Bayor, L., Weinert, C., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2024)
A Pal and a Confidant? Social Communication between Humans and Machines
Proceedings of the 32nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Paphos, Cyprus
(Research in Progress)

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Machines such as AI companions, equipped with enhanced cognitive capabilities, can now be considered as an equal communicative subject that is capable of social communication. To take account of this, we will unfold what benefits and costs are associated with engaging in social communication with a machine. This research-in-progress paper employs a qualitative research design based on social exchange theory to give theoretical insights. We expect to contribute with this research by revealing the costs and benefits of social communication in the human-machine communication context, developing an understanding of how the cost-benefit calculation differs within the context of social communication between humans and machines, and contributing to the upcoming research stream on AI companions.

Gimnich, M., Weinert, C., and Weitzel, T. (2024)
It’s a Trap!? Causes and Consequences of Filter Bubbles
Proceedings of the 32nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Paphos, Cyprus

View Abstract

Filter bubbles result from recommender systems, which filter information based on a user’s behavior and preferences. However, scientific research lacks a comprehensive understanding of filter bubbles due to conflicting definitions, processes, and consequences of this phenomenon. Therefore, we addressed this issue by conducting a comprehensive literature review encompassing high-ranked information systems research, covering relevant journals and conferences. Through this process, we constructed a concept matrix delineating the causes and consequences of filter bubbles. Based on these findings, we developed a research agenda suggesting four areas for future research. The paper contributes to the literature on filter bubbles by providing conceptual clarity and insights into their causes and consequences at individual, organizational, and societal levels.

Fischer, I., Gimnich, M., Papert, M., and Goertler, T. (2024)
Travelling the Digital Journey: A Literature Review and Framework for Change Management Actions and Tools in Digital Transformation
Proceedings of the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Honolulu, HI, USA

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The emerging digital transformation (DT) poses severe challenges to companies. In order to implement respective transformation process sufficiently to seize the benefits of DT, the concept of change management (CM) becomes relevant for organizations. Considering increasing DT efforts of firms, the purpose of this study is to identify relevant CM actions that support the DT journey as well as to synthesize these findings into a comprehensive framework. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review and analyzed 40 pertinent scientific publications drawing on Lewin’s (1947) Three Step Model with its phases unfreezing, moving and freezing. Our findings identify in total 52 individual CM actions that are necessary for implementing DT. We translated these findings into a framework that is structured according to established CM models and extends those for becoming suitable for describing DT projects. Thus, the framework advances the pertinent literature and presents relevant aspects for practitioners leading the change. (Accepted Manuscript)

Jung, C., Schoch, M., and Weinert, C. (2023)
The Dynamics of IT Use: Uncovering the Interplay between the Perception of IT Events, Emotions, and Cognitive Absorption over Time
Proceedings of the 44th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Hyderabad, India
(Research in Progress)

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Emotions triggered by IT events have a decisive influence on IT use. Previous literature has focused on one point in time studies investigating the relationship between emotions and IT use. However, the process of perceiving an IT event, leading to emotions and changes in IT use proceeds dynamically over time. This research in progress paper concentrates on this process. We investigate how the change in perception of an IT event affects emotions, and IT use over time. Therefore, we develop an online experiment simulating time pressure as an example of an IT event. During the experiment, data is collected at four different points in time. The data will be analyzed with a multivariate longitudinal latent growth model. We aim to enhance the current literature by capturing the dynamic changes in perceiving IT events, emotional responses, and subsequent changes in IT use over time.

Fischer, I., Papert, M., Goertler, T., and Gimnich, M. (2023)
Change Management Methods and Tools for Digital Transformation - A systematic Literature Review
Proceedings of the 35th Conference of the Nordic Logistic Research Network - NOFOMA, Helsinki - Espoo, Finland

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Purpose Change management (CM), with its methods and tools, facilitates the implementation of transformation processes in companies and along entire supply chains (SCs). However, with the emergence of fast-moving and disruptive digital transformation (DT), traditional CM tools may no longer be sufficient and may reach their limits. This study reviews the applicability of existing CM tools in the context of DT. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a systematic literature review and a detailed content analysis, we offer conceptual insights into the applicability of CM methods in the digital era. This is reflected in an extensive study of the intersection of CM and DT literature. Findings We identified various CM methods and tools become relevant for organizations when intending to undergo DT. Analysing these, we found shortcomings in traditional CM approaches during DT. We therefore conclude that companies need to adapt their CM procedures towards a more dynamic approach in order to maintain competitive SCs when confronted with digitally shaped environments. Research limitations/implications This study is conceptual in nature and is based on results from content analysis of the extant literature. As such, it offers potential for further analysis in the form of empirical studies to validate the findings. Practical implications Our findings support SC actors in adapting their existing CM tool portfolio for going digital when confronted with environments of digital disruptions. Original/value This study considers the well-established approach of CM in conjunction with the current phenomenon of DT, which possesses disruptive potential for entire SCs.

