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    <title>OPUS 4 Latest Documents RSS Feed</title>
    <description>Latest documents</description>
    <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/index/index/</link>
    <pubDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:10:49 +0200</pubDate>
    <lastBuildDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:10:49 +0200</lastBuildDate>
    <item>
      <title>Modeling House Price Dynamics with Heterogeneous Speculators</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3249</link>
      <description>This paper investigates the impact of speculative behavior on house price dynamics. Speculative&#13;
demand for housing is modeled using a heterogeneous agent approach, whereas ‘real’&#13;
demand and housing supply are represented in a standard way. Together, real and speculative&#13;
forces determine excess demand in each period and house price adjustments. Three alternative&#13;
models are proposed, capturing in different ways the interplay between fundamental trading&#13;
rules and extrapolative trading rules, resulting in a 2D, a 3D, and a 4D nonlinear discretetime&#13;
dynamical system, respectively. While the destabilizing effect of speculative behavior on&#13;
the model’s steady state is proven in general, the three specific cases illustrate a variety of&#13;
situations that can bring about endogenous dynamics, with lasting and significant price swings&#13;
around the ‘fundamental’ price, as we have seen in many real markets.</description>
      <author>Roberto Dieci; Frank Westerhoff</author>
      <category>bookpart</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3249</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:10:49 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Effects of Inflation Expectations on Macroeconomic Dynamics: Extrapolative Versus Regressive Expectations</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3158</link>
      <description>In this paper, we integrate heterogeneous inflation expectations into a simple monetary model.&#13;
Guided by empirical evidence, we assume that boundedly rational agents, selecting between extrapolative&#13;
and regressive forecasting rules to predict the future inflation rate, prefer rules that have&#13;
produced low prediction errors in the past. We show that integrating this behavioral expectation&#13;
formation process into the monetary model leads to the possibility of endogenous macroeconomic&#13;
dynamics. For instance, our model replicates certain empirical regularities such as irregular growth&#13;
cycles or inflation persistence. Moreover, we observe multi-stability via a Chenciner bifurcation.</description>
      <author>Marji Lines; Frank Westerhoff</author>
      <category>article</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3158</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:07:21 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>BPEL Conformance in Open Source Engines</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/1928</link>
      <description>More than five years have passed since the final release of the long-desired OASIS standard of a process language for Web Services orchestration, the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). The aim of this standard was to establish a universally accepted Web Services orchestration language that forms a core part of service-oriented architectures and, because of standardization,&#13;
avoids vendor lock-in. By now, several fully conformant engines should have arrived in the market. It is our aim to shed light on this situation and to provide a comprehensive picture of the&#13;
current state of BPEL  upport. We present an evaluation of the standard conformance of five open source BPEL engines.&#13;
To obtain these results we have developed betsy, a tool that allows for a fully-automatic standard conformance testing of BPEL engines. The results demonstrate that full standard&#13;
conformance in contemporary engines is still far from given.</description>
      <author>Simon Harrer; Jörg Lenhard; Guido Wirtz</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/1928</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:50:07 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>How management actions affect social exchanges in outsourcing relationships</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3034</link>
      <description>This paper explores the effect of management actions on social exchanges in outsourcing relationships. Social exchanges between individuals constitute relationship quality between client and vendor, which is an important factor of outsourcing success. Based on the interaction approach, we develop a framework for management actions entailing three dimensions: the exchange targeted, the organization targeted and the effect on social exchanges. We apply the framework to studying a comprehensive case of an outsourcing relationship full of conflict. This proof-of-concept shows that it is vital to consider side effects of management actions on social exchanges as they indirectly influence outsourcing success.</description>
      <author>Anna Wiesinger; Daniel Beimborn</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3034</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:35:10 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Online Social Networks as a Source and Symbol of Stress: An Empirical Analysis</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3033</link>
      <description>This research examines the sources and consequences of stress when using online social networks (OSN). In a first step, the five OSN-induced stressors invasion, pattern, complexity, uncertainty, and disclosure are identified. In a second step, the Model of Continuous OSN Usage is developed in order to examine the influence of these five stressors. Therefore, the model is based on the Model of Adoption of Technology in Households and the Post-Acceptance Model. Results of an empirical analysis with 154 OSNs users reveal that 57 per cent of satisfaction and 64 per cent of continuous usage intention can be explained within the Model of Continuous OSN Usage. Notably, the five stressors have a higher strength of effect on satisfactions than the three attitudinal beliefs hedonic, utilitarian, and social outcomes altogether. In summary, the results offer a theoretical foundation for recent practical observations that OSNs are a source and symbol of stress.</description>
      <author>Christian Maier; Sven Laumer; Andreas Eckhardt; Tim Weitzel</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3033</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:26:06 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Influence of Pressure to Perform and Experience on Changing Perceptions and User Performance: A Multi-Method Experimental Analysis</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3032</link>
