Towards a Greater Diversity of Replication Studies

The replication of existing knowledge (e.g., previous study results) stands as an essential research practice across all science disciplines. Despite the importance of replication, the scarcity of replication studies is commonly criticized in business, management, and information system (IS) research. Therefore, efforts have already been made to facilitate replication research in the IS community, such as establishing conference tracks and journals focusing on publishing replication studies and providing guidelines on how and why to conduct replication research. Nonetheless, the perception of replication research remains unchanged, describing it as mundane. Therefore, in this issues and opinions article, we will explore how replication research could be made more appealing by diversifying the categories of replication studies. In this regard, we looked at replication in neuroscience, eliciting two new replication study categories: ‘transfer’ and ‘method.’ Additionally, through extensive discussion with other IS scholars, we added one more replication category, ‘comparison.’ We hope that this diversification will attract more researchers and also show the potential replication research holds

Integrating Industry Characteristics in Inter-Organizational IS Adoption Models: A Mixed Method Approach

There are a number of benefits that can be achieved if information is shared automatically between partner organizations. While inter-organizational systems (IOS) are considered to be well adopted, a number of industries, amongst others the wood industry, lag far behind. This study aims to explain how industry characteristics can contribute to the explanation of this low adoption phenomenon. Based on eleven case studies and 204 survey responses, this mixed method study identifies five industry characteristics and their influence on adoption factors. The identified industry characteristics are organizational size, aged staff, low diffusion of IS, low government support, and heterogeneity in IT infrastructures. A theoretical model is developed integrating the industry characteristics and the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework constructs. This study demonstrates that partner pressure, relative advantage, regulatory environment, and technological readiness significantly influence the adoption of IOS. Thus, this research provides valuable insights and offers guidance for policymakers and practice on factors leading to an improved adoption. As well, we conduct a new research design to identify industry-specific actions to help improve the adoption of IOS

Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017.

BACKGROUND: Global development goals increasingly rely on country-specific estimates for benchmarking a nation's progress. To meet this need, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2016 estimated global, regional, national, and, for selected locations, subnational cause-specific mortality beginning in the year 1980. Here we report an update to that study, making use of newly available data and improved methods. GBD 2017 provides a comprehensive assessment of cause-specific mortality for 282 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2017. METHODS: The causes of death database is composed of vital registration (VR), verbal autopsy (VA), registry, survey, police, and surveillance data. GBD 2017 added ten VA studies, 127 country-years of VR data, 502 cancer-registry country-years, and an additional surveillance country-year. Expansions of the GBD cause of death hierarchy resulted in 18 additional causes estimated for GBD 2017. Newly available data led to subnational estimates for five additional countries-Ethiopia, Iran, New Zealand, Norway, and Russia. Deaths assigned International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes for non-specific, implausible, or intermediate causes of death were reassigned to underlying causes by redistribution algorithms that were incorporated into uncertainty estimation. We used statistical modelling tools developed for GBD, including the Cause of Death Ensemble model (CODEm), to generate cause fractions and cause-specific death rates for each location, year, age, and sex. Instead of using UN estimates as in previous versions, GBD 2017 independently estimated population size and fertility rate for all locations. Years of life lost (YLLs) were then calculated as the sum of each death multiplied by the standard life expectancy at each age. All rates reported here are age-standardised

IT Governance in a Network Context: Literature Review and Agenda for Research

As a reaction to increased competition and higher customer expectations, organizations engage in collaborative networks; the key drivers for this ongoing trend are information and communication technologies. Today, collaborative networks are crucial for the entire network endeavor and rely heavily on IT resources. While the use and management of inter-organizational systems have already been widely studied from a firm’s perspective, there is little research that examines IT-related governance from a network point of view. In this paper, we present a systematic literature review in the field of IT governance in a network context. The review covers 28 publications. Building upon this, we identify four promising fields for future research: networks at the meta-level and linkages among levels, theories for IT governance in networks, the role of relational mechanisms, and (complex) contingency analysis. Finally, we suggest a more balanced use of methods

EXAMINING IT ALIGNMENT IN INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS: DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF A MEASURMENT INSTRUMENT

Business environments have been profoundly changed by emerging innovations in the field of information technology (IT). In addition, collaborative agreements, such as inter-organizational networks, have shaped modern economies. The field of intra-organizational IT alignment has shown that it contributes to the explanation of the functioning and value delivery of IT in an organizational context. This paper takes up this stance and translates it to the network level. The authors therefore develop a measurement instrument that examines the alignment of network processes and IT that aim to organize inter-organizational network collaboration. Furthermore, this instrument is then applied to the question of different governance modes and their influence on IT alignment. Since network governance plays an important role in the context of coordination and decision making, we propose that this is an important characteristic, which explains variance between networks. A study is conducted with respondents of 198 network organizations in Germany. The results support the validity of the measurement instrument and, moreover, show that networks with a centralized governance mode, indeed, better align IT with network processes. In doing so, this study contributes to the emerging field that tries to understand the role of IT in the functioning of inter-organizational networks