Schoch, M., and Weinert, C. (2023)
IT-related time poverty: Identifying antecedents and consequences of a lack of time related to IT use
Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Paderborn, Germany

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Time poverty is the subjective perception of inadequate freely disposable time, which results in negative consequences for individuals. Although in-formation systems (IS) research knows that information technology (IT) use change time perception, research is incomplete in explaining IT-related antecedents and consequences of time poverty. Because time is a scarce resource, individuals, organizations, and society have a responsibility to manage time to protect individuals from adverse consequences. We conduct a structured literature re-view to identify indications of how IT use influences time poverty and its adverse consequences. We identified 16 papers, which we analyzed with respect to different components of IT use and possible consequences of time poverty. Based on the data, we develop an overview of the antecedents and consequences of IT-related time poverty and a research agenda. We contribute to the research by introducing IT-related time poverty as a new IS construct and providing an in-depth research agenda.

Bayor, L., Weinert, C., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2023)
SNS Guilt Feelings: Causes and Influence on Discontinuance
Proceedings of the 29th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Panama City, Panama

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Although experiencing guilt feelings after social networking service (SNS) usage has become a prevalent phenomenon among SNS users, these SNS guilt feelings - and especially their causes - have received little scholarly attention. This paper therefore focuses on why SNS users may develop SNS guilt feelings and their impact on discontinuance intention. We utilize the lens of normative dissociation to develop a model to identify causes of SNS guilt feelings and apply a quantitative research approach to test the model. We contribute by demonstrating that two identified causes - perceived time spent and perceived procrastination – significantly influence SNS guilt feelings, while perceived meaningfulness does not. Furthermore, SNS guilt feelings influence discontinuance intention and mediate the relationship between several constructs and discontinuance intention. By employing the perspective of normative dissociation, we reinforce the relevance of SNS guilt feelings.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2023)
Scaling Agility for Digital Transformation: How Organizations Manage Arising Tensions
Forthcoming in: Proceedings of the 83rd Academy of Management Conference, Boston, USA

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Scaling agility has emerged as a response by incumbent organizations to take on digital transformation efforts. However, scaling agility comes with organizational challenges, especially tensions that need to be addressed. Therefore, we employ an exploratory common process case study series design to answer the following research questions: Which tensions underlie scaling agility efforts, and how can they be resolved? We identify four tensions and demonstrate resolution strategies to manage these tensions. With this, we seek to uncover how scaling agility can be designed to minimize tensions and maximize the effectiveness of scaling agility. In doing so, we provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners.

Hotter, N., Stoeckl, F., Maier, C., and Eckhardt, A. (2023)
Coming Back For More: Exploring Three Theoretical Perspectives Influencing IS Resumption
Proceedings of the 31st European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Kristiansand, Norway

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IS resumption describes ex-users’ returning to an information system (IS) after quitting it beforehand. IS research has conceptualized, operationalized, and defined this behavior and explained some initial causes, such as nonuse-related dissatisfaction, that lead ex-users to IS resumption. We aim to complement that understanding by discussing the influence of three theoretical perspectives: reasoned action, experiential responses, and habitual responses. We use those perspectives to develop hypotheses and offer a comprehensive understanding of causes leading to IS resumption intention. We chose a quantitative approach to evaluate our research model, conducting an online survey with 190 ex-users of video-on-demand services (VoD). Our findings show that subjective norm and attitude influence IS resumption intention, while higher satisfaction with prior usage influences ex-users’ attitude. We contribute to IS research by carving out how the three theoretical perspectives influence ex-users’ IS resumption intention, providing a solid theoretical basis for future studies on IS resumption.

