Patrick Finnegan

Open innovation and public administration: transformational typologies and business model impacts

Extant research demonstrates that e-Government initiatives often fall short of achieving innovative forms of government and governance due to a techno-centric focus that limits such initiatives to minor improvements in service delivery. While it is evident that innovation is central to modernising and transforming governmental organisations, and that the co-creation of services by public authorities and community groups is an essential component of realising the benefits of investment in information and communication technology, there is little research focusing on the nature of innovation in transforming governmental organisations and services. Addressing this gap in the literature, this paper explores how open innovation strategies can transform public administration by examining how a network of municipalities in Sweden transforms value creation and service delivery by collaborating with each other and with external parties to accelerate the creation and exploitation of innovation. Using a case study with embedded units of analysis, four emerging typologies of governmental transformation based on open innovation are identified. The paper illustrates how these open innovation typologies (i) transform the organisation of the municipalities and (ii) help them deliver high quality co-created services to citizens. By examining the strategic and operational aspects that facilitate such activities, the analysis reveals the impact of open innovation on the business models of public authorities. The paper concludes that open innovation practices represent a more radical manifestation of transformational government than previously envisaged; signalling not only fundamental change in the nature of value creation and service delivery by public authorities, but potentially in the nature of their organisation.

From Peer Production to Productization: A Study of Socially Enabled Business Exchanges in Open Source Service Networks

Peer production phenomena such as open source software (OSS) have been posited as a viable alternative to traditional production models. However, community-based development often falls short of creating software “products” in the sense that consumers understand. Our research identifies an emerging business network archetype in the OSS sector, the open source service network (OSSN), which seeks to address the “productization” challenge. To do so, OSSNs must overcome the problems associated with exchanging resources between firms. We demonstrate that OSSNs overcome exchange problems by primarily relying on social, rather than legal, mechanisms; similar to the OSS communities from which they emerged. This is made possible because OSSNs use IT infrastructures that provide high visibility for primary value-creating activities. The research utilizes a multimethod theory-building approach, deriving a model from extant research, refining the model through qualitative case study analysis, and further refining the...

The ten commandments of data warehousing

Data warehousing can offer great potential for organizations. Nevertheless, implementing a data warehouse is a complex project that has caused difficulty for organizations. This paper presents the results of a study of four mature users of data warehousing technology. Collectively, these organizations have experienced many problems and solutions in relation to implementing data warehousing. These experience are captured in the form of ten organizational prerequisites for implementing data warehousing. The authors believe that this model could potentially be used by organizations to internally assess the likelihood of data warehousing project success, and to identify the areas that require attention prior to commencing implementation.

Managing empowerment and control in an intranet environment

Abstract. An intranet increases in sophistication and complexity as it evolves. This evolution leads to an increasing need for control over the intranet. However, this is a contentious issue, as an intranet is deemed to be an empowering technology. Consequently, intranet control systems must balance empowerment and control so as not to negate each other. This paper investigates intranet control activities and their effect on users’ perceptions of empowerment throughout the evolution of an intranet in Hewlett Packard (Ireland). The growth of the intranet is charted as a six‐stage model that illustrates an evolution of purpose, control and empowerment. The control strategies for managing the intranet implemented at each stage are investigated, and their resultant effects on empowerment are evaluated. The study reveals the importance of balancing control strategies with empowerment initiatives in managing intranet environments. Based on the evidence available, the study recommends the implementation of specific controls at particular stages in the evolution of an intranet in order to achieve control systems that balance empowerment and control.

Towards a framework for evaluating investments in data warehousing

. Data warehousing technology offers organizations the potential for much greater exploitation of informational assets. However, the evaluation of potential investments in this technology poses problems for organizations as traditional evaluation methods are constrained when dealing with strategic IT applications. Nevertheless, many organizations are procedurally obliged to use such methods for evaluating data warehousing investments. This paper identifies five problems with using such methods in these circumstances: evaluating intangible benefits; making the relationship between IT and profitability explicit; dealing with the vanishing status quo; dealing with the extended investment time frame; and evaluating infrastructural investments. The authors studied how four organizations in the UK and Ireland attempted to overcome these problems when introducing data warehousing, and propose a framework for evaluating data warehousing investments. This framework consists of a high-level analysis of the economic environment and of the information intensity of the relationship between the organization and its customers. Based on the outcome of this analysis, the authors propose four factors that have to be managed during the evaluation process in order to ensure that the limitations of the traditional evaluation techniques do not adversely affect the evaluation process. These factors are: commitment and sponsorship; the approach to evaluation; the time scale of benefits; and the appraisal techniques used.

