Dimensions of Accountability in Inter-organizational Business Processes

Inter-organizational business processes are the basis of a globalized, highly dynamic, and digitalized world, en-abling faster and cost-effective transactions. At the same time, they raise business vulnerabilities. A partic-ular vulnerability is linked to the substantiation of trust between actors in dynamic business relationships, as trust affects interdependencies and complexity. An ap-proach to address this vulnerability is the introduction of accountability mechanisms. Extant research suggests that accountability enables revealing causality and a transparent allocation of responsibilities for each pro-cess step. Thereby, corresponding actors can judge upon misbehavior and verify trust claims. Unfortu-nately, a thorough understanding of accountability and its dimensions accountability in the context of IBP is still missing. To address this gap, we develop a framework with dimensions of accountability. We demonstrate the resulting framework in an industrial supply chain case and derive implications for theory and practice

Need-driven decision-making and prototyping for DLT: Framework and web-based tool

In its 14 years, distributed ledger technology has attracted increasing attention, investments, enthusiasm, and user base. However, ongoing doubts about its usefulness and recent losses of trust in prominent cryptocurrencies have fueled deeply skeptical assessments. Multiple groups attempted to disentangle the technology from the associated hype and controversy by building workflows for rapid prototyping and informed decision-making, but their mostly isolated work leaves users only with fewer unclarities. To bridge the gaps between these contributions, we develop a holistic analytical framework and open-source web tool for making evidence-based decisions. Consisting of three stages - evaluation, elicitation, and design - the framework relies on input from the users' domain knowledge, maps their choices, and provides an output of needed technology bundles. We apply it to an example clinical use case to clarify the directions of our contribution charts for prototyping, hopefully driving the conversation towards ways to enhance further tools and approaches

Barriers of applying Government as a Platform in Practice: Evidence from Germany

Government as a Platform (GaaP) is a promising approach to the digital transformation of the public sector. GaaP aims at the development of efficient and user-friendly services by exploiting platform principles such as openness, modularization and co-creation. Hence, GaaP claims to deliver a new level of stakeholder participation in the production of public services. However, the success of GaaP is arguably bound to the context of a country. To address the potential impact of a country’s context, the goal of this paper is to identify barriers and measures to overcome them in the application of GaaP in the federal context of Germany. We conduct a literature review and investigate a use case of a German digital government agency by means of documents, expert interviews and workshops. The agency applies GaaP to its architecture management of the federal IT infrastructure. We find five barriers and three measures to overcome. We conclude by discussing implications for theory and practice

Towards “Government as a Platform”: An analysis framework for public sector infrastructure

“Government as a Platform” (GaaP) is a promising approach to the digital transformation of the public sector. The approach sees Government as an open platform on which people inside and outside the government can innovate and co-create better public services. On a technical level, this is enabled by public sector infrastructure that also follows the approach. However, it remains unclear how exactly GaaP can be applied to public sector infrastructure in practice. In order to tackle this challenge, we develop a framework for the analysis of public infrastructure regarding its platform character. We apply the framework to a current public infrastructure project in Germany to demonstrate its applicability and infer possible future improvements. We contribute to literature by integrating GaaP literature with ideas and concepts from general IS platform literature and contribute to practice by providing a tool that supports the application of GaaP

Toward Government as a Platform: An Analysis Method for Public Sector Infrastructure

Government as a Platform (GaaP) is a promising approach to the digital transformation of the public sector. In practice, GaaP is realized by platform-oriented infrastructures. However, despite successful examples, the transformation toward platform-oriented infrastructures remains challenging. A potential remedy is the analysis of existing public infrastructure regarding its platform orientation. Such an analysis can identify the gaps to an ideal platform-oriented infrastructure and, thus, support the transformation toward it. We follow the design science research methodology to develop a four-dimensional analysis method. We do so in three iterations, and, after each iteration, evaluate the method by its application to infrastructures in practice. With regard to theory, our results suggest extending GaaP conceptualizations with a specific emphasis on platform principles. With regard to practice, we contribute an analysis method that creates proposals for the improvement of infrastructures and, thus, supports the transformation toward GaaP