      <description>To address shortcomings of predominately subjective measures in empirical IS research on IT usage and human-computer interaction, this paper uses a multi-method experimental analysis extending empirical surveying with objective measures from eye-tracking and electrodermal activity (EDA). In a three stage process, objective user performance is observed in terms of task fulfillment and user performing of participants in four focus groups, classified by user system experience and the treatment pressure to perform. Initial results of this research-in-progress reveal that users with prior system experience perform considerably better and faster than users without system experience. This also accounts for users under pressure to perform compared to users without pressure to perform. However, the results of the EDA show that users under pressure to perform also have a higher objective strain level. Furthermore, a first regression analysis outlines that objective performance might help to understand user's system satisfaction to a greater extent.</description>
      <author>Andreas Eckhardt; Christian Maier; Ricardo Buettner</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3032</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:21:56 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Using User Personality to explain the Intention-Behavior Gap and Changes in Beliefs: A Longitudinal Analysis</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3031</link>
      <description>The research reported in this article intends to investigate whether individuals a) update degrees of beliefs over time and b) transfer behavioral intentions into adoption behavior in a different manner based on their personality. Therefore, the personality trait dispositional resistance is discussed within the Integrative Framework of Technology Use. Results of an empirical longitudinal analysis (N=145) show that individuals update their beliefs based on prior beliefs and usage behavior differently in accordance with their personality. Results also reveal that individuals transfer behavioral intentions into adoption behavior differently based on their personality. Hence, we discuss our contributions to technology adoption research by highlighting the importance of personality traits when investigating technology-related beliefs and behavior over time. Results also include an assessment of the findings' practical relevance by identifying which individuals maintain negative beliefs over time and by identifying the high extent of technology usage as a possibility for overcoming negative beliefs.</description>
      <author>Christian Maier; Sven Laumer; Andreas Eckhardt; Tim Weitzel</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3031</guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:59:16 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Analyzing the impact of HRIS implementations on HR personnel's job satisfaction and turnover intention</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3030</link>
      <description>An in-depth case of an e-Recruiting system implementation is used while focusing on the level of Human Resource (HR) employees to research unintended consequences during the implementation of Human Resources Information Systems (HRISs). We develop a model that integrates the belief and attitude component of the technology acceptance literature with work-related consequences. We provide evidence for an indirect effect of attitudes toward the HRIS on turnover intention that is fully mediated by job satisfaction. Our results contribute to the literature on systems implementations and technology adoption by suggesting work-related outcomes as important additional success variables.</description>
      <author>Christian Maier; Sven Laumer; Andreas Eckhardt; Tim Weitzel</author>
      <category>article</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3030</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:35:29 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Mastering the Social IT/Business Alignment Challenge</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3029</link>
      <description>The crucial role of IT/business alignment for business value of IT has been investigated for more than two decades. While both the intellectual and the social dimension of alignment received considerable attention at strategic level, only few studies have provided insights into alignment at non-strategic levels. With the intellectual dimension being quite well understood, this work focuses particularly on the social dimension of alignment, addressing aspects like shared understanding, common language, shared domain knowledge, and interaction quality between business and IT. Furthermore, there is a lack of research on how to achieve and maintain social alignment, making it difficult to develop guidelines for practice in this important area. This paper presents a multi-level construct for social alignment and adopts an IT governance perspective in order to identify specific practices and investigate their impact on social alignment. Using a qualitative approach by conducting a series of case studies, this research aims to contribute to our understanding of key IT/business alignment antecedents (or managerial actions) and how they influence social alignment.</description>
      <author>Frank Schlosser</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3029</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:28:18 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Considering the Relative Relevance of Outsourcing Relationship Quality</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3025</link>
      <description>Outsourcing relationship quality (ORQ) has shown to be an important construct in previous research on outsourcing effectiveness. But, while there are various works that have conceptualized and operationalized ORQ as a rich and multi-dimensional construct, other studies which consider ORQ as (usually mediating) component of their theoretical models make hardly use of those works but often use less rich constructs. The research on hand attempts bridging the gap between those two groups of works. A multi-dimensional ORQ construct is used to evaluate the relative importance of different ORQ dimensions, such as commitment, trust, etc., in regard to different dimensions of outsourcing success (overall satisfaction, goal achievement, service quality). For example, while many studies use trust as proxy for ORQ, our study shows that, depending on the outcome variable, other ORQ dimensions might be more relevant and should be used instead or additionally. Thus, the main contribution is identifying those ORQ dimensions which are most relevant regarding different outsourcing success variables. Future studies on outsourcing success factors will have a better ground to argue for or against using certain ORQ dimensions in their studies. Moreover, the study sensitizes managers for different distinct ORQ dimensions and their importance for a successful outsourcing relationship.</description>
