Roman Beck

Control balancing in information systems development offshoring projects

While much is known about selecting different types of control that can be exercised in information systems development projects, the control dynamics associated with ISD offshoring projects represent an important gap in our understanding. In this paper, we develop a substantive grounded theory of control balancing that addresses this theoretical gap. Based on a longitudinal case study of an ISD offshoring project in the financial services industry, we introduce a three-dimensional control configuration category that emerged from our data, suggesting that control type is only one dimension on which control configuration decisions need to be made. The other two dimensions that we identified are control degree (tight versus relaxed) and control style (unilateral versus bilateral). Furthermore, we illustrate that control execution during the life cycle of an ISD offshoring project is highly intertwined with the development of client--vendor shared understanding and that each influences the other. Based on these findings, we develop an integrative process model that explains how offshoring project managers make adjustments to the control configuration periodically to allow the ISD offshoring project and relationship to progress, yielding the iterative use of different three-dimensional control configurations that we conceptualize in the paper. Our process model of control balancing may trigger new ways of looking at control phenomena in temporary interfirm organizations such as client--vendor ISD offshoring projects. Implications for research on organizational control and ISD offshoring are discussed. In addition, guidelines for ISD offshoring practitioners are presented.

The Diffusion and Efficient Use of Electronic Commerce among Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises: An International Three‐Industry Survey

The diffusion of e‐commerce applications and solutions in many countries and industry sectors seems to have reached a level of maturity. This applies not only for large firms, but also for SMEs in three analysed industry sectors, i.e. manufacturing, retail/wholesale and banking/insurance, in Denmark, France, Germany, and the US. With the exception of France, a rather large number of SMEs in these countries responded that the implementation of e‐commerce contributed substantially to improve existing operational processes and to expand markets. Although e‐commerce technologies may be available hypothetically in all industries and firms, an efficient usage of e‐commerce is closely related to a comprehensive implementation of more sophisticated solutions, e.g., online procurement or Internet‐based supply chain management. Firms with an all‐embracing approach utilizing many e‐commerce applications are more often efficient than firms with a lower e‐commerce diffusion rate in the sample analysed.

Some Economics of Vertical Standards: Integrating SMEs in EDI Supply Chains

Despite the benefits associated with vertical communication standards such as electronic data interchange (EDI) or WebEDI, their diffusion among small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) has failed to a surprising extent. Accordingly, SME integration into value chains is still a critical issue for information systems research on standards diffusion. The goal of this contribution is to reveal the reasons for the slow diffusion of EDI and WebEDI among SMEs and to propose concrete solutions. Based on an empirical survey among SMEs in the German office supply industry, economic and technical obstacles to vertical standard diffusion are identified. First, it is shown that EDI and especially WebEDI solutions are economically dominated by a widespread practice in SMEs, which is using faxes for business document exchange. Second, as many SMEs do not deploy automated material management systems (MMS), they lack the necessary technical preconditions for economically viable EDI. Third, based on these findings an EDI...

Breaching the Knowledge Transfer Blockade in IT Offshore Outsourcing Projects - A Case from the Financial Services Industry

In this paper the authors present the results of a research project that strives to fill a literature gap in IT offshore outsourcing research by analyzing clientside managerial mechanisms for the effective knowledge transfer from client to vendor organization. 31 qualitative interviews were conducted and analyzed using the grounded theory development methodology. A key finding is that client firms cannot rely solely on the capabilities of IT service providers and must actively involve themselves in the transfer, accumulation, and use of business knowledge, process knowledge, and functional knowledge in the client-vendor relationship.

Network effects as drivers of individual technology adoption: Analyzing adoption and diffusion of mobile communication services

Adoption research has largely ignored the dynamic impact of network effects on technology adoption and diffusion. For example, some technologies become more attractive the more social peers use them as well. But adoption at the same time increases the value for the peers and thereby their adoption decisions as well. Unfortunately, interdependencies like these make adoption and diffusion patterns very complex. Drawing on network effect theory, we develop an adoption and diffusion model that explicitly considers the role of direct and indirect network effects for individual technology adoption, using mobile commerce adoption as application example. By applying a simulation approach we can exemplify and analyze the fundamental adoption dynamics given rise to by network effects. We thereby propose a way of how to incorporate network effects into adoption research and disclose the role of the technology diffusion lifecycle for individual adoption.

