practitioners from eight IT organizations and discovered a considerable ambiguity in understanding of what are the external platforms utilized by the organizations. We further elaborate that the diversified meanings that various stakeholders give to the concept of external platforms, can hinder efficient communication and may have implications on important strategic decision making

Love and Hate Relationships in a Platform Ecosystem: A case of Finnish Electronic Identity Management

There has been a substantial interest among scholars in digital platforms and their governance. This paper proposes a different perspective on the phenomenon, by providing observations on non-focal firms’ dependencies to external platforms. Using the case study results of Finnish firms’ utilization of a monopolistic BankID authentication platform, we describe the platform ecosystem and its transformation on organizational and technology aspects. We show how legislation can transform the roles and relations between ecosystem participants and lead to the long-time dominant legacy platform weakening. Our study extends existing research on platforms and contributes new knowledge about the enforced adoption of the platform by heterogeneous organizations. These findings have important managerial implications, as they inform how non-focal firms can understand the use of existing and coming digital platforms

Blockchain Technology in Business and Information Systems Research

Peer reviewe

A Blockchain-Based Approach Towards Overcoming Financial Fraud in Public Sector Services

In financial markets it is common for companies and individuals to invest into foreign companies. To avoid the double taxation of investors on dividend payment - both in the country where the profit is generated as well as the country of residence - most governments have entered into bilateral double taxation treaties, whereby investors can claim a tax refund in the country where the profit is generated. Due to easily forgeable documents and insufficient international exchange of information between tax authorities, investors illegitimately apply for these tax returns causing an estimated damage of 1.8 billion USD, for example, in Denmark alone. This paper assesses the potential of a blockchain database to provide a feasible solution for overcoming this problem against the backdrop of recent advances in the public sector and the unique set of blockchain capacities. Towards this end, we develop and evaluate a blockchain-based prototype system aimed at eliminating this type of tax fraud and increasing transparency regarding the flow of dividends. While the prototype is based on the specific context of the Danish tax authority, we discuss how it can be generalized for tracking international and interorganizational transactions

A multi-disciplinary perspective on emergent and future innovations in peer review [version 2; referees: 2 approved]

Peer review of research articles is a core part of our scholarly communication system. In spite of its importance, the status and purpose of peer review is often contested. What is its role in our modern digital research and communications infrastructure? Does it perform to the high standards with which it is generally regarded? Studies of peer review have shown that it is prone to bias and abuse in numerous dimensions, frequently unreliable, and can fail to detect even fraudulent research. With the advent of web technologies, we are now witnessing a phase of innovation and experimentation in our approaches to peer review. These developments prompted us to examine emerging models of peer review from a range of disciplines and venues, and to ask how they might address some of the issues with our current systems of peer review. We examine the functionality of a range of social Web platforms, and compare these with the traits underlying a viable peer review system: quality control, quantified performance metrics as engagement incentives, and certification and reputation. Ideally, any new systems will demonstrate that they out-perform and reduce the biases of existing models as much as possible. We conclude that there is considerable scope for new peer review initiatives to be developed, each with their own potential issues and advantages. We also propose a novel hybrid platform model that could, at least partially, resolve many of the socio-technical issues associated with peer review, and potentially disrupt the entire scholarly communication system. Success for any such development relies on reaching a critical threshold of research community engagement with both the process and the platform, and therefore cannot be achieved without a significant change of incentives in research environments

Blockchain research, practice and policy: Applications, benefits, limitations, emerging research themes and research agenda

YesThe blockchain has received significant attention from technology focussed researchers, highlighting its perceived impact and emerging disruption potential, but has been slow to engender any significant momentum within the Information Systems (IS) and Information Management (IM) literature. This study approaches the subject through an IS/IM lens developing the key themes from the blockchain based research via a comprehensive review. This analysis of the body of literature highlights that although few commercial grade blockchain applications currently exist, the technology demonstrates significant potential to benefit a number of industry wide use cases. This study expands on this point articulating through each of the key themes to develop a detailed narrative on the numerous potential blockchain applications and future direction of the technology, whilst discussing the many barriers to adoption. The study asserts that blockchain technology has the potential to contribute to a number of the UN Sustainability Development Goals and engender widespread change within a number of established industries and practices

The state of play of blockchain technology in the financial services sector: A systematic literature review