Performance in Electronic Marketplaces: Theory in Practice

Theories of interorganizational coordination propose that that the fit between information processing capabilities (structure, process and technology) and information processing needs (environmental, partnership and task uncertainty) is a strong determinant of IOS performance. Recently, electronic marketplaces have replaced many traditional interorganizational systems (IOS). While traditional IOS models predominately operationalize one‐to‐one relationships, electronic marketplaces are mainly characterized as one‐to‐many and many‐to‐many. Consequently, it is reasonable to question whether the performance of electronic marketplaces can be adequately explained by the fit between information processing needs and information processing capabilities. This paper develops a conceptual model in an effort to explain more adequately the performance of electronic marketplaces. The argument advanced is that performance is dependent on not only the fit between (a) the information processing needs and information proces...

Open innovation in secondary software firms: an exploration of managers' perceptions of open source software

Open source software (OSS) is probably the best known exemplar of open innovation, with many practitioner-oriented publications having debated the merits and drawbacks of OSS in recent years. Nevertheless, much of the academic research on OSS has focused on individual rather than organizational issues. Hence while there is some understanding of why individual developers and users opt for particular OSS applications, relatively little is known about the adoption of OSS as a software acquisition policy. This paper presents a study of 13 managers in the secondary software sector in Europe, and examines how their perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of OSS affected their decision to adopt an open source policy for software in their companies. The study reveals how their perceptions of the business and technical benefits and drawbacks of OSS influenced the technological, organizational, environmental and individual factors considered within the adoption process. The findings reveal that many of these factors are similar to those reported by previous work on the adoption of innovation, leading us to conclude that organizational processes for the adoption of open innovation are reliant on the practices for closed innovation despite frequently cited loss of organizational control associated with open innovation.

Assessing the of potential of e-business models: towards a framework for assisting decision-makers

Abstract Decision makers are faced with an enormous range of electronic business models from which to choose. The process of fully researching each of these models can prove daunting. Such research is a feature of what has been termed the “intelligence phase” of decision making. This phase is important as options excluded at this stage do not get considered at a later stage. This paper develops a prerequisites framework for use at the intelligence phase to exclude models that are incompatible with prevailing organisational and supply chain characteristics. The framework assesses the following characteristics: economic control, supply chain integration, functional integration, innovation and input sourcing. The paper utilises a series of five point Likert scales to operationalise these characteristics so that they can be used by decision makers to efficiently manage “intelligence phase” activities.

Applying triple loop learning to planning electronic trading systems

Previous research has highlighted the need to examine the appropriateness of existing information systems methods in the context of electronic business environments. This paper argues for a re‐examination of the suitability of current planning practices in light of the complexity of developing electronic business systems. In particular, the paper illustrates that planning and developing business‐to‐business electronic trading systems (ETS) is fraught with difficulties associated with the priorities and power of individual actors in participant organisations. The authors discuss triple loop learning (TLL), an approach that deals with diverse requirements and power issues, and argue that it may assist in overcoming some of the problems identified. The study aims to analyse the theoretical usefulness of the concepts of triple loop learning in the context of planning inter‐organisational ETS. Using the data gathered from case studies of three inter‐organisational networks, the authors argue that approaches associated with TLL can offer insight into managing inter‐organisational systems complexities, and can thereby enhance planning methods for ETS.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Open Source Software: An Exploratory Study of Secondary Software Firms

Much of the assessment of OSS benefits and drawbacks has been based on anecdotal evidence appearing in practitioner publications, white papers, web articles etc. To a greater extent this research has tended to concentrate more on the technical benefits and drawbacks of OSS rather than their business counterparts. Furthermore, public administrations and companies operating within the primary software sector have traditionally been the focus for research on OSS benefits and drawbacks. Taking the viewpoint of IS/IT managers in 13 companies operating in the secondary software sector in Europe, this paper examines their experiences of the benefits/drawbacks of OSS.