Marcel Heddier

In Search of Information Systems (Grand) Challenges

The paper reports on the results of a Delphi study with 143 information systems (IS) academics that was designed to explore what IS academics perceive to be the grand challenges of the IS discipline. The results provide evidence that the scholarly IS discipline is still much concerned with itself, for instance, in terms of its identity, relevance, foundational theory, or methodological pluralism – suggesting that the old debate on IS identity is not yet overcome. It thus cannot be claimed that the study identifies the grand challenges of the discipline – still it becomes noticeable that the academic community sees potentials for the IS discipline to have societal impact. A total of 21 challenges are identified, of which six challenges are categorized as “meta challenges for further developing the IS discipline” and the remaining 15 challenges are categorized as “IS research challenges” pertaining to socio-technical systems, IS infrastructures, society and ecology, as well as social well-being and affectivity. We provide a ranking of all challenges according to their relevance, potential impact, and possible time frame of realization. The results have some important implications for IS as a discipline as well as its prospective future societal role. It is hoped that through our study we can contribute to the important debate on the challenges of the academic IS discipline.

The Effect of Providing Visualizations in Privacy Policies on Trust in Data Privacy and Security

Trust in data privacy and security of internet service providers is getting increasing attention, especially in the context of cloud service. Insufficient communication of implemented data privacy and data security measures may lead to a lack of trust. Visualizations are known to have various beneficial effects when used to communicate information. This paper investigates whether providing visualizations as means for communicating data privacy and security measures has a positive effect on trust. A laboratory experiment was conducted to measure the effect of visualizations on trust in the provider, trust in the measures of the provider, and on information security and privacy concerns. The results indicate that there is a small positive effect regarding trust in the provider and in his measures and no significant effect regarding information security and privacy concerns. The findings provide first insights into the effect of visualizations on trust and lead to several further research questions.

Configuring the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model

The Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model for supply chain design is often perceived as too general by researchers and practitioners. The article describes a possible solution to this by elaborating a configurative approach to SCOR model-based supply chain design. It provides evidence for specific requirements from literature and practice. Based on these requirements, a set of design principles is proposed and evaluated by exemplarily demonstrating the configuration approach. A configurable SCOR model may counteract the heterogeneity of SCOR model extensions and modifications in literature and practice and may be the foundation for a tool-supported instrument in the area of configurative supply chain design. Keywords : Supply chain design, reference model, SCOR model, configuration

Towards Business Process Modeling in Business Contracting--Analyzing Collaboration Contracts as a Field of Application for Process Models

Todays rising quantity of business collaborations increases the relevance of business contracting between companies. This leads at the same time to more complex and incomprehensible business contracts. We state a need for new approaches to handle this complexity. Business process modeling is a well established methodology of business process management (BPM) that can be used to handle complexity in business processes. In this paper we argue that conceptual models can improve comprehensibility of complex contracts by modeling those parts of business contracts that regulate specific procedures. Based on a contract analysis we indentify different contract content types and their potential for process modeling. The results show great potential in some content types and less in others. Based on our findings we propose the design of a software-based recommendation tool that could facilitate business contract design and the comprehensibility of these contracts.

Merging Conceptual Modeling and Law for Legally Compliant Information Systems Design--A Framework-Based Research Agenda

Legal regulations play an important role in the design of information systems and their related organizational systems. A legal assessment subsequent to the systems development can demand expensive modifications or even the need for replacing existing systems. Legal infringements and resulting disputes can permanently damage an organizations image. To avoid these problems, we argue for the consideration of relevant legal regulations as early as the design phase of systems development. Conceptual modeling has proven to be an optimal instrument for system designers. In this paper, we propose a framework-based research agenda for the improvement of conceptual modeling for the explication and communication of legal requirements. We then show exemplary how the framework can be used by researchers to classify existing research results or to derive new research questions in the field of designing legally compliant information systems.