Knowledge transfer between consultants and organizational users influences the outcomes of an Enterprise Resource System (ERP) implementation. Configuration and implementation tasks are dependent on generating some level of shared understanding of both business practices and technology. These problems become acute in implementations in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs often operate with non-standard business processes, making an effective interchange of process knowledge between consultants and end-users crucial. Using a multiple case study method and content analysis, the authors investigate the mediating role of absorptive capacity in knowledge transfer in SMEs ERP implementations. They present exploratory case studies from 3 Nigerian companies with varying outcomes, and hypothesize that knowledge transfer is complicated by acute information asymmetry, absence of pre-existing related knowledge and consequent difficulties in developing a shared understanding, and by a tendency to operate with lone consultants and lone organizational representatives.
Action research is widespread in many of the background disciplines that underpin the e-Government field andis beginning to take root as a legitimate e-Government research method. Canonical Action Research (CAR)is the most widely used form of action research; however it relies on premises that can be problematic in thee-Government context. This article details some of those underlying assumptions, and shows the difficulties that result when applied to a relatively typical e-Government case study: the implementation of an advanced email system in Danish public administration. The empirical experience calls many of the standard premises into question, and these are categorised. The authors summarize the resulting experience as nine challenges for action researchers working in the e-Government field, and investigate some possible responses.
The rapid proliferation of mobile devices makes mobile security a weak point in many organisations’ security management. Though there are a number of frameworks and methods available for improving security management, few of these target mobile devices, and most are designed for large organisations. Small and medium size organisations are known to be vulnerable to mobile threats, and often subject to the same legal requirements as larger organisations (for example the European General Data Protection Regulation). However they typically lack the resources and specialist competences necessary to use the available commercial frameworks. This article describes an Action Design Research project to devise and test a low cost, low learning curve framework for improving mobile security management. The project is conducted together with a small Swedish consulting company with the pseudonym Novukon. The results show that simple theoretical models can be integrated with well-known analysis techniques to inform managers and provide practical help for small companies to improve mobile security practice. A set of nine design principles are included to guide further research.
Information security management researchers are often focused on the information security policy, its implementation and evaluation as the primary means of ensuring that organisations protect their valuable data. However, information security is usually nested with a variety of other concerns (for instance technology upgrades, information access, efficiency and sustainability issues, employee satisfaction), so this policy-driven approach is seldom operated in isolation. We investigate the approach as implied in the mobile information security literature, provide a literature-inspired characterisation and use it to analyse an iPad implementation for politicians in a Swedish municipality. The analysis provides only a partial explanation for security work in this kind of small organisation technology upgrade, so we develop a complementary approach: the evolving implementation approach. A suggestion is made for how the two approaches can be reconciled, and implications for both practitioners and researchers derived.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an emerging research area focusing on the organisational adoption of (primarily mobile) devices used for both private and work purposes. There are many information security related problems concerning the use of BYOD and it should therefore be considered an issue of strategic importance for senior managers. This paper presents a systematic literature analysis using a BYOD strategic management framework to assess developing research trends. The analysis reveals early work in the analysis and design aspects of BYOD strategies, but a lack of research in operationalizing (planning, implementation and evaluating) strategy – the action phase. The resulting research agenda identifies twelve management issues for further research and four overall research directions that may stimulate future research.
Establishing business intelligence analytics (BIA) in small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises is a pervasive problem. SME’s - the majority of businesses - play an important role in creating jobs, but research is primarily focused on large corporations. The authors worked with small manufacturing companies at the aspirational capability level but found that their motivation to introduce BIA was low. They had many business challenges but perceived the obstacles (primarily cost and effort) as too great, and their priorities were with operational issues. A two-phase approach based on a well-known analytics maturity model was devised to help raise company motivation. The article describes three studies in different companies using variations of the approach. Comparative analysis of the cases shows that demonstrating a clear path to improved functional efficiency is key to improving motivation, and that simple, easy to learn tools can provide these insights at little cost.
In an increasingly digitalised society, participation becomes dependent on digital skills – the ability to understand and use the everyday Internet technologies that surround us. People who have difficulty acquiring these skills risk being digitally excluded. One such group is the elderly; all research studies show that they are disadvantaged. The project focuses on digital inclusion for elderly citizens, addressing goal 10 of the United Nations global sustainability goals: reduced inequality within and among countries. It brings together researchers, industry and government in a collaborative practice (action research) program designed to increase theoretical knowledge of digital inclusion in Sweden, and to provide useful guidelines and tools for improving societal involvement of elderly citizens. The collaborative practice approach incorporates survey and interview techniques to ensure scientific rigor. A feature of the project is the use of a cross-generational teaching and learning approach – young people (digital natives) interacting with elderly - which has not previously been researched. Our initial results show that the benefits for the elderly include reduced isolation, more autonomy and independence, and better health.
The call for papers for this workshop defines digital innovation as the application of digital tools, technology and digital infrastructure in new products, services, and business models that offer customers enhanced or unique value. While such a broad definition may be appealing in embracing a broad range of innovation practices, it may be argued to conflate two distinct types of innovation: those that bridge digital and physical domains and those that operate solely in the digital domain. An example of the former might be innovations associated with the digitalisation of automobile control systems in which digital technologies enhance the capabilities of a physical product. An example of the latter might be innovation in the software industry, in which the product itself is digital. In this paper we will review the literature on the characteristics of digital artefacts to try to identify the ways in which innovation practices may differ between these two types. Drawing on evidence from 18 small and medium-sized software enterprises in a specific geographic locale, we will explore the extent to which innovation in these firms may be seen as reflecting the particular characteristics of digital products. It will be argued that innovation of digital products, such as software, may be considered as a special case of digital innovation.