      <author>Daniel Beimborn</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3025</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:26:06 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Adoption of Online Appointment Schedule Platforms - An Interview-based Case Study Series with Micro-Enterprises</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3024</link>
      <description>Based on the Technology-Organization-Environment model we propose a model for explaining the adoption of online appointment schedule platforms by micro-enterprises in order to take the specific characteristics of this organizational type into consideration of technology adoption research. Using case study interviews from seven micro-enterprises we can show that the adoption decision is mainly influenced by the attitude of the entrepreneur, support and updates, scalability, test phase, training and compatibility. In addition, we identify a fourth context of marketing factors relevant for the adoption decision and not considered by the TOE-model so far. Moreover, we discuss whether rather individual- or organizational level adoption models are appropriate to explain the adoption decision of micro-enterprises.</description>
      <author>Philipp Ott; Sven Laumer</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3024</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:22:47 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Bipartite Influence of Information Overload on User Resistance to Knowledge Management Systems</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3023</link>
      <description>This research centers on the relationship between information overload as an aspect of information quality on the one side, and, on the other side, user resistance to knowledge management systems as an aspect of an individual's decision process. While discussing this relationship theoretically we propose a bipartite influence of information overload as on the one hand it fosters acceptance of these system, but on the other hand also causes user resistance. By analyzing information overload in pre- and post-implementation phases of knowledge management systems we argue that information overload has an ambivalent causal effect as it can act both positively and negatively in relation to the point of time overload occurs or is expected. Therefore, based on existing literature we propose a research model and illustrate the relationships through results of a case study.</description>
      <author>Udo Wild; Sven Laumer; Aenne Krönke</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3023</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:52:41 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Empirical Evidence for an Individual's Dispositional Resistance to IT-Induced Changes</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3022</link>
      <description>As information systems (IS) usage is the missing link from information technology (IT) investments to the business value impact of IT (DeLone and McLean 2003), it is a significant issue for IS researchers and practitioners, if individuals resist using these systems. Several recent models have been developed in order to offer insights which perceptual beliefs foster user resistance. Results reveal perceptual beliefs as perceived threats, technostress, or switching costs as major determinants for user resistance. Nevertheless, user resistance has not been researched from a perspective of predisposed individual differences so far. Consequently, this paper proposes the new construct dispositional resistance to IT-induced changes. This reflects inclinations to resist any kind of IT-related change and discusses resistance from the perspective of individual differences. Within this approach, it is theoretically hypothesized, how this inclination influences perceptual beliefs, intentions, and behaviors. Empirical results reveal strong impacts of the newly proposed construct on technostress.</description>
      <author>Christian Maier; Sven Laumer; Andreas Eckhardt; Tim Weitzel</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3022</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:34:16 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Shady Side Of Facebook: The Influence Of Perceived Information And Network Characteristics On The Attitude Towards Information Overload</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3021</link>
      <description>This research paper analyzes the impact of information and network characteristics on the affective, cognitive, and behavioral attitude towards information overload (IO) on Facebook. By using an information overload model and the data of 300 active Facebook users it can be shown that the various categories of attitude are influenced by different factors. The level of determination of the behavioral attitude towards IO is lower than the level of determination of the affective and cognitive attitude towards IO. The identified antecedents of IO explain up to 36 per cent of the variance of IO. Results indicate that affective and cognitive attitude towards IO are more influenced by these antecedents as the behavioral attitude towards IO. Furthermore, results reveal that the amount of information an individual receives is the major predictor of all three dimensions of attitude. Several implications for adoption research are discussed.</description>
      <author>Christoph Weinert; Christian Maier; Sven Laumer</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3021</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:28:26 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Exploring the Relation between Firm Ownership and IT Capability</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3017</link>
      <description>As IT spending continuously increased throughout the last years, it nowadays accounts for a significant amount of total corporate spending. Simultaneously, academic research validated the strategic importance and performance benefits derived from a superior IT capability - the ability to successfully deploy organizational IT skills and resources. Furthermore, shareholders pursuing long-term oriented goals are interested in consistent investments to develop organizational capabilities, such as IT capability. Consequentially, the question arises how a firm's ownership structure is related to its IT capability. 