Menzel, J., Meier, M., and Maier, C. (2023)
Online Gaming and Personality: Explaining Gamers’ Cheating Intention
Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui (HI), United States

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Cheating in online games poses a risk to game publishers, as it deters other gamers and reduces revenues. These facts make it essential for game publishers to understand ‘who’ in the sense of gamers with what personalities have cheating intentions. Building on psychology research, we draw on (a) the big five personality traits and (b) the dark triad personality traits to explain how these reflect gamers’ personalities and together lead to cheating intentions. Following a configurational approach (N=192), we reveal two configurations leading to high cheating intention and one leading to low cheating intention. We contribute to online gaming research by revealing that gamers with cheating intentions have specific personalities. We advance information systems (IS) personality research by combining broad and dark triad traits to explain divergent behavior like cheating.

Kassner, L., and Schönbohm, A. (2022)
A Serious Game to Improve Phishing Awareness
Proceedings of the 11th Games and Learning Alliance International Conference (GALA), Tampere, Finland

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This paper presents an experimental study in the form of an online serious game to increase IT security awareness regarding phishing. Prior studies have indicated the effectiveness of serious games concerning certain aspects of phishing attacks. This paper combines various aspects of social engineering attacks, existing prevention concepts, and gamification methods. A survey and interviews with 61 participants from different companies were conducted to measure the effectiveness. The findings suggest that using a serious game in context with phishing emails can be used beneficially and effectively.

Stoeckl, F., Hotter, N., Eckhardt, A., and Maier, C. (2022)
Studying Reconciliation in Nonhuman Primates to Inform IS Use Resumption Literature
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Copenhagen, Denmark

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Users of information systems (IS) develop relationship-like connections with their IS that have certain degrees of longevity. This implies that individuals have the option to resume the use of IS even when there was a time in which the particular IS was not used. While this behavior has been labeled IS use resumption, it has characteristics similar to what we know from relationships. We aim to base on well-established literature studying relationships in the context of reconciliation in nonhuman primates to gather insights for our research on IS use resumption. Focusing on (non)human behavior to inform disciplines in technical and social sciences is an already well-established method outside the IS field. Given the difficulty of gathering deeper insights on our research topic in social sciences, we make use of this less conventional but innovative way to enrich our theoretical understanding. We compare the reconciliation of nonhuman primates after conflicts with events that lead to IS use resumption and reveal interesting findings that implicate exciting avenues for future research. To do this, we perform a literature review on nonhuman primate reconciliation. Based on the review, we derive a process of IS use resumption where the prior intensity of use, the prior benefit of the certain IS and the prior compatibility between a person and IS influence resumption. Further, we outline that post-discontinuance anxiety and other negative effects could be limited by resumption. To put these insights into perspective, we develop six propositions and discuss their assumptions and implications for future research.

Finze, N., Frey, J., Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Gewald, H. (2022)
Cross-functional Identity? The Impact of Scaled-agile Organizations’ Transformation Processes on Professional Role Identity
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Copenhagen, Denmark

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Within the ever-faster changing digitalized world, organizational work models constantly evolve towards increased agility to ensure innovation and competitive performance. Initially, agile methods were designed for small teams to develop software products. However, the focus has shifted towards combining and strategically expanding agile teams into scaled-agile organizations (SAOs). Traditionally, individuals’ role perception was highly dependent on hierarchical structures. However, when a new organizational model is implemented, hierarchical roles and structures change. To understand how the transformation into SAOs affects individuals’ professional role identity (PRI) and how they reconstruct their PRI in SAOs, we conduct a qualitative case study with employees holding various positions in SAOs. Our work contributes to the literature by providing insights into individuals’ opportunities and challenges within SAO transformation processes. Our preliminary findings indicate PRI changes from team-based to product-based PRIs as a reaction to the (novel) cross-functional SAO structure. However, if the transformation is involuntary we see inherent role conflicts, identity losses, and the occurrence of agile silos as employees try to retain their previous PRIs.

Bayor, L., Weinert, C., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2022)
Affective Responses and IS Continuance
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Copenhagen, Denmark

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IS research increasingly recognizes that affective responses play an important role in explaining continuance intention. However, most research disregards the variety and complexity of affective responses. Encountering models with multiple affective responses included is scarce, and possible relationships among different affective responses are neglected. This paper develops a model measuring continuance intention in the context of fitness applications using three fundamentally different, but complementary affective responses: IS satisfaction, deep engagement, and meaningful engagement. An empirical investigation using an online survey is conducted. The findings demonstrate that different affective responses influence continuance intention in distinct ways, and that there are interrelations between affective responses. Deep engagement and IS satisfaction have a direct influence on continuance intention, and there is an indirect relationship between meaningful engagement and continuance intention mediated by IS satisfaction. Contributions to theory and practice are discussed.

