Conceptual Challenges in Contemporary IS Research

This paper, originally prepared as a keynote address for the 1999 Australasian Conference on Information Systems, critically examines some common assumptions underlying much IS research. The assumptions concern the scope and risks of IT projects, the rationales for and uses of IT, and the role of history and time in systems-related outcomes. Making different assumptions about these issues suggests the need for new approaches to IS research

Paradigm Shifts - E-Business and Business/Systems Integration

The last decade or so spawned a host of business and technology innovations. On the business side, we saw business process reengineering, the management philosophies of customer relationship management and supply chain management, virtual organizations, electronic commerce, and business-to-business trading exchanges. On the technology side, we saw client-server computing, enterprise resource planning systems, the widespread adoption of Internet protocols, intranets and enterprise information portals, software package support for customer relationship management, supply chain management and other activities related to electronic business, and applications service providers. This tutorial puts put these business and technology innovations into historical context and relates them to one another through the unifying concepts of business integration and systems integration. One theme of the tutorial is the incomplete linkage between business integration and systems integration. Another is the imperfect relationship between the management philosophies of customer relationship management, supply chain management and electronic business more broadly and the information technologies that provide applications support for these management philosophies

Introductionto the 2004 AIS Award Papers on Innovation in Information Systems Education

This article describes the 2004 AIS Award Papers on Innovation in Information Systems Education. It includes the rationale for the awards and lists the papers selected and the selection committee

B2B E-Marketplaces - Interconnection Effects, Strategic Positioning, and Performance

Electronic markets theory leads to the prediction that the interconnection effects of information technology will lower coordination costs in market transactions, prompting a move from hierarchical to market arrangements. This prediction was apparently validated by the proliferation of B2B e-marketplaces in the mid-1990s. But the subsequent abrupt consolidation of public, independent e-marketplaces raises questions about what it takes for e-marketplaces to succeed. Experience with actual e-marketplaces suggests that electronic interconnection effects alone may not explain e-marketplace success. The strategic management literature provides a complementary view, emphasizing the fit between an e-marketplace\u27s value proposition, its product-market focus, and its value activities. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to explore the degree to which the strategic positioning perspective contributes to the explanation of e-marketplace success. We analyzed a pair of e-marketplaces sharing the same competitive space, one successful and the other less so. We found that the number and types of interconnection benefits alone did not make a good explanation of e-marketplace success. However, the additional concepts provided by strategic positioning theory - particularly the holistic fit between benefits types offered (value proposition), product-market focus, and value activities - do appear to explain well the observed differences in e-marketplace performance. Future research should extend our exploratory investigation of e-marketplace success

Knowing What We Know about IT and Business Value: Cause for Concern about Endogeneity Problems and Potential Solutions

Do IT investments deliver business value? This long-standing question of IS interest is a causal question. Answers to this question are often sought through the use of econometric methods, which require careful attention to the issue of endogeneity for valid causal inference. Yet, concerns about endogeneity problems in econometric research persist despite the many quantitative techniques available for addressing them. Recent publications in strategic management and accounting have offered a few non-quantitative solutions, such as better writing and reviewing norms, better theory selection, and use of descriptive quantitative and qualitative methods. Not considered in these prescriptions is a relatively little-known category of explicitly causal case study research methods that originated in sociology and political science. This paper describes these methods, shows how they address endogeneity problems, and explores how they might complement statistical methods in the study of IT business value

The Digital Transformation Conundrum: Labels, Definitions, Phenomena, and Theories

The forthcoming JAIS special issue on “Envisioning Digital Transformation” is predicated on the assumption that theoretical diversity would be a good thing for the IS field. But making sense of theoretical diversity requires either a common frame of reference or crystal clarity about concept definitions and the phenomena to which they point. In this editorial, we argue that the IS field still lacks the conceptual and empirical clarity needed to benefit from theoretical diversity about digital transformation. The digital transformation label has been applied to the evolution of technology, as well as to the evolution of organizations and society. It has been used to refer to change in entities or processes and to processes of change. It has been used to refer to particular technological artifacts and to particular kinds of data and processing power. This type of diversity risks obscuring the value of diverse theoretical formulations. Only through clear distinctions and precise labeling of older and new phenomena can the IS field fully benefit from new theories and theoretical elaborations about digital transformation

Business-to-Business Electronic Marketplaces and the Structure of Channel Relationships

Business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces have significant potential impacts on the structure of channel relationships and IT management arrangements. IS theory traditionally investigated electronic marketplaces from a transaction cost theory point of view. We identify three major limitations of transaction cost theory as it applies to B2B electronic marketplaces. A number of other literatures with a bearing on electronic marketplaces have critiqued and extended transaction cost models. Among them are strategic networks theory, marketing channel theory, and political economy. This paper reviews and attempts to synthesize these perspectives on electronic marketplaces and exchanges. We propose an integrative model combining transaction cost theory, strategic networks theory, relational exchange theory, and the theory of political economy. The synthesis promotes better operationalizations of EMP channel structure, identifies the antecedents and consequences of EMP channel structures, and suggests an agenda for future research

Business-to-Business E-Marketplaces: A Strategic Archetypes Approach

Electronic marketplaces (EMs) are an important empirical phenomenon, because they are theoretically linked to significant economic and business effects. Different types of EMs have been identified; further, some researchers link different EM types with different impacts. Because the effects of EMs may vary with types, classifying and identifying the characteristics of EM types are fundamental to sound research. Some prior approaches to EM classification have been based on empirical observations, others have been theoretically motivated; each has strengths and limitations. This paper presents a third approach: surfacing strategic archetypes. The strategic archetypes approach has the empirical fidelity associated with the large numbers of attributes considered in the empirical classification approach, but the parsimony of types and the theoretical linkages associated with the theoretical classification approach. The strategic archetypes approach seeks a manageable number of EM configuration types in which the attributes are theoretically linked to each other and to hypothesized outcomes like performance and impacts. The strategic archetypes approach has the potential to inform future theoretical and empirical investigations of electronic marketplaces and to translate research findings into successful recommendations for practice