This research question is addressed by analyzing secondary data on publicly listed U.S. companies of the last ten years. The results provide support for the hypothesized relation throughout the investigated period and withstand several control and robustness tests.
This study contributes to the ongoing research on IT capability by showing that certain types of shareholders promote the development and deployment of IT capability which in turn influences strategic topics. Findings further confirm that decisions on IT investments characterized by long-term benefits must be backed by owners with a corresponding long-term investment horizon.</description>
      <author>André Schäfferling; Heinz-Theo Wagner; Jochen Becker</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3017</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:03:02 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Workshop on Group Recommender Systems: Concepts, Technology, Evaluation (GroupRS)</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3730</link>
      <description/>
      <author>Tom Gross; Judith  Masthoff; Christoph Beckmann</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3730</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:06:43 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Towards Increased Utility of and Satisfaction with Group Recommender Systems</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3731</link>
      <description/>
      <author>Christoph Beckmann; Tom Gross</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3731</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:52:22 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>IT Capability and Firm Performance: Findings from Periods of Economic Downturn</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3016</link>
      <description>Information technology is crucial in many industries and is seen as a decisive factor of a firm's performance and financial success. Based on the dynamic capabilities view, this paper aims at extending existing research on organizational IT capability and performance. In particular, this work examines if firms exhibiting superior IT capability outperform their competitors, especially during two phases of economic downturn: the burst of the dotcom-bubble in 2000 and the recent financial crisis in 2008. Applying secondary statistics on different performance measures and proxies of IT capability among publicly traded US companies, we found that firms characterized by superior IT capability outperformed their competitors during both crises in all but one performance indicator. This paper contributes to research by investigating two crisis periods and using up-to-date data to reconcile prior research.</description>
      <author>André Schäfferling; Heinz-Theo Wagner; Jochen Becker</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3016</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:14:10 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Personality Within Information Systems Research: A Literature Analysis</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3015</link>
      <description>After integrating five higher-order personality traits in an extended model of technology acceptance, Devaraj et al. (2008) called for further research including personality in information systems research to understand the formation of perceptual beliefs and behaviors in more detail. To assist such future research endeavors, this article gives an overview on prior research discussing personality within the six plus two journals of the AIS Senior Basket (MISQ, ISR, JMIS, JAIS, EJIS, ISJ, JSIS, JIT). Therefore, the Theory of a Person approach (ToP) derived from psychology research serves as the underlying conceptual matrix. Within the literature analysis, we identify 30 articles discussing personality traits on distinct hierarchical levels in three fields of information systems research. Results of the literature analysis reveal a shift of examined traits over the last years. In addition, research gaps are identified so that propositions are derived. Further research results and implications are discussed within the article.</description>
      <author>Christian Maier</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3015</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:53:02 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>When Social Networking Turns to Social Overload:  Explaining the Stress, Emotional Exhaustion, and Quitting Behavior from Social Network Sites' Users</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3014</link>
      <description>This research responds to a current phenomenon that individuals experience fatigue, while using social network sites, such as Facebook, which original intend to provide hedonic value to users. To explain this current phenomenon, we propose and evaluate a research model based on the stress-strain-outcome model. Focal point is the stressor social overload, which induces feelings of being emotional exhausted. For that reason, some users of social network sites start to get dissatisfied and report an increasing discontinuous usage intention. In addition, the research article provides evidence for the fact that the effect of stress on the two outcome variables satisfaction and discontinuous usage intention is fully mediated through strain. This is validated with an empirical survey with 523 Facebook users. Several implications for technology adoption research are discussed.</description>
      <author>Christian Maier; Sven Laumer; Andreas Eckhardt; Tim Weitzel</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3014</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:43:13 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Learning to remain - Evaluating the use of mentoring for the retention of FLOSS developers</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3013</link>
