Getting Around to It: How Design Science Researchers Set Future Work Agendas

Background: There is a long tradition of writing about future work in research papers, and information systems design science research (IS DSR) is no exception. However, there is a lack of studies on (1) how IS DSR authors currently envision the next steps for their work and (2) guidelines to improve the communication of opportunities to accumulate knowledge. Method: This paper contributes to this topic, building on a systematic literature review of 123 IS DSR papers published between 2018 and 2022. Results: Design-oriented research requires the research team to decide which tasks to carry out immediately in building the future and which to postpone as research debt. The paper\u27s contribution is threefold. First, we propose a research debt lifecycle to support (1) project stakeholders, (2) IS DSR community, and (3) societies looking for better futures. Second, we discuss the anatomy of future work in recent IS DSR. Finally, we suggest guidelines to manage and report the next research steps. Conclusion: This paper presents a pioneering assessment of future work suggestions in the IS field, focusing on the design science research paradigm. Future work directions emerge from researchers\u27 choices during the IS DSR process that must be continuously managed

Semantic and Web: The Semantic Part

The Web is everywhere in daily life. Business is not possible any more without the fast communication through the web. The knowledge of the humans is reflected in the information accessible in the web. New challenges occur with the flood of information and electronic possibilities for the human being. The current World Wide Web enables an easy, instant access to a vast amount of online information. However, the content in the Web is typically for human consumption, and is not tailored to be machine-processed. The Semantic Web, which is intended to establish a machine-understandable web, thereby offers a promising and potential solution to mining and analyzing web content. The Semantic Web is currently changing from an emergent trend to a technology used in complex real-world applications. This part of the special issue "Semantic and Web" especially investigates how semantic technologies can help the human being to open the new possibilities of the web. The papers, which contribute more to Web technologies, are published in Open Journal of Web Technologies (OJWT)

Semantic and Web: The Web Part

One major aim of the Semantic Web is to enable a machine-processable Web of data. Hence, the Semantic Web community regards it as extension of the traditional web. On the other hand, the applications of the Semantic Web rely deeply on web technologies in order to work in a distributed fashion, world-wide. The goal of this special issue is to bring together contributions from these communities to address the challenges in Semantic Web and Web technologies in cooperation. The papers included in this special issue demonstrate how new technologies of the Web and Semantic Web complement each other and provide more contributions to the area of web technologies. The semantic part of this special issue, which contains substantial theoretical and empirical contributions to Semantic Web, is published in Open Journal of Semantic Web (OJSW)

A STRATEGIC VIEW ON INTERTWINING DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL MATERIALITIES ACROSS LIFECYCLES OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Opportunities to use virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (VAM-R) are emerging in various sectors of the economy. To seize them, managers need to develop comprehensive strategies that intertwine digital and physical forms of materiality. This paper proposes a way to assess and steer the transformations of the reality-virtuality continuum across lifecycles of products and services. Our approach identifies use cases for VAM-R according to the (1) strategic imperative, (2) physical materiality, (3) reality-virtuality assessment, (4) digital materiality, (5) information value, and (6) project portfolio. The findings result from three action research cycles in manufacturing and healthcare. For theory, we propose a framework to evaluate the reality-virtuality continuum and guide VAM-R transformations. For practice, we propose and test an artefact accessible to domain experts with different backgrounds, and a sequence of steps to assist managers in their digitalization strategies with VAM-R. Lifecycle approaches offer an alternative perspective to situational transformation, potentially improving the pervasiveness of organizational changes using information technologies

Climbing the Maturity Ladder in Industry 4.0: A Framework for Diagnosis and Action that Combines National and Sectorial Strategies

We present a framework to assist Industry 4.0 initiatives at countrywide and sector-specific levels. It was created using design-science research in the context of non-metal mineral industry - ceramic, glass, stone, and nanomaterials. Our findings suggest that (1) existing maturity models for Industry 4.0 do not fit all industrial contexts; (2) their use can be discouraging for small and medium-size enterprises planning digital strategies; (3) Industry 4.0 technologies should be considered as prescriptive solutions rather than descriptive dimensions, and (4) it is possible and desirable to consider Industry 4.0 maturity as a co-evolutionary growth of digital services and processes within supply chains. Our proposal provides staged and continuous representations of maturity that can be tailored for each industry. Maturity models can be a prime communication tool for managers and technology providers. Our contribution supports the European efforts to succeed in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, shared by millions of industries worldwide

Open semantic service networks

Online service marketplaces will soon be part of the economy to scale the provision of specialized multi-party services through automation and standardization. Current research, such as the *-USDL service description language family, is already defining the basic building blocks to model the next generation of business services. Nonetheless, the developments being made do not target to interconnect services via service relationships. Without the concept of relationship, marketplaces will be seen as mere functional silos containing service descriptions. Yet, in real economies, all services are related and connected. Therefore, to address this gap we introduce the concept of open semantic service network (OSSN), concerned with the establishment of rich relationships between services. These networks will provide valuable knowledge on the global service economy, which can be exploited for many socio-economic and scientific purposes such as service network analysis, management, and control

Legal and Smart! An Exploratory Case Study on Understandability of Smart Contracts

This paper addresses the understandability of smart contracts when compared to their traditional legal form. Our method is an exploratory case study conducted with 36 students in information systems (IS). We conclude that smart contracts written in Solidity language are understandable by users with a background in programming languages such as Java and Python. The main advantage of smart contracts is the clarification of complex and/or disperse clauses in legal agreements. A key disadvantage is the lack of support to contextual information. An hybrid of the two forms can contribute to the clarification of legal contracts, but also raises challenges to keep both versions synchronized. In the advent of blockchain-related implementations, our work contributes to the adoption of smart contracts in IS courses and prepares futures research to evaluate the understandability of smart contracts by IS experts, legal advisors, and end users

Towards a Business Process Quality Culture: From High-Level Guidelines to Grassroots Actions

We present an information systems development (ISD) approach to integrate quality culture in business processes. Action research is our mode of inquiry and a company from the food industry provides the setting. Food production involves auditing throughout the supply chain and a demanding information system, with numerous goals and rules grounded on the organizational policies and values. However, there is a lack of holistic process-oriented approaches to leverage a quality culture. This paper provides a contribution, with the ISO2 approach, offering a set of artifacts to support the ISD lifecycle. An audit from a food retail group confirmed the positive outcome of its use, internalizing quality principles while developing the IS, and it is planning to suggest its adoption by their network of food suppliers

Information Systems Design Under a Different Light

This paper presents a new information systems design method conceived to accommodate emerging design trends and face the increasing complexity of information systems. It takes into account the growing business pressures that are put upon IS designers, the rising appeal of ready-made software (such as ERP and CRM systems), the growing weight of intranets and extranets, the need to account for legacy, and the call for effective management of the evolving portfolio of heterogeneous solutions that the information systems of the present day have become. It follows an approach that is quite different from those found in traditional information systems planning, in that it does without detailed information systems architectures and uses instead an identification of organizational entities whose responsibilities towards their environment may be supported by a variety of systems alternatives. The results thus produced enable a clear view of the present and future direction of the information system, while retaining a close relationship to the original business needs and the actual deployment options. A quick reference is made to a tool developed to support the method