331 search hits
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Reconsidering the Dimensions of Business-IT Alignment
(2012)
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Frank Schlosser
Heinz-Theo Wagner
Tim Coltman
- While the literature on business-IT alignment has become increasingly mature in the past 20 years, different definitions and conceptualizations have
emerged. Several dimensions like strategic, intellectual, structural, social, and cultural alignment have been developed. However, no integrated and broadly accepted categorization exists and these dimensions are non-selective and do overlap. In this
paper, we critically compare and reflect the existing dimensions of alignment and synthesize what has been
researched about alignment and guide future research by revealing gaps in alignment research suggesting an
agenda for future research. In regard to analyzing alignment, we propose to
clearly separate between the organizational level and the content of alignment, for which we suggest three
distinct dimensions: (1) human dimension; (2) social dimension; (3) intellectual dimension. The result is a
consolidated grid of alignment studies allowing to identify both areas with a mature and rich strand of literature and those lacking research.
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Aligning Multiple Definitions of Alignment - A Literature Review
(2012)
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Katja Walentowitz
- Business/IT alignment is an important driver of ITbusiness-value, thus, an important topic on researchers' and practitioners' agendas. Achieving alignment is a major goal of IT governance. Accordingly, many articles around alignment have been published. However, they describe a wide range of different sometimes overlapping alignment types. Yet, research depends on precise, unambiguous concepts. While previous reviews on alignment only list and describe alignment definitions, this literature-review-based research develops the Alignment Map, a structured overview of alignment types describing their relations to one another, and describes an approach to locate additional alignment definitions amongst existing ones. It is centred around the SAM whose two dimensions are complemented by a social dimension, highlighting the importance of social aspects in recent alignment literature. The Alignment Map, to my knowledge, is the first tool allowing researchers to locate their understanding of alignment amongst existing definitions, and thus promotes exchange between different alignment research streams.
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Opening the Black Box of Outsourcing Knowledge Intensive Business Processes - A Longitudinal Case Study of Outsourcing Recruiting Activities
(2012)
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Sven Laumer
Nadine Blinn
Andreas Eckhardt
- Knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) play an increasing role in business and economics as they serve as service providers for organizations outsourcing their knowledge intensive business processes (KIBP). Our literature analysis shows that KIBP as outsourcing objects remain considered as "black boxes". Based on the assumptions of the Resource Based View of the Firm, we shed light into the black box. Within a longitudinal case study, we present the motivation of a company outsourcing its recruitment activities since 2003 and the lessons learnt derived from the project during the last eight years opening the black box of outsourcing KIBP. Human Resources (HR) belongs to the back office function of organizations and recruitment in particular is considered to be a KIBP. The results of the case study indicate that business process standardization, identifying knowledge intensive sub-processes that provide value to the process outcomes and defining explicit service levels are key success factors for KIBP outsourcing. In addition, the results show that outsourcing KIBP can be beneficial for organizations and can results in better process determinants in terms of cost, time and quality.
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The Implementation of Large-Scale Information Systems in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises - A Case Study of Work-and Health-Related Consequences
(2012)
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Sven Laumer
Christian Maier
Tim Weitzel
Andreas Eckhardt
- Using a case study of a financial service provider, this research provides a next step toward an answer to the question about the importance of an employee's attitude toward a newly introduced information system in light of a mandatory usage setting. Based on the Commitment to Change Model, the paper argues theoretically and provides case study evidence that negative attitudes toward new information systems influence work-related and health-related outcomes. The observed case indicates that a negative evaluation of a new financial information system leads to negative consequences such as decreased organizational commitment and overall job satisfaction as well as an increased turnover intention and a higher number of sick days. The results implicate that work- and health-related consequences are potential dependent variables for technology adoption research and that practitioners have to address these issues during the implementation of information systems in organizations.
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Whom to Ask for What knowledge? A Comparison of Exchange Partners and Their Impact on Knowledge Types
(2012)
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Bernhard Moos
Heinz-Theo Wagner
Daniel Beimborn
Tim Weitzel
- From which sources does a firm acquire its knowledge? One of the most important key assets of a firm is its knowledge stock, which can be distinguished into different types of knowledge (e.g., market knowledge). This knowledge stock results from internal and/or from external sources such as exchange partners (e.g., customers). Our paper focuses on these external partners and investigates how the social capital residing in the relationships to these exchange partners is related to the creation of different types of knowledge. Thereby, this research generates practical guidelines for investing in a firm's network. Using data from 161 firms, the results show that (1) customers are the most important source for market knowledge; (2) regarding process, technological and organizational knowledge the combination of R&D partners and customers contributes the most; and (3) for product knowledge no single source being the most important knowledge contributor can be identified.
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Who Will Remain? An Evaluation of Actual Person-Job and Person-Team Fit to Predict Developer Retention in FLOSS Projects
(2012)
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Andreas Schilling
Sven Laumer
Tim Weitzel
- Today businesses and private households worldwide rely on Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). Most FLOSS-projects however are threatened in their existence due to a lack of sustained contributors. The early identification of developers who are likely to remain at the project is an eminent task for the management of FLOSS-initiatives. Previous research showed that the subjective judgment of individuals is often inaccurate emphasizing the need to objectively assess retention behavior. Consistent with the concepts Person-Job (P-J) and Person-Team (P-T) fit from recruitment literature, we derive objective measures to predict developer retention in FLOSS-projects. To evaluate our proposed measures we assess the retention of former Google Summer of Code (GSoC) students. The results show that students' prior level of project experience, expertise and communication intensity correlates strongly with their ongoing participation. Surprisingly, our analysis reveals that students with abilities that are underrepresented in the project do not remain considerably longer.
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Minority-Ethnic MPs and the Substantive Representation of Minority Interests in the House of Commons, 2005–2011
(2013)
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Thomas Saalfeld
Daniel Bischof
- Black, Asian and minority-ethnic (BAME) citizens are under-represented in the House of Commons. Nevertheless, the Chamber's ethnic composition has become more reflective of the general population as a result of the 2005 and 2010 parliamentary elections. The paper seeks to map and explain variations in the extent to which BAME Members of Parliament (MPs) use the Chamber to articulate issues relevant to minority constituents. We compare the content of all parliamentary questions for written answer asked by BAME MPs between May 2005 and December 2011 to the questions asked by a matching sample of non-minority legislators. We find that BAME MPs ask more questions relating to the problems and rights of ethnic minorities in, and immigration to, the UK. However, we also find that all British MPs are responsive to the interests of minority constituents where these are geographically concentrated. Building on theoretical predictions derived from (a) models focusing on MPs’ political socialisation and (b) on the electoral incentives they are facing, we discover that the MPs in our sample respond systematically to electoral incentives, especially in the politically salient area of immigration policy. While these findings are in line with an ’electoral-incentives model’, whereas a ‘socialisation model’ is better suited to explain the larger number of questions on the interests of ethnic minorities asked by Labour MPs.
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Social Media Marketing: How Design Features Influence Interactions with Brand Postings on Facebook
(2012)
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Philipp Rauschnabel
Sandra Praxmarer
Björn S. Ivens
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Do Personality Traits Influence Brand Related Activities in Social Networks? An Empirical Study
(2012)
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Philipp A. Rauschnabel
Björn S. Ivens
Gunnar Mau
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Everybody likes a liker! But who are the liked likers?
(2012)
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Katrin Rentzsch