      <description>The retention of newcomers is of vital relevance for initiatives developing Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). Based on previous FLOSS research which repeatedly highlights the amount of knowledge developers build in the beginning of their project participation for their continuance and experiences from the organizational domain, we evaluate the use of mentoring as an appropriate knowledge transfer and retention strategy for FLOSS projects. Combining FLOSS and organizational literature, we develop our research model and hypothesize that (i) mentoring facilitates novices in their learning, which, in turn, increases their retention (ii) and (iii) that mentoring has direct effects on protégés' continued participation. The evaluation of 91 newcomers to the KDE project supports our hypotheses and finds a strong direct and indirect association between mentoring and novices' project retention. On the one hand our analysis shows that mentoring significantly increases novices' achieved level of knowledge after their ramp up period which, in turn, enlarges their project permanence. On the other hand, we find evidence that there is also a strong and significant direct association between mentoring and protégés' retention behaviour, which could be the result of the strong interpersonal relationship which is formed between mentors and protégés.</description>
      <author>Andreas Schilling; Sven Laumer</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3013</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:34:59 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Contagious Power of Innovativeness: A Comparison of Different Types of Firm Partners</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3010</link>
      <description>Continuously innovating is known to provide firms with a competitive edge over rival firms. As innovations are often created in networks, a firm's partners exert an influence on the focal firm's innovative outcome. Although many studies deal with innovation networks and open innovation as a means to explore external knowledge and exploit knowledge externally e.g., dealing with characteristics of partnership agreements, there is virtually no research regarding characteristics of external partners. Namely, whether a focal firm's partners are innovative themselves and what the effects of this innovativeness on a focal firm's innovative outcome might be. This study considers different types of partners such as customers and suppliers and deals with the differential impact of partners` innovativeness on a focal firm's knowledge stock, absorptive capacity (ACAP), and innovation success.
Drawing on literature on open innovation and ACAP and employing a survey in the manufacturing industry, we show whether a certain partner types' innovativeness is linked to innovation success, knowledge stock, and ACAP of a focal firm. E.g., we found that only the innovativeness of firms organized in clusters is positively and directly linked to innovation success, while customers' innovativeness influences positively and directly certain components of ACAP and knowledge stock.</description>
      <author>Heinz-Theo Wagner; Bernhard Moos; Daniel Beimborn; Tim Weitzel</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3010</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:23:52 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>How to Achieve Operational Business-IT Alignment: Insights from a Global Aerospace Firm</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3006</link>
      <description>A common challenge facing firms is how to effectively embed strategic business-IT alignment into daily routines at the operational level. Based on our findings from following an alignment project in a global aerospace industry leader for almost two years, we put forward a framework, which we call OperA, for establishing operational level business-IT alignment. This framework has three dimensions - knowledge, communication and trust, and identifies alignment paths for three strategic situations faced by firms: major planned changes, regular operations and major unplanned changes. Each path is anchored in a different dimension of the framework. The global aerospace case shows how different mechanisms used for each path improve business processes and enable successful change. The case also revealed frequent pitfalls and dependencies between the dimensions and associated mechanisms that top managers should be aware of as they strive to achieve operational business-IT alignment.</description>
      <author>Heinz-Theo Wagner; Tim Weitzel</author>
      <category>article</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3006</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:37:34 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Economic Performance, Political Institutions and Cabinet Durability in 28 European Parliamentary Democracies, 1945–2011</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3728</link>
      <description>After reviewing the literature on cabinet terminations and demonstrating the progress from early&#13;
explanations based on the structural attributes of cabinets and their political environment to increasingly&#13;
sophisticated ‘unified’ models of strategic responses to exogenous shocks, this chapter will (a) discuss&#13;
ways of using existing datasets to operationalize one of these unified models, Lupia and Strøm’s influential&#13;
model of strategic cabinet termination (focusing on the conditions of political institutions to influence the&#13;
costs of governing under the impact of exogenous shocks such as economic crises); and (b) test a version&#13;
