What\u27s in an SME? Considerations for Scoping Research on Small and Medium Enterprises and Other Organisations in the IS Discipline

We propose an approach to better scope an IS research project for the context of small and medium organisations (SMOs), depending on the project’s topic and goals. SMOs are of a fundamentally different nature compared to large organisations, yet IS research often implicitly assumes the context of large organisations. This may lead to IS research outcomes not being applicable to the SMO context due to incompatible boundary conditions. Simultaneously, common criteria to distinguish SMOs (employee count, turnover) are often not particularly useful to include or exclude distinct classes of SMOs from the scope of a specific research project. Our proposed scoping approach thus considers research topic-dependent criteria to classify SMOs to be included. We illustrate our approach with examples from our own research. Other researchers can draw on our approach to include/exclude suitable SMOs of interest more clearly and thus produce research that is applicable to clearly delineated SMO classes

A Literature Review on the Risks and Potentials of Tracking and Monitoring eHealth Technologies in the Context of Occupational Health Management

Employee health is increasingly important, as is the use of eHealth technologies in the private and the organizational context. This paper examines which existing eHealth technologies that support monitoring and tracking of health are applied in occupational health management (OHM) and investigates the advantages and disadvantages of their application. To pursue this intention, we analyze the current state of research with a structured literature review and provide a comprehensive overview of relevant works. The results point out advantages and disadvantages that provide the groundwork to discuss success factors for tracking and monitoring eHealth technologies in OHM. The derived success factors aim at operational, technological, operational/technological aspects of eHealth tracking and monitoring usage. Thereby, favorable outcomes such as an increase in employee health can be achieved, and participation in OHM measures can be increased. However, it can also lead to adverse outcomes such as a reduced work-life balance

Cooperation for innovativeness in SMEs : a taxonomy for cooperation design

Various resource constraints of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) highlight the strategy of cooperation for innovation as it enhances organisations' options and breadth of knowledge sources. Nevertheless, research lacks guidance on why, with whom, and how to cooperate and has so far not provided a comprehensive overview of the characteristics of cooperation to foster SMEs' innovativeness. We build a taxonomy based on deductive and inductive iterations. The taxonomy incorporates insights from literature including information science, innovation management, and organisational science. Further it represents insights from practitioners on cooperation for innovation. Our taxonomy delineates the design options for practitioners and advises that one select organisation-specific parameters. With this taxonomy, we conceptually structure existing research and empower practitioners to analyse their current cooperation projects, reconsider them, and gain knowledge to design new ways of cooperation that best suit their aims.</p

Fostering the Adoption of Smart E-Government Services in Germany

Governments worldwide recognize a need to provide services online to their citizens. Increasingly, these services have become sophisticated through the application of advanced technologies. Nevertheless, the adoption of such services often lags behind expectations. Thus, this study proposes and tests an extension of the unified model of electronic government adoption (UMEGA) to the context of smart e-government services in Germany. It was empirically tested using the data of 330 respondents. The adapted model greatly exceeds other studies that applied an adapted UMEGA regarding the explanatory power on attitude, while the study proves that resistance to change in the investigated context unfolds a highly significant impact on behavioral intention compared to other findings. Concluding, the proposed model supports governments in planning smart e-government services and corresponding strategies more holistically by understanding the factors that influence citizens\u27 adoption