The modern trends of digitalization have completely transformed and reshaped business practices, whole businesses, and even a number of industries. Blockchain technology is believed to be the latest advancement in industries such as the financial sector, where trust is of prime significance. Blockchain technology is a decentralized and coded security system which provides the capability for new digital services and platforms to be created through this emerging technology. This research presents a systematic review of scholarly articles on blockchain technology in the financial sector. We commenced by considering 227 articles and subsequently filtered this list down to 87 articles. From this, we present a classification framework that has three dimensions: blockchain-enabled financial benefits, challenges, and functionality. This research identifies implications for future research and practice within the blockchain paradigm

A multi-disciplinary perspective on emergent and future innovations in peer review

Peer review of research articles is a core part of our scholarly communication system. In spite of its importance, the status and purpose of peer review is often contested. What is its role in our modern digital research and communications infrastructure? Does it perform to the high standards with which it is generally regarded? Studies of peer review have shown that it is prone to bias and abuse in numerous dimensions, frequently unreliable, and can fail to detect even fraudulent research. With the advent of web technologies, we are now witnessing a phase of innovation and experimentation in our approaches to peer review. These developments prompted us to examine emerging models of peer review from a range of disciplines and venues, and to ask how they might address some of the issues with our current systems of peer review. We examine the functionality of a range of social Web platforms, and compare these with the traits underlying a viable peer review system: quality control, quantified performance metrics as engagement incentives, and certification and reputation. Ideally, any new systems will demonstrate that they out-perform and reduce the biases of existing models as much as possible. We conclude that there is considerable scope for new peer review initiatives to be developed, each with their own potential issues and advantages. We also propose a novel hybrid platform model that could, at least partially, resolve many of the socio-technical issues associated with peer review, and potentially disrupt the entire scholarly communication system. Success for any such development relies on reaching a critical threshold of research community engagement with both the process and the platform, and therefore cannot be achieved without a significant change of incentives in research environments

Omaishoitajien kokemuksia kotihoidolta saadusta tuesta

Väestö ikääntyySuomessa ja vanhuspalvelujen tarve kasvaa selvästitulevien vuosien aikana. Kansallisen tavoitteen mukaan iäkkäiden tulee voida asua kotona mahdollisimman pitkään ja saada kotiin riittävästi tarvitsemiaan palveluita. Omaishoito on yksi tukimuoto kotona asuvalle kotihoidon asiakkaalle. Omaishoitajaliiton mukaan tyypillinen omaishoitaja on yli 65-vuotias nainen, joka hoitaa muistisairasta puolisoaan. Omaishoidon katsotaan olevan raskasta ja sitovaa, omaishoitaja on hoidettavan kanssa monesti ympäri vuorokauden.Omaishoitajien jaksamisesta ja tukemisestahuolehtiminen on tärkeää, että he jaksaisivat toimia omaishoitajan tärkeässä tehtävässä.Omaishoidon tarve on viime vuosina lisääntynyt ja omaishoitajien määrä tulee varmasti lähivuosina kasvamaan vielä entisestään.Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvata kotihoidon antamaa tukea omaishoitajille. Tavoitteena on, että tietoa voidaan hyödyntää, kun kehitetään omaishoitajien kanssa tehtävää yhteistyötä ja sitä, miten kotihoito ja sen työntekijät voisivat tukea omaishoitajaa kotihoidon asiakkaan hoidossa. Tämä tutkimus toteutettiin laadullisin menetelmin, koska haluttiin kerätä kokemuksiaomaishoitajilta. Aineistonkeruumenetelmänä käytettiin avointa haastattelua. Tutkimuksen aineisto analysoitiin induktiivisella sisällönanalyysillä. Tutkimukseen osallistui (n=15) omaishoitajana toimivaa henkilöä Etelä-Pohjanmaan alueelta. Osallistujista neljä haastateltiin kasvokkain ja yksitoista haastattelua toteutettiin puhelimitse.Tämän tutkimuksentulostenmukaan omaishoitajat olivat pääsääntöisesti melko tyytyväisiä kotihoidon kautta saatuun tukeen. Tutkimustulosten mukaan omaishoitajat kokivat saavansa tukea voimavarojen huomioinnista sekävapaa-ajan järjestymisestä