of it empirically by using a competing-risk design and a new set of political and economic data covering 28&#13;
European democracies over a period of more than 60 years. It is found that strong increases in&#13;
unemployment were particularly destructive for European cabinets, whereas the impact of inflation seems&#13;
to be mitigated by political and strategic factors. Duration-dependent effects—unemployment increasing&#13;
the risk of early elections towards the end of a parliamentary term and increasing the risk of non-electoral&#13;
cabinet replacements at its beginning—are small but significant, corroborating some of the strategic&#13;
predictions of the Lupia–Strøm model.</description>
      <author>Thomas Saalfeld</author>
      <category>articlecollection</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3728</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 07 Jun 2013 11:52:26 +0200</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>A software development methodology for sustainable ICTD solutions</title>
      <link>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3647</link>
      <description>Abstract:&#13;
Information and Communication Technology continue to be increasingly used in social development and poverty alleviation projects, known as Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD) projects. However, most interventions either fail completely as a result of attempting to use inappropriate software development approaches and technology concepts in the different ICTD context or they only execute small scale prototypes without positive long-term social impact. We present a case study on how we combined and adapted, using an iterative action research refinement approach, established interaction design methods into a software development methodology supporting scalable long-term ICTD software projects: the Technical ICTD Methodology (TIM). Our case study is based on the experiences of a series of ICTD projects executed within a major software corporation over a period of more than five years. &#13;
&#13;
Author Keywords:&#13;
Software Development Methodology; ICTD &#13;
&#13;
ACM Classification Keywords: D.2.2. Software Engineering: Design tools and techniques.&#13;
&#13;
Introduction:&#13;
Technical ICTD, which refers to ICTD software development topics, is missing a replicable and scalable software development methodology tailor-made for the ICTD context. While currently the major focus in technical ICTD centers on technology solutions [6,8,10], less attention has been paid to devising appropriate software development methodologies (though see [1,3,7]). However, to scale beyond small scale prototyping solutions towards sustainable and scalable long-term solutions replicable and scalable methodological approaches are required. We present a software development methodology that has been refined through an iterative action research process within a series of ICTD projects over a period of more than five years - the Technical ICTD Methodology (TIM) (see Figure 1). TIM builds on established interaction design methods and extends them with a number of distinctive features reflecting our learning over these five years, in particular, a multi-phase iterative development approach, a set of role definitions for key actors, and a defined communication flow. &#13;
&#13;
Methodology Refinement Approach:&#13;
Action research is an established framework for information systems research gaining acceptance in computing research that seeks social relevance [5]. Building on West &amp; Stansfield [11] ‘FMA approach’ we have utilized an iterative action research based process for the continuous refinement of TIM. Following this approach research proceeds as a series of cycles where researchers select an Area of concern (A), then take action in that situation applying the methodology (M), which is guided by a framework of ideas (F). It is important that F and M are made explicit prior to taking action. During and after each cycle, reflection generates findings leading to adaptations to the framework of ideas and the Methodology. Following this approach we started with an initial set of assumptions of how we can benefit from established interaction design methods. However, only along the iterative approach we learned how to adapt and utilize the methods appropriately. We expected to benefit from User-Centered Design (UCD) and Participatory Design (PD) approaches. We started with methods such as rapid/iterative prototyping, personas and scenarios, and on-site field studies. Our framework of ideas included the expectation that those methods would need to be adapted to the cultural and infrastructural context [12] but we would find out how during the iterative refinement. We expected that if we want to build solutions that foster long-term business collaborations with local partners we need a tight collaboration with them from the very beginning [2]. We also assumed that we would benefit from being on-site to build tight personal collaborations with local stakeholders. Along the iterative refinement within three ICTD projects TIM evolved based on the continuous lessons learned about our initial assumptions. TIM distinguishes it from our initial expectations and existing methodologies in four key areas: collaboration setup, defined team roles, communication flow, and three phase process.&#13;
&#13;
Resulting Methodology - TIM:&#13;
