ERP Systems as Facilitating and Confounding factors in Corporate Mergers: the case of two Canadian telecommunications companies

This paper presents early findings from a research project in which the research partners, academics and a telecommunication labour union, are attempting to understand, learn from and anticipate further changes related to the implementation of ERP in an industry sector in the midst of consolidation via corporate merger enabled in part by the adoption of ERP systems in the merging partners

The problem of blasphemy: The fourth gospel and early Jewish understandings

This thesis argues that the Johannine Jewish Christians—those who produced, preserved, and propagated the Fourth Gospel—were perceived to be blasphemers of God because of their exalted claims for Jesus and their disparaging remarks against the Ιουδαιοι. It was probably on this basis that Jewish Christians were excommunicated from the synagogue (cf Jn 9:22; 12:42; 16:2). We take three steps to establish this claim. First, we review J. Louis Martyn's hypothesis that the Johannine Christians were expelled from the synagogue as a result of the Birkat ha-Minim. We argue that the Birkat ha-Minim is problematic, suggest that an alternative hypothesis is necessary, and propose that accusations of blasphemy would provide an alternative explanation. Next, we survey recent research on blasphemy, offer an analysis of the historical, social, and literary context of the Fourth Gospel, and present a semantic analysis of βλασφημέωand related terms. Second, we probe seven Jewish traditions pertaining to blasphemy. We examine the prohibitions against cursing God (Exod 22:27[28]), "naming the name" (Lev 24:10- 24), and sinning with a high hand (Num 15:30-31). Then, we track some of the most notorious blasphemers, including Sennacherib (2 Kgs 18:1—19:37), Antiochus (1 Mace 1:20—2:14), Nicanor (2 Mace 14:16—15:37), and an unnamed Egyptian ruler 2.123-132).Third, we examine three Johannine claims—that Jesus is equal with God, that Jesus is the New Temple, and that the ' Ιουδαιοι are of the devil -and argue that non-believing Jews would have regarded these claims as blasphemous and would have expelled anyone from the synagogue who proclaimed them

Examining the Differences between Methodical and Amethodical ISD

This paper reports on a research program designed to investigate the differences in systems developer\u27s mental models as they develop information systems applying formal system development methods as compared to amethodicaldevelopment

Three Issues Concerning Relevance in IS Research: Epistemology, Audience, and Method

Academic concerns about making research into the design, construction and use of information systems (IS) more relevant to practice is a persistent theme in the IS literature and in recent ISWorld discussions. This essay addresses three questions implicit in this discussion: Is there an agreed upon epistemology underlying IS research? To whom should IS be relevant or alternatively what ends should this research serve? Does the choice of research method contribute to the creation of relevant IS research? These questions are explored from the perspective on an unrepentant idealist

Dropping Your Tools: Exploring When and How Theories Can Serve as Blinders in IS Research

The debate between protagonists of different theoretical approaches continues in the IS field, with little prospect of resolution. The debate is typically characterized by tendentious arguments as advocates of each approach offer a one-sided condemnation of other approaches. Debate on the qualities of theoretical explanations of technological change is hampered by the shadow of supremacist strategies that is cast over the debate, illustrating the manner in which IS researchers are polarized into opposing camps, each viewing the other as inferior. Ironically further polarization is occurring in the ways that various groups of IS scholars are simultaneously calling for order, discipline and clearer notions of the “core of the discipline” while other scholars call for greater research diversity. In order to overcome this polarization we advocate a strategy recommended by Weick [1996]: Drop your tools—hold your concepts lightly and update them frequently. Three reasons for dropping our theoretical tools are put forward—the focus on improving practice, the focus on building cumulative tradition in the mother discipline, and the focus on building cumulative tradition in one’s own discipline—suggesting researchers must consider the “fit” between problem domain, theory and the relationship of the chosen theory to the method of inquiry

The Debate in Structural Linguistics: how it may impact the information systems field

This paper argues that the use of concepts in IS research which have been borrowed from references disciplines may present difficulties when the concept is only partially imported into our IS research. The paper provides a glimpse into the ongoing debate in one of those IS references disciplines, namely linguistics. The debate between Chomskyan structural linguists and linguists developing the notion of emergent grammars is briefly described. Finally, the paper provides insight as to how that debate may impact our fiel

Assessing Scholarly Influence: Using the Hirsch Indices to Reframe the Discourse

This study is part of a program aimed at creating measures enabling a fairer and more complete assessment of a scholar’s contribution to a field, thus bringing greater rationality and transparency to the promotion and tenure process. It finds current approaches toward the evaluation of research productivity to be simplistic, atheoretic, and biased toward reinforcing existing reputation and power structures. This study examines the use of the Hirsch family of indices, a robust and theoretically informed metric, as an addition to prior approaches to assessing the scholarly influence of IS researchers. It finds that while the top tier journals are important indications of a scholar’s impact, they are neither the only nor, indeed, the most important sources of scholarly influence. Other ranking studies, by narrowly bounding the venues included in those studies, distort the discourse and effectively privilege certain venues by declaring them to be more highly influential than warranted. The study identifies three different categories of scholars: those who publish primarily in North American journals, those who publish primarily in European journals, and a transnational set of authors who publish in both geographies. Excluding the transnational scholars, for the scholars who published in these journal sets during the period of this analysis, we find that North American scholars tend to be more influential than European scholars, on average. We attribute this difference to a difference in the publication culture of the different geographies. This study also suggests that the influence of authors who publish in the European journal set is concentrated at a moderate level of influence, while the influence of those who publish in the North American journal set is dispersed between those with high influence and those with relatively low influence. Therefore, to be a part of the top European scholar list requires a higher level of influence than to be a part of the top North American scholar list

Socio-Theoretic Accounts of IS: The Problem of Agency

A long-standing debate in the IS literature concerns the relationship between technology and organization. Does technology cause effects in organizations, or is it humans that determine how technology is used? Many socio-theoretic accounts of a middle way between the extremes of technological and social determinism have been suggested: in recent years the more convincing explanations have been based on Giddens’ structuration theory and, more recently, on actor network theory. The two theories, however, may be seen to adopt rather different, and potentially incompatible, views of agency. Thus, structuration theory sees agency as a uniquely human property, whereas the principle of general symmetry in actor network theory implies that machines may also be actors. This rather fundamental disagreement may be characterized as the problem of agency. At the empirical level the problem of agency can be studied through ERP systems. These systems, though built and implemented by people, are thought to be wide-ranging in their effects on organizations, and offer good opportunities for the study of the interplay of human and machine agency. However these empirical stories also reflect the theoretical confusion. This paper argues that neither structuration theory nor actor network theory offers a particularly convincing account of the interaction of humans and machines, and that their different accounts of agency make them hard to integrate in any meaningful way. Comparing the two theories and their use in IS raises many important issues, questions and problems, which need to be solved if the IS discipline is to develop a consistent socio-theoretical vocabulary