Software innovation - the ability to produce novel and useful software systems - is an important capability for software development organizations and information system developers alike. However, the software development literature has traditionally focused on automation and efficiency while the innovation literature has given relatively little consideration to the software development context. As a result, there is a gap in our understanding of how software product and process innovation can be managed. Specifically, little attention has been directed toward synthesising prior learning or providing an integrative perspective on the key concepts and focus of software innovation research. We therefore identify 93 journal articles and conference papers within the domain of software innovation and analyse repeating patterns in this literature using content analysis and causal mapping. We identify drivers and outputs for software innovation and develop an integrated theory-oriented concept map. We then discuss the implications of this map for future research.
The article establishes theory-based design principles for constructing tools and methods for developing innovative digital services. The research method is developed from process advice offered for this task, in the context of design science. We define the objectives for the design task (solution objectives), identify and justify suitable kernel theories (service design, open innovation, service-dominant logic), and derive the principle normative elements of the chosen theories. Convergences and contradictions in the normative elements are analysed in relation to the method design task, and the prescriptive elements are synthesised into six core design principles. Implications for both the method design task, and research and practice in general are drawn.
E-government is not known for its progressive approach to the design of e-services. An action design research approach is taken for the development of a tool for helping e-service designers work in an innovative way. The theoretical grounding is in open service innovation, service-dominant logic and service design, and the research was conducted with the help of local government prac-titioners in Sweden. The resulting tool is an adaptation of the well-known business model canvas – the innovative digital service canvas. Other contributions include an approach to design science incorporating theory-based design principles, and the design principles themselves.
The rapid pace of digitalisation provides many smarter and more efficient ways of interacting with the world, but may also lead to the exclusion of some groups. Senior citizens are one of these groups at risk. Taking the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens as a starting point, we investigate digital survival skills for the elderly. Data was collected from digital education workshops for senior citizens organized jointly between Telia, Swedish municipalities, and the researchers. We use content analysis to understand seniors’ perceptions of which competences they need to survive in an increasingly digital environment and provide a version of the Competence Framework targeted at senior citizen inclusion. Lessons for inclusion initiatives are drawn from the results.
High technology innovation is essential for economic development in industrialised societies. Innovation practice in smaller software companies, however, has received little attention. We derive software innovation drivers and outputs from a fragmented literature and analyse their empirical relevance using qualitative data from twenty-five in-depth interviews with software executives in the Silicon Fen. Repeating patterns in the dataset revealed through content analysis show that the most important innovation drivers for smaller software firms are external knowledge, leadership and team process. Specialised innovation tools and techniques are hardly used. We develop a model of software innovation drivers, together with explorative theoretical propositions.
Advances in text mining together with the widespread adoption of the Internethave opened up new possibilities for qualitative researchersin the information systems and business and management fields.Easy access to large amounts of textual material through search engines,combined with automated techniques for analysis,promise to simplify the process of qualitative research.In practice this turns out not to be so easy.We outline a design research approach for buildinga five stageprocess for low tech,low cost text mining, which includes insights from the text mining literature and an experiment with trend analysis in business intelligence.We summarise the prototype process,and discuss the many difficulties that currently stand in the way of high quality research by this route.Despite the difficulties, the combination of low cost text mining with qualitative research is a promising methodological avenue, and we specify some future paths for this area of study.
Persuasion is a process that aims to utilize (true or false) information to change people’s attitudes in relation to something, usually as a precursor to behavioural change. Its use is prevalent in democratic societies, which do not, in principle, permit censorship of information or the use of force to enact power. The transition of information to the internet, particularly with the rise of social media, together with the capacity to capture, store and process big data, and advances in machine learning, have transformed the way modern persuasion is conducted. This has led to new opportunities for persuaders, but also to well-documented instances of abuse: fake news, Cambridge Analytica, foreign interference in elections, etc. We investigate large-scale technology-based persuasion, with the help of three case studies derived from secondary sources, in order to identify and describe the underlying technology architecture and propose issues for future research, including a number of ethical concerns.
E-Government strategies, investments, project selection, and implementations are influenced by value positionsdeeply enshrined in the traditions of public administration, which are in turn reflected in the everyday discourse of publicmanagers. We analyse value traditions in the public administration literature and their adaptation for e-Government and synthesise three prominent positions. Administrative efficiency focuses on cost-effectiveness logics highlighted by New Public Management thinking. Service improvement, derived from the tradition of public service, emphasises the provision of better services for citizens. Citizen engagement, with its roots in liberal democracy arguments, promotes responsiveness, consultation, collaboration and participation. A set of foundational values grounded in the deeply rooted bureaucratic tradition is also distinguished. A qualitative survey of Danish local authority managers’ value positions shows a heavy bias towards administrative efficiency and an absence of concern for citizen engagement. The implications of this efficiency imperative are discussed.
Despite substantial investments in ICT in the public sector over the past decades, it has been hard to achieve consistent benefits. One reason for the difficulties is the gap between the expectations of key stakeholders (such as governments, businesses and citizens) and project outcomes. Though normative, descriptive and instrumental aspects of stakeholder theory have been influential in explaining stakeholder interests and relationships in the management field, e-Government researchers have rather neglected the normative core of the theory. We show how value theory can improve normative foundations in this area to provide a focused analysis of four e-Government projects. We use a multiple case study approach to study the values of salient stakeholders, demonstrating how the combination of value theory and stakeholder theory provides greater explanatory power than either of the theories in isolation. Our work shows how stakeholders´ interests are bound to generic value positions and allow us to formulate implications for research and practice.