In contrast to initially simple ‘Test and Evaluation Agreements’ the refined TIM collaboration setup defines collaboration models like ‘Tester’ that only trials ICT solutions, along ‘Co-Innovators’ actively participating in the ICT development process, to ‘Early Customers’ collaborating in the transition phase from research to real business. Beside typical team roles (e.g. software developers) TIM builds on the assumptions of the required local change manager role. While in the early pilot scenarios we had different people present on-site we found that this results in weak trust relationships with local partners, adds extra ‘hand-over’ effort on return, and introduces different individual interpretations of results. In the refined TIM the change manager role is the primary on-site contact and single design authority throughout a project. She/he interacts with stakeholders, identifies opportunities, and translates them into possible ICT solutions. She/he is external to the local partner and end-user community which contrasts with Sharpey-Schafer’s [9] 'champions' who are local stakeholders with a vested interest in driving the project internally, but who are not necessarily able to assess trade-offs between commercial benefits, technological opportunities, and implementation efforts. The TIM communication flow defines the communication hierarchy along project structures. In earlier pilots for example we had direct communication between off-site software developers and local end-users resulting in redundancy and misinterpretation of information caused by missing local context knowledge and a weak trust relationship. In the refined TIM the change manager is the main contact for all local communication. In the initial pilots the software development approach was an undifferentiated iterative software development process. Over the five years it evolved into the defined three phase approach guiding software development along the different needs of prototyping, roll-out, and live operation. Further examples of how the iterative reflections in our projects led to local adaptations of established interaction design methods are: on-site activities executed by local partners or local community members provide more reliable feedback than if led by the change manager alone; a  user-trains-user workshop format makes users feel more comfortable and is more effective as a one-on-one change manager-trains-user setup; because of unreliable power, paper prototypes are fall backs to functional prototypes, but an early shift to functional prototypes improves feedback; end-users often try to follow the strongest voice or do not want to express doubts in front of community leaders, so working with segregated groups of users with similar status can be helpful; on-site activities must adhere to local cultural conventions (e.g. praying, welcome the community chief before workshop starts, respecting gender issues). &#13;
&#13;
Conclusion:&#13;
The positive results of projects applying TIM [4] show TIM to be a repeatable technical ICTD software development methodology, enabling the creation of sustainable, scalable, and reusable ICTD solutions. The positive results strengthen the case for locally adapted interaction design methods in ICTD software development. The utilization of an action research approach for the iterative refinement of TIM helped to cope with the ICTD specific context and to define the methodology based on the iterative learning in real use cases. PD and UCD being the main concepts of TIM enable a tight end-user interaction supporting the creation of appropriate ICT solutions. Extensive field studies resulting in personas and scenarios, establishment of local contacts, and the role of a change manager help to avoid design vs. reality gaps. Rapid prototyping and end-user workshops with local support and early paper prototypes and later functional prototypes ensure the tight integration of end-users in the entire design process. Whilst every software development project is in some ways unique, we believe that other ICTD projects could benefit to draw on elements of the UCD and PD approach of TIM. &#13;
&#13;
References:&#13;
[1] Blake, E. Software engineering in developing communities. Proc. 2010 ICSE Workshop - CHASE, 1–4. &#13;
[2] Brewer, E., Demmer, M., Du, B., et al. The case for technology in developing regions. Computer 38, 6 (2005), 25–38. &#13;
[3] Dearden, A., Rizvi, H., Gupta, S. Roles and responsibilities in agile ICT for development. Proc. India HCI 2010, 1–12. &#13;
[4] Doerflinger, J., Gross, T. Sustainable ICT in Agricultural Value Chains. IT Professional, July/August (2012), 48–55. &#13;
[5] Hayes, G.R. The relationship of action research to human-computer interaction. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 18, 3 (2011), 1–20. &#13;
[6] Kumar, R. eChoupals: A Study on the Financial Sustainability of Village Internet Centers in Rural Madhya Pradesh. ITID 2, 1 (2004), 45–73. &#13;
[7] Maunder, A., Marsden, G., Gruijters, D., Blake, E. Designing interactive systems for the developing world - reflections on user-centred design. Proc. ICTD 2007. &#13;
[8] Parikh, T.S., Lazowska, E.D. Designing an architecture for delivering mobile information services to the rural developing world. Proc. WWW 2006. &#13;
[9] Sharpey-Schafer, K. Key Techniques in Building Effective ICT Solutions in the South African HIV/AIDS Sector. Proc. CCC Workshop. Berkeley, (2009), 77–78. &#13;
[10] Veeraraghavan, R., Yasodhar, N., Toyama, K. Warana Unwired: Replacing PCs with mobile phones in a rural sugarcane cooperative. Proc. ICTD 2007, 1–10. &#13;
[11] West, D., Stansfield, M.H. Structuring Action and Reflection in Information Systems Action Research Studies  Usng  heckland    sFMA Model. Systemic Practice and Action Research 14, 3 (2001), 251–281. &#13;
[12] Winschiers, H. The Challenges of Participatory Design in an Intercultural Context: Designing for Usability in Namibia. Proc.  DC  ‘6, II, 73–76.   </description>
      <author>Joerg  Doerflinger; Andy Dearden; Tom Gross</author>
      <category>conferenceobject</category>
      <guid>http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/3647</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 05 Jun 2013 11:53:07 +0200</pubDate>
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