Integration of E-Commerce by SMEs in the Manufacturing Sector: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

SMEs (small- to medium-sized enterprises) in the manufacturing industry are impacted by enormous changes in their business processes. E-commerce-related developments have reduced the importance of physical branches and moved it toward more sophisticated and e-commerce-enabled supply chains for products and services. This article analyzes the differences among SMEs in the manufacturing sector in four countries based on empirical data collected via a survey. Best-practice cases of efficient e-commerce performance such as in Denmark or the United States are identified in contrast to firms in France or Germany by using a data envelopment analysis (DEA). Leading SMEs in the sample have implemented a wide range of e-commerce applications, resulting in higher satisfaction rates. The results of this cross-country and multi-dimensional DEA research approach contribute to the literature of e-commerce adoption, usage and impact among SMEs in the manufacturing sector.

Effectiveness of corporate social media activities in increasing relational outcomes

We assess three social media activities of 28 companies on nested hierarchical levels.We apply relationship marketing theory to develop novel social media success measures.Using a social media management tool improves attitudinal loyalty and word of mouth.Operating a broadcasting account type will increase the average word of mouth valence.A conversational communicative approach improves the word of mouth volume and valence. This study applies social media analytics to investigate the impact of different corporate social media activities on user word of mouth and attitudinal loyalty. We conduct a multilevel analysis of approximately 5million tweets regarding the main Twitter accounts of 28 large global companies. We empirically identify different social media activities in terms of social media management strategies (using social media management tools or the web-frontend client), account types (broadcasting or receiving information), and communicative approaches (conversational or disseminative). We find positive effects of social media management tools, broadcasting accounts, and conversational communication on public perception.

Grid Economics in Departmentalized Enterprises

The application of Grid technology is finally spreading from engineering and natural science-related industrial sectors to other industries with a high demand for computing applications. However, the diffusion of Grid technology within these sectors is often hindered by a lack of the incentive to share the computational resources across departments or branches even within the same enterprise. A promising way of overcoming these barriers is the introduction of a pricing mechanism for the use of Grid-based resources. This work introduces such a pricing approach to Grid computing and provides three simulation scenarios to illustrate the effectiveness of such an economized Grid solution. The simulation results indicate that the pooling of information technology resources can produce a reduction of 33% in cost compared to individual and dedicated servers. However, with a price-based allocation of computing resources, a further 10% of cost reduction can be achieved by introducing an auction mechanism. Therefore we claim that there is huge cost reduction potential in departmentalized enterprises beyond the savings that can be achieved by a utility-based allocation of computing resources, if economically measured allocation methods are combined with advanced refining and learning methods in the allocation process.

Theory-generating design science research

A frequently mentioned challenge in design science research (DSR) is the generation of novel theory above and beyond information technology artefacts. This article analyzes the DSR process and extends established frameworks for theory generation to exemplify improvements to theory generation through methods of grounded theory development. On a conceptual base, we developed a theory-generating DSR approach which integrates methods of grounded theory development with established DSR methodology. This combination enables a design theorist to generate theoretical knowledge that extends the applicable knowledge base. We do not elaborate this combination on a meta-level, but rather provide a process model for researchers in form of an extension of a well-known DSR model to combine both methods in a pluralistic research design. With this suggested research approach, scholars can draw theoretical insights from analytical abstractions and can improve the development of IT artefacts in a structured way to avoid failure or repair loops.

Social media management strategies for organizational impression management and their effect on public perception

Social media management strategies are modeled to influence the public perception.Distinguish a tool- and a web-based strategy based on company-generated messages.The public perception is measured based on 15.5million user-generated messages.A mixed method approach is used to qualitatively explore the quantitative results.A tool-based social media management improves word of mouth and attitudinal loyalty. With the growing importance of social media, companies increasingly rely on social media management tools to analyze social media activities and to professionalize their social media engagement. In this study, we evaluate how social media management tools, as part of an overarching social media strategy, help companies to positively influence the public perception among social media users. A mixed methods approach is applied, where we quantitatively analyze 15million user-generated Twitter messages containing information about 45 large global companies highly active on Twitter, as well as almost 160 thousand corresponding messages sent from these companies via their corporate Twitter accounts. Additionally, we conducted interviews with six social media experts to gain complementary insights. By these means, we are able to identify significant differences between different social media management strategies and measure the corresponding effects on the public perception.