Hotter, N., Stoeckl, F., Maier, C., and Eckhardt, A. (2022)
IS Use Resumption: A Qualitative Study Revealing Different Characteristics
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Copenhagen, Denmark

View Abstract

A better understanding of why individuals resume using an information system (IS) after quitting it beforehand is of fundamental importance for IS researchers and digital service providers. This phenomenon is known as IS use resumption and has turned into a recent and integral part of the IS use lifecycle, in addition to IS adoption, continuance, and discontinuance. Resumption thereby provides a longitudinal perspective on the relationship between humans and IS. Despite receiving more attention in IS research over the last years, our theoretical understanding of the concept, its configuration, and its impact is still limited. Therefore, within this research, we choose a qualitative approach by conducting 29 interviews to identify 96 resumption incidents across different IS such as Netflix, Facebook, Dropbox, Trello, and Microsoft Office. Analyzing the interviews, we determine 12 behavioral and eight contextual characteristics of IS use resumption. Following established guidelines, we use these behavioral and contextual characteristics as the basis to create a taxonomy for IS use resumption. Ending with a final representation, we show that ten dichotomous dimensions can explain IS use resumption. Those findings let us contribute by enhancing our understanding of IS use resumption in two ways. On the one hand, we extend prior research by adding further behavioral dimensions to explain IS use resumption. On the other hand, we contribute by also shedding light on the contextual dimensions of IS use resumption.

Pflügner, K., Maier, C., Lukic, Y.X., Teepe, G.W., and Kowatsch , T. (2022)
Mobile Stress Management Applications: An Affordance-Theoretic Perspective on the Adoption and Use
Proceedings of the 43rd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Copenhagen, Denmark
(Research in Progress)

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Chronic stress is a burden on mental and physical health. Despite the development and effectiveness of mobile stress management applications, their adoption and continued use remain low. Given that research revealed systematic differences in usage behavior among user types, we aim to investigate what drives these differences. We extend the affordance perspective and argue that accounting for psychological needs, actualized affordances, and actualization costs across different user types provides a deeper understanding of the factors driving the adoption and use of mobile stress management applications. The qualitative interview study of our mixed-methods study reveals eight affordances, eight actualization costs, and initial evidence for systematic differences among the user types. The quantitative questionnaire study will uncover the psychological needs, actualized affordances, and perceived actualization costs of the six user types. This work contributes a new theoretical perspective to overcome the gap in the adoption and usage of mobile stress management applications.

Weinert, C., and Schoch, M. (2022)
How do successful coping change appraisal and user responses?
Proceedings of the 43rd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Copenhagen, Denmark
(Research in Progress)

View Abstract

Technostress research asserts that the use of information systems (IS) can be challenging or hindering. Previous literature has mostly focused on the challenge or hindrance subprocesses. However, research suggests that these subprocesses may interact with each other. Positive user responses can be derived from events that were originally perceived as hindering. The present research-in-progress paper focuses on this interaction. We investigate whether successful coping – the elimination of a stressful IS use situation – leads to positive user responses in the hindering subprocess. Therefore, we develop an online experiment, which emulates different IS use situations. A hindrance techno-stressor situation (HTS), a control situation without a techno-stressor (non-HTS), and one in which users can successfully cope with the hindrance techno-stressor (SC). The experiment allows us to analyze the interactions between the subprocesses. We expect to contribute to the literature on technostress and IS coping by focusing on the interaction between the two subprocesses.

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Digital Innovation Entrepreneurship: A Review and Research Agenda
Proceedings of the 82nd Academy of Management Conference, Seattle (WA), United States

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Digital innovation and digital entrepreneurship are two research streams that focus on the intersection of digital technologies with traditional entrepreneurship or innovation processes, respectively. In this sense, both streams can cross-fertilize each other when it comes to theorizing about digital technologies and their distinct characteristics in the context of entrepreneurship. However, recent studies show that there seems to be a large gap between these two fields of research. By analyzing 86 articles from four different disciplines, this review synthesizes the current knowledge on the intersection of digital entrepreneurship and digital innovation through a digital technology-perspective. The contribution of this paper is three-fold: (1) Providing an overview of current knowledge about the relationship between digital entrepreneurship, digital innovation and digital technology, (2) Building a framework of digital innovation