Niels Bjørn-Andersen

Power over users: its exercise by system professionals

Analysis and awareness of the types of power that IS professionals exercise over users can improve the productivity of both parties.

A cross-cultural comparison of IS designer values

The values of system designers have a significant influence on the extent to which information system meet the broad effectiveness needs of an organization.

Exploring value cocreation in relationships between an ERP vendor and its partners: a revelatory case study

Contemporary business organizations are increasingly turning their attention to jointly creating value with a variety of stakeholders, such as individual customers and other business organizations. However, a review of the literature reveals that very few studies have systematically examined value cocreation within business-tobusiness (B2B) contexts. Using a revelatory case study of the relationship between an ERP vendor with a global reputation and its partners, and informed by the resource-based view of the firm and related theoretical perspectives, we develop an understanding of value cocreation in B2B alliances associated with selling, extending, and implementing packaged software, specifically ERP systems. Our study reveals that there are different mechanisms underlying value cocreation within B2B alliances, and also points to several categories of contingency factors that influence these mechanisms. In addition to providing insights about the phenomenon of cocreation itself, the study contributes to the stream of packaged software literature, where the implications of value cocreation in alliances between packaged software vendors and their partners for the client organizations have not been sufficiently explored.

Offshore middlemen: transnational intermediation in technology sourcing

The tendency of acquiring information systems and other high technology services from international suppliers continues at unprecedented levels. The primary motivation for the offshore sourcing of technology and services continues to be labor cost arbitrage, and secondly, access to higher levels of expertise. Yet paradoxically, large gaps in technical proficiency, cultural values, and communication styles between client and vendor can undermine the overall success of the offshore relationship. This paper argues that a new breed of entities have emerged, brokering or intermediating offshore relations. The capabilities of such ‘middlemen’ include moderating disparities in expertise, culture, and communication styles that often deteriorate performance in offshore relationships. The paper presents a preliminary theoretical justification for the emergence of offshore intermediaries, describes how and why they develop boundary spanning capabilities, and offers a case study as initial evidence substantiating the function and processes in intermediating transnational offshoring relationships. Our theory development concludes with propositions concerning four major offshore intermediary capabilities: (i) intermediating cultural distance, (ii) intermediating cognitive distance, (iii) pre-contractual preparation and negotiation, and (iv) post-contractual operational management.

Accelerating Global Supply Chains with IT-Innovation

One of the major challenges for European governments is to solve the dilemma of increasing the security and reducing fraud in international trade, while at the same time reducing the administrative burden for commercial as well as public administration organisations. To address these conflicting demands, the ITAIDE project has developed a large set of innovative IT-related tools and methods that enable companies to be better in control of their business operations. These tools and methods have been integrated in the ITAIDE Information Infrastructure (I3) framework. By using the I3 framework, companies are better positioned to apply for the Trusted Trader status, and enjoy trade facilitation benefits such as simplified customs procedures and fewer inspections of their goods. Hence, the I3 framework can contribute to making global supply chains faster, cheaper, and more secure. The I3 framework has been tested and validated in five real-life Living Labs, spanning four different sectors of industry, and conducted in five different EU countries. National Tax & Customs organizations from various European countries have actively participated in the Living Labs.The United Nations CEFACT group, experts from the World Customs Organization and representatives of key industry associations have also provided valuable feedback and ideas for the Living Labs and the project in general.www.itaide.org

Data-driven innovation through open government data

The exponentially growing production of data and the social trend towards openness and sharing are powerful forces that are changing the global economy and society. Governments around the world have become active participants in this evolution, opening up their data for access and re-use by public and private agents alike. The phenomenon of Open Government Data has spread around the world in the last four years, driven by the widely held belief that use of Open Government Data has the ability to generate both economic and social value. However, a cursory review of the popular press, as well as an investigation of academic research and empirical data, reveals the need to further understand the relationship between Open Government Data and value. In this paper, we focus on how use of Open Government Data can bring about new innovative solutions that can generate social and economic value. We apply a critical realist approach to a case study analysis to uncover the mechanisms that can explain how data is transformed to value. We explore the case of Opower, a pioneer in using and transforming data to induce a behavioral change that has resulted in a considerable reduction in energy use over the last six years.

The impact of IOS-enabled business process change on business outcomes: transformation of the value chain of Japan airlines

This paper explores the relationship between IOS-enabled business process change and business outcomes. A generic framework for analyzing IT-enabled business process change is applied to a case study analysis of Japan Airlines (JAL). Drawing on a resource-based view of the firm, we investigate the ways in which IOS not only contributed to JALs improved competitiveness but also enabled it more fully to leverage its strategic value chain as an engine of growth and a new source of competitive advantage. Our focus is on JALs strategic use of the AXESS Computer Reservation System and Electronic Data Interchange, developed with a clear strategic intention to support JALs emerging strategies on customer service, sales, value chain logistics coordination, and cost reduction. JALs collaboration with the IOS-transformed virtual value chain firms significantly contributed to JALs business growth and competitiveness. JALs time-based competitiveness has been improved through its IOS-enabled interfirm joint product innovation cycle time reduction.

To join or not to join: a framework for evaluating electronic data interchange systems

Abstract The article proposes a normative contingency-based framework for assessing the implications of an electronic data interchange (EDI) system focusing on technical usability, business contribution and implementation costs. The framework is aimed at users contemplating joining an already existing EDI system. With this perspective it should also be of significant interest to present and future potential EDI sponsors.

Communication Metaphors-in-Use: Technical Communication and Offshore Systems Development

Communication metaphors have been applied extensively to understand the managerial performance and organizational behavior of a single firm. However, fewer attempts have been made to apply communication metaphors to understand the dynamics of interfirm relations, or offshore partnerships. While all outsourcing contracts pose well-understood challenges, offshoring partnerships are often further complicated by culture and maturity/capability differences. Our analysis employs the results of a case study to delineate the different conversational metaphors that emerged from four discrete phases of offshore information systems development. Offshore success is contingent upon successful technical communication which is mediated through communication metaphors-in-use between vendor and client. In instances where management cannot directly dictate emergent conversational styles, it can determine organizational structure, coordination processes, contract and device incentives, and task allocation in order to cultivate a communication metaphor-in-use most appropriate to the specific phase of the offshore partnership, thereby mitigating many of the complications posed by culture and maturity differences

Generating Sustainable Value from Open Data in a Sharing Society

Our societies are in the midst of a paradigm shift that transforms hierarchal markets into an open and networked economy based on digital technology and information. In that context, open data is widely presumed to have a positive effect on social, environmental and economic value; however the evidence to that effect has remained scarce. Subsequently, we address the question how the use of open data can stimulate the generation of sustainable value. We argue that open data sharing and reuse can empower new ways of generating value in the sharing society. Moreover, we propose a model that describes how different mechanisms that take part within an open system generate sustainable value. These mechanisms are enabled by a number of contextual factors that provide individuals with the motivation, opportunity and ability to generate sustainable value.