ICIS 2008 Panel Report: Design Science in Information Systems: Hegemony, Bandwagon, or New Wave?

In the past few years, design science has become a topic of increasing importance, especially in the North American academic IS community. Some observers see a new hegemony forming. Others dispute that but suggest that design science is merely the latest bandwagon rolling through the IS domain. A panel at the 2008 International Conference on Information Systems debated views of design science prevalent in the IS community. This paper reports on the panel discussion and attempts to position design science from various perspectives, including North American and European views, the latter with a long tradition of design-based IS scholarship

ICIS 2008 Panel Report: Design Science in Information Systems: Hegemony, Bandwagon, or New Wave?

In the past few years, design science has become a topic of increasing importance, especially in the North American academic IS community. Some observers see a new hegemony forming. Others dispute that but suggest that design science is merely the latest bandwagon rolling through the IS domain. A panel at the 2008 International Conference on Information Systems debated views of design science prevalent in the IS community. This paper reports on the panel discussion and attempts to position design science from various perspectives, including North American and European views, the latter with a long tradition of design-based IS scholarship

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

Developing Crisis Training Software for Local Governments – From User Needs to Generic Requirements

In this paper we analyze and present the generic requirements identified for a software aiming at supporting crisis management training in local governments. The generic requirements are divided into overall requirements, requirements connected to the trainer’s role and requirements connected to the trainee’s role. Moreover, the requirements are mapped to problems as well as opportunities. Finally, we present examples of elaborations of the addressed requirements based on software design considerations. In our work we applied a design science approach and the artifact presented in this paper is a list of generic requirement. The presented requirements and the systems development process used, provide guidelines for systems analysts and developers in future systems development projects aiming at constructing new software for crisis management training

ON COMPUTER SIMULATION AS A COMPONENT IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH

Computer simulation is widely regarded as a useful activity during various phases of research. However, depending on its context, the meaning, definition, and focus of the term can vary: In traffic planning, for example, simulation is used to determine useful configurations of a road network, thus focusing on the environment. An entirely different perspective is used within multi-agent systems. In such settings, the environment of the agents remains static, while the interesting research questions concern the behavior of the agents themselves. The research focuses on the microscopic level and the resulting emergent behavior. This article puts such diverse meanings in the context of a research process that treats descriptive and prescriptive research as two sides of the same coin. We develop a framework to classify different types of simulation, based on the actual research activity they are intended to be used for. Two case studies supplement the framework

Targeted ablation and reorganization of the principal preplate neurons and their neuroblasts identified by golli promoter transgene expression in the neocortex of mice

The present study delineates the cellular responses of dorsal pallium to targeted genetic ablation of the principal preplate neurons of the neocortex. Ganciclovir treatment during prenatal development (E11–E13; where E is embryonic day) of mice selectively killed cells with shared S-phase vulnerability and targeted expression of a GPT [golli promoter transgene, linked to HSV-TK (herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase), τ-eGFP (τ-enhanced green fluorescent protein) and lacZ (lacZ galactosidase) reporters] localized in preplate neurons. Morphogenetic fates of attacked neurons and neuroblasts, and their successors, were assessed by multiple labelling in time-series comparisons between ablated (HSV-TK+/0) and control (HSV-TK0/0) littermates. During ablation generation, neocortical growth was suppressed, and compensatory reorganization of non-GPT ventricular zone progenitors of dorsal pallium produced replacements for killed GPT neuroblasts. Replacement and surviving GPT neuroblasts then produced replacements for killed GPT neurons. Near-normal restoration of their complement delayed the settlement of GPT neurons into the reconstituted preplate, which curtailed the outgrowth of pioneer corticofugal axons. Based on this evidence, we conclude that specific cell killing in ablated mice can eliminate a major fraction of GPT neurons, with insignificant bystander killing. Also, replacement GPT neurons in ablated mice originate exclusively by proliferation from intermediate progenitor GPT neuroblasts, whose complement is maintained by non-GPT progenitors for inductive regulation of the total complement of GPT neurons. Finally, GPT neurons in both normal and ablated mice meet all morphogenetic criteria, including the ‘outside-in’ vertical gradient of settlement, presently used to identify principal preplate neurons. In ablated mice, delayed organization of these neurons desynchronizes and isolates developing neocortex from the rest of the brain, and permanently impairs its connectivity

Adaptive Workflow Design Based on Blockchain

Increasingly, organizational processes have become more complex. There is a need for the design of workflows to focus on how organizations adapt to emergent processes while balancing the need for decentralization and centralization goal. The advancement in new technologies especially blockchain provides organizations with the opportunity to achieve the goal. Using blockchain technology (i.e. smart contract and blocks of specified consensus for deferred action), we leverage the theory of deferred action and a coordination framework to conceptually design a workflow management system that addresses organizational emergence (e-WfMS). Our artifact helps managers to predict and store the impact of deferred actions. We evaluated the effectiveness of our system against a complex adaptive system for utility assessment

The development of a business intelligence web application to support the decision-making process regarding absenteeism in the workplace

Nowadays, one of the biggest concerns of industries all over the world is situations regarding absenteeism, since it has a great impact on the productivity and economy of companies, as well as on the health of their employees. The major causes of absenteeism appear to be work accidents and sickness leaves, which lead to the attempt by companies of understanding how the workload is related to the health of their collaborators and, consequently, to absenteeism. Thus, this paper proposes the design and development of a Web Application based on Business Intelligence indicators in order to help the health and human resources professionals of a Portuguese company analyse the relation between absenteeism and the health and lifestyle of employees, with the intention of concluding whether the work executed on the company is harming workers’ health. Furthermore, it is intended to discover the principal motives for the numerous and more frequent absences in this company, so that it is possible to decrease the absenteeism rate and, hence, improve the decision-making process. This platform will also provide higher quality healthcare and the possibility to find patterns in the absence of collaborators, as well as reduce time-waste and errors.This work has been supported by FCT –Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/201