Toward Government as a Platform: An Analysis Method for Public Sector Infrastructure

Government as a Platform (GaaP) is a promising approach to the digital transformation of the public sector. In practice, GaaP is realized by platform-oriented infrastructures. However, despite successful examples, the transformation toward platform-oriented infrastructures remains challenging. A potential remedy is the analysis of existing public infrastructure regarding its platform orientation. Such an analysis can identify the gaps to an ideal platform-oriented infrastructure and, thus, support the transformation toward it. We follow the design science research methodology to develop a four-dimensional analysis method. We do so in three iterations, and, after each iteration, evaluate the method by its application to infrastructures in practice. With regard to theory, our results suggest extending GaaP conceptualizations with a specific emphasis on platform principles. With regard to practice, we contribute an analysis method that creates proposals for the improvement of infrastructures and, thus, supports the transformation toward GaaP

Towards Interoperability of Smart City Data Platforms

We present a comprehensive analysis of the literature on interoperability of smart city data platforms in an attempt to conceptualize interoperability approaches. To this end, we propose a taxonomy of said approaches based on four dimensions with three characteristics each. The taxonomy can be used to classify interoperability approaches. We discuss implications for theory and practice and conclude with a first assessment of individual approaches towards their prospect of success

Software in the Manufacturing Industry: A Review of Security Challenges and Implications

Software defines digital infrastructures in the manufacturing industry, connecting services and computation resources to machines and devices. These infrastructures aim at increased flexibility, scalability, and a wider application portfolio for automated manufacturing processes. At the same time, the complexity of securing software increases dramatically. Threats to confidentiality, integrity, and availability of software can result in critical losses for automated industrial production and impact manufacturing companies. In order to map existing and emerging security challenges, we present the results of a hermeneutic literature review structured along abstraction levels and vertical integration of software. Based on this structure, we derive implications for academia and practice focused on operators, developers, and security auditors of digital infrastructures. Thereby, we discuss courses of action mapped to software security black boxes, infrastructure heterogeneity, and the adaptation of security for operational usage

Decision Framework for Improved Distributed Ledger Technology Utilization

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) has been salient in research and practice for over a decade, with substantial investments in numerous areas. Still, the absence of a rapid, industry-wide success fuels skepticism and numerous decision frameworks emerged focusing on how to scaffold DLT utilization. However, a consideration of needs, added value, and integrative design of DLT-based systems remains overlooked. By analyzing existing frameworks and DLT Proof-of-Concepts, we provide a research-in-progress decision framework for making evidence-based decisions on whether to use DLT and how to design a technology bundle for specific cases. Our main contribution centers on the focus on rapid collaborative prototyping. For applicability and validation, we implement the framework in an online questionnaire-like tool that generates a detailed report as a basis for an informed decision. While beneficial for academia and practice, our framework draws clear directions for future research on complementary tools, enhanced recommendations and the design of feasible DLT solutions for real world challenges

Standardization of Forms in Governments – A Meta-Model for a Reference Form Modeling Language

Forms are central interfaces for information exchange between a government and its citizens. As a way to translate laws into practice, forms are an essential part facilitating this exchange. Unfortunately, forms often require substantial development effort to ensure they comply with legal requirements, with the result that citi- zens often describe them as highly complex. Standardiza- tion of forms through reference modeling would help to minimize governments’ effort by reusing elements and would reduce complexity for citizens by providing a uni- fied representation of information. The article contributes a meta-model for a modeling language that can be used in representing reference models for forms. It follows a design science research approach to elicit form structure and editorial process requirements and to iteratively design the meta-model. The paper demonstrates and evaluates the meta-model using focus groups and application in three case studies. It extends research on standardization to ref- erence modeling and government forms