@misc{WestnerFuhrmann, author = {Westner, Markus and Fuhrmann, Thomas}, title = {Applied Learning through Industry Collaboration}, series = {Applied Learning Conference, 2020, Singapur}, journal = {Applied Learning Conference, 2020, Singapur}, abstract = {Purpose In 1969, Germany founded a new type of tertiary education institution, the so-called "Universities of Applied Sciences" (UAS). In contrast to traditional universities, UAS are supposed to educate their students based on scientific methods but with a high degree of application orientation (Wissenschaftsrat, 2010). The goal was to generate highly employable graduates. Since then the number of UAS in Germany has risen to 216 in 2018/2019 (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2019). ~45\% of all German students start their tertiary education at a UAS (Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung, 2018). UAS graduates are well perceived by domestic employers, enjoy high recruiting rates and attractive salary levels. The educational model has proven so successful that its approach and underlying philosophy has been replicated under terms such as "cooperative education" or "applied learning" in a vast number of different countries and educational systems around the globe (Altbach, Reisberg, \& Rumbley, 2011). This talk critically describes the key aspects that constitute German UAS' approaches to industry-oriented applied learning. The findings are relevant for academics, policy makers, and industry representatives to generate ideas on how to improve study curricula, policies, or collaboration between academia and industry. Method The approach taken consists of a descriptive and structured account of the key aspects that constitute the study curricula of a UAS from an applied learning perspective. By building on their own experiences as teaching professors and part of a German UAS' managerial team, the research method taken resembles an action research-oriented approach. Key Findings German UAS have numerous application-oriented learning elements in their curricula. These elements are performed inside the university like lab courses but many of these learning elements are carried out in cooperation with industry. Bachelor programs span over seven semesters. Fundamentals are taught in the first two semesters and from the third semester on, more and more application-oriented lectures and labs become part of the curricula. In the fifth semester, a mandatory internship is integrated in the study program. This internship is carried out either at companies in Germany or abroad. It is the goal of the internship that the students gain first practical experience in a real work environment. The work tasks in internship should be similar to the later professional demands and should contain a project. The students themselves are responsible for finding an appropriate job and organize the administrative aspects around the internship, thus their self-organization skills are advanced. The UAS teaching staff supervises the internships from an academic perspective. This mandatory internship has numerous advantages: students experience real industry environment and they build contacts to later employers thus forming a potential pathway to future employment. Bachelor and master courses each finish with thesis work. The majority of theses is carried out in companies under university supervision. This is a second chance for the students to accomplish a company project, to gain practical experience and to get in touch with potential employers. In addition to undergraduate and postgraduate education, German UAS do a lot of applied research together with companies. This applied research can also be the basis for the work of Ph.D students. Industry representatives are also involved when designing new study programs as consultants and give advice for accreditation and reaccreditation of programs. All these activities of German universities of applied sciences lead to a high practical relevance of education programs and to a high degree of employability of UAS graduates.}, language = {en} } @article{KoenningStrahringerWestner, author = {K{\"o}nning, Michael and Strahringer, Susanne and Westner, Markus}, title = {Unraveling the impact of cultural distance on IT outsourcing success}, series = {Journal of Enterprise Information Management}, volume = {34}, journal = {Journal of Enterprise Information Management}, number = {3}, publisher = {Emerald}, doi = {10.1108/JEIM-06-2019-0151}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-8708}, pages = {811 -- 837}, abstract = {PURPOSE IT outsourcing (ITO) has developed into an established practice for organizations but the interorganizational and oftentimes international collaboration it involves comes at a price: Reports from academia and practice suggest that more than 25\% of all ITO projects fail, many because of cultural differences between client and provider organizations. Against this background, this paper analyzes the complex nature of cultural distance and its multi-faceted effect on ITO success. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH This paper builds upon extant literature on culture on the national, organizational and team level, conceptualizes its effect on relationship quality and ITO success, and hypothesizes a model on potential moderators and management techniques to offset culture-induced challenges. It then evaluates and refines the model by means of an interpretive qualitative research design for an in-depth single-case study of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE (P7S1), a leading European media company that reconfigured its IT sourcing model three times in 10 years. FINDINGS The results from interviews with top managers from client and provider organizations represent one of the first integrated views on the critical importance of cultural compatibility on multiple levels, provide manifold examples for its complex effect on ITO success, as well as moderators and potential management techniques to promote ITO success. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS This paper contributes relevant empirical insights to the growing body of literature on culture and its underestimated role in ITO success. It builds on tentative theory that is confirmed and refined. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS The paper helps in substantiating the complex and intangible nature of culture and demonstrates means for its effective management. ORIGINALITY/VALUE The results from interviews with top managers from client and provider organizations represent one of the first integrated views on the critical importance of cultural compatibility on multiple levels, provide manifold examples for its complex effect on ITO success, as well as moderators and potential management techniques to promote ITO success.