How to Turn Around: Escalation of Commitment in the Context of ISD Project Distress

While information systems development (ISD) projects play a pivotal role in maintaining a competitive advantage, ISD project distress evolves dramatically. Given the complex and dynamic nature of ISD projects, they are prone to Escalation of Commitment (EoC), the irrational tendency to persist with failing courses of action. While EoC has been studied to a great extent in management and psychology literature, research on its role in the context of ISD project distress is fragmented, making it challenging to develop de-escalation strategies. To address this gap, we conduct a literature review on EoC in the context of ISD project distress. The proposed nomological net including triggering factors, consequences, mediators, and moderators, as well as a set of developed de-escalation strategies can serve as an inspiration and foundation for future IS researchers. By presenting this review we hope to inform future IS research to acknowledge the role of EoC in ISD projects

Disentangling Emotional and Cognitive Factors of Escalation of Commitment: Evidence for a Psychophysiological Link

Escalation of Commitment (EoC) - the tendency to persist with failing courses of action - can determine whether a distressed Information Systems (IS) project can be turned around. To disentangle the emotional and cognitive factors that give rise to EoC we conducted a between-subject randomized controlled laboratory experiment with 75 Master, MBA, and Ph.D. students including data triangulation between neurophysiological and behavioral measures. This study successfully replicates the EoC bias in the context of IS project distress, provides evidence for a psychophysiological link, supports the predictions on the role of negative and complex emotional states of self-justification theory over coping theory, and adds to a better understanding of how escalation tendency changes over time due to learning effects. Our findings contribute to enhancing decision-making in uncertain environments by using cognitive and emotional markers and thereby provide the foundation for developing neuro-adaptive de-escalation strategies

How to Provide the Desirable Business Outcome in International IT Projects: A Cross-Case Analysis

Rising complexity of international IT projects has compelled service providers to re-define their customer-service approach. This paper uses a case study method to identify critical success factors for customer interaction as IT service providers run projects to deliver services to intrafirm end-users. Our analysis found that process-level, social and psychological factors were decisive in promoting successful provider-customer relationships. Three major factors - knowledge of the customer’s business and it’s need of IT-support, a close project collaboration and trustful, clear, understandable communication - are the cornerstone of successful IT service practices when coupled with a clear customer-oriented value proposition. Therefore, we identified the “bridgehead”-concept as an effective method to close a lack of understanding between business and IT. Our results suggest that both the provider and customer benefit from a close and iterative calibration of needs and services, with a high level of transparency, to ensure process efficiency and customer satisfaction

An e-mail embedded software prototype for knowledge management

Against the backdrop of today’s knowledge economy and a strong pervasion of e-mail in enterprises, the paper at hand presents an e-mail embedded software prototype for knowledge management. Although information systems literature esteems the research field of e-mail- related knowledge management as phenomenon, few contributions have been made in artifact- based and problem-oriented research. As existing software applications lack in specificity and currency, a tailored information technology artifact grounded on the unique characteristics of e- mail has been developed in a joint university-industry project following the design science research methodology. “Memoro” facilitates knowledge capture/creation and knowledge sharing/dissemination. Core functionality is the lightweight storage and extraction of e-mail- related information to and from a central repository. With the limitation of a customized prototype, first evaluation results indicate that integrating knowledge management into the daily e-mail routine enables knowledge-intensive businesses to deal with their knowledge in more effective and efficient ways. From a research perspective, “Memoro” might serve scholars as origin for further research. We contribute to the body of knowledge by providing (1) an early version of an innovative design artifact and (2) a concept-centric literature review

Challenges in IT Supply Chain Management

Multiple players are involved in the process of service provision in today’s IT industry. IT service is mostly a combination of process output of different IT service providers. A single IT department is still unable to produce and deliver the entirety of the desired IT service without the risk of inefficiency. Additionally, the emerging trend of IT outsourcing over the past years accelerates the separation of service provision. Therefore it could be useful to examine the entire IT service chain to avoid failures and to save time due to lacks of information or not standardized communication processes. As a possibility to face these problems, traditional industry branches developed and introduced a new management task called supply chain management. With this in mind the following paper focuses on challenges in IT supply chain management to improve communication processes between separate IT service providers of the IT industry

The power of words: Towards a methodology for progress monitoring in design thinking projects

The popularity of design thinking as an innovation paradigm grows continuously. More and more schools and firms implement innovation processes inspired by design thinking, but they lack easy and nonintrusive methods for monitoring the progress of teams following those processes. Consequently, interventions from coaches, teachers, or supervisors tend to rely on intuition or require intensive and intrusive examination of team dynamics. This study uses by-products from the design process and proposes automated assessment of lexical diversity as a monitoring method in process-driven design thinking projects. Thereby, it contributes to the research on the relation between text production and creativity in design projects. To the practical end, it suggests how digitalized by-products of design activities such as notes and documentation, can be leveraged to support the teams as well as coaches, teachers, and supervisors

Management of Service Innovation Projects: A Case Study from a German Financial Services Provider

The ability to design innovative services is becoming an important capability for organizations in the 21st century. Information technology plays a major role as an enabler for a broad range of innovative services, and IT organizations need to design services in collaboration with business units to address evolving customer requirements. This paper offers an exploratory case study on the application of a design methodology at the intersection of business and IT, focusing on a German financial services provider that sought to develop new IT-based service innovations. The key finding of this case study is that while processes, methods, and tools are important for managing service design, socio-technical aspects such as context, environment, team management, and project setup also are essential for the successful design of innovative services. The current literature provides rudimentary guidance in these areas, yet a thorough description of these factors and their integration into a service design methodology has not yet been documented. Based on the findings of the case study, we suggest further investigation of the roles played by factors such as environment, team management, and project setup, as well as of the ways in which these factors can be incorporated into methods to facilitate more effective service design

Evolution of Digital Innovation Units for Digital Transformation – The Convergence of Motors of Change

To face the challenge of digital transformation as well as to implement digital innovation many incumbent companies have set up digital innovation units (DIUs). Despite a steadily growing body of knowledge, there is a rather static picture of DIUs in the literature to date, and we have little knowledge of how these units evolve over time to continuously contribute to digital transformation and innovation. To lay the foundation for an understanding of DIUs as dynamically evolving entities, we conduct a multiple-case study with DIUs of five manufacturing companies and identify DIU evolution as a process driven by an interplay of life-cycle and dialectic motor of change. In the course of this, we also outline specific triggers, sequences, and the nature of change. We generalize our findings with a conceptual process model of DIU evolution and three propositions on their current and future development to inform the existing and forthcoming literature

Challenges in Product Lifecycle Management - Evidence from the Automotive Supply Industry

Against the backdrop of a steady shift in value added from the automotive original equipment manufacturers to the automotive suppliers, product lifecycle management in the automotive supply industry gains importance. Prior literature has acknowledged product lifecycle management as paradigm for manufacturing industries, yet little is known about the specific characteristics and boundary conditions in this emerging industry branch. Grounded on extensive empirical evidence from a typical and revelatory case study at a global leader for mechatronic assemblies, this exploratory paper identifies, visualizes, and discusses challenges in product lifecycle management in the automotive supply industry. With the limitation of an exploratory and interpretive single-case study approach, we (1) supply scholars and practitioners with grounded, stakeholder-related insights and (2) link the field of product lifecycle management with information systems