}, language = {en} } @article{KopperWestnerStrahringer, author = {Kopper, Andreas and Westner, Markus and Strahringer, Susanne}, title = {From Shadow IT to Business-managed IT: A qualitative comparative analysis to determine configurations for successful management of IT by business entities}, series = {Information Systems and e-Business Management}, volume = {18}, journal = {Information Systems and e-Business Management}, number = {2}, doi = {10.1007/s10257-020-00472-6}, pages = {209 -- 257}, abstract = {Shadow IT describes covert/hidden IT systems that are managed by business entities themselves. Additionally, there are also overt forms in practice, so-called Business-managed IT, which share most of the characteristics of Shadow IT. To better understand this phenomenon, we interviewed 29 executive IT managers about positive and negative cases of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT. By applying qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), we derived four conditions that characterize these cases: Aligned, local, simple, and volatile. The results show that there are three sufficient configurations of conditions that lead to a positive outcome; one of them even encompasses Shadow IT. The most important solution indicates that IT systems managed by business entities are viewed as being positive if they are aligned with the IT department and limited to local requirements. This allows to balance local responsiveness to changing requirements and global standardization. In contrast, IT systems that are not aligned and permanent (and either organization-wide or simple) are consistently considered as negative. Our study is the first empirical quantitative-qualitative study to shed light on the success and failure of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT.}, subject = {Informationsmanagement}, language = {en} } @article{vonBaryWestnerStrahringer, author = {von Bary, Benedikt and Westner, Markus and Strahringer, Susanne}, title = {IT-Backsourcing}, series = {HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik}, volume = {57}, journal = {HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik}, number = {4}, publisher = {Springer}, doi = {10.1365/s40702-020-00591-1}, pages = {849 -- 865}, abstract = {IT-Backsourcing bezeichnet die Re-Integration vormals outgesourcter IT-Services zur{\"u}ck zum auslagernden Unternehmen. Die vorliegende Studie stellt die Ergebnisse einer Umfrage unter IT-Managern zu Einflussfaktoren von IT-Backsourcing-Entscheidungen vor. Es l{\"a}sst sich feststellen, dass IT-Backsourcing von Unternehmen in unterschiedlichen Branchen und f{\"u}r eine Vielzahl an unterschiedlichen IT-Services, wie z. B. Applikationsentwicklung oder Infrastruktur-Leistungen, durchgef{\"u}hrt wird. Hauptgr{\"u}nde f{\"u}r die Entscheidung f{\"u}r ein IT-Backsourcing sind mangelnde Qualit{\"a}t, hohe Kosten sowie eine schlechte Beziehung zum IT-Dienstleister. Die Ergebnisse der Umfrage zeigen, dass diejenigen Unternehmen, die sich f{\"u}r ein Backsourcing entschieden haben, nach der Entscheidung insgesamt zufriedener waren als diejenigen, die in einer Outsourcing-Beziehung geblieben sind. Zudem werden verschiedene Handlungsempfehlungen f{\"u}r IT-Manager aufgezeigt. Zur Ausarbeitung einer zukunftsorientieren IT-Sourcing-Strategie empfiehlt es sich, eine service-spezifische Sourcing-Strategie zu verfolgen und entsprechend spezialisierte Dienstleister einzusetzen. Im Falle einer Entscheidung f{\"u}r ein IT-Backsourcing sollten verschiedene Erfolgsfaktoren beachtetet werden, wie z. B. eine fr{\"u}hzeitige Neubesetzung von Schl{\"u}sselstellen sowie ein l{\"u}ckenloser Wissenstransfer.}, subject = {Betriebliches Informationssystem}, language = {de} } @inproceedings{BrosigWestnerStrahringer, author = {Brosig, Christoph and Westner, Markus and Strahringer, Susanne}, title = {Revisiting the Concept of IT Capabilities in the Era of Digitalization}, series = {2020 IEEE 22nd Conference on Business Informatics (CBI 2020): Antwerp, Belgium, 22-24 June 2020, proceedings}, booktitle = {2020 IEEE 22nd Conference on Business Informatics (CBI 2020): Antwerp, Belgium, 22-24 June 2020, proceedings}, publisher = {IEEE}, doi = {10.1109/CBI49978.2020.00017}, pages = {84 -- 93}, abstract = {In the era of digitalization, companies review how to build competitive advantage drawing on their capabilities. In this context, the paper revisits the concept of IT capabilities. We summarize the "canonical" body of literature to characterize how leading scholars conceptualized and differentiated IT capabilities and then we show how new types of IT capabilities (for example, rising from SMACIT technologies) relate to this. We find that the resource-based view is still leading in how to conceptualize IT capabilities. However, an alternative perspective on IT assets is emerging, looking at it from the angle of digital technologies as stacks. Digital technologies form the foundation for a new technology-driven perspective on IT capabilities. This new view complements the established differentiation of IT capabilities considering IT infrastructure flexibility, IT management, and IT personnel capability. Both perspectives describe the explorative and exploitative nature of IT capabilities. This paper helps scholars and practitioners to clearly distinguish different perspectives of IT capabilities on how to build a competitive advantage from IT today.}, subject = {Informationstechnik}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{KlotzWestnerStrahringer, author = {Klotz, Stefan and Westner, Markus and Strahringer, Susanne}, title = {From Shadow IT to Business-managed IT and Back Again}, series = {Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS): 2020, Dubai}, booktitle = {Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS): 2020, Dubai}, pages = {14}, abstract = {Today, information technology (IT) is not anymore solely deployed and maintained by the IT organization, but also by business units. IT deployed or managed by business units is called Shadow IT (without alignment with the IT organization) or Business-managed IT (in alignment or a split responsibility model with the IT organization), contrasting "classical" IT. However, the responsibility for deployed IT might change over time. Therefore, this paper conceptualizes the progression of the responsibility for IT as a trajectory through initialization, potential transitions, and discontinuance. The paper illustrates this conceptual framework using four exemplary case vignettes of IT instances. Empirical findings of the case vignettes determine indications when employees initialize an IT instance as Shadow IT, Business-managed IT, or IT-managed systems and reasons why the responsibility for an IT instance changes over time. The results suggest that scholars and practitioners should add a temporal dimension to the governance of IT instances.}, subject = {IT-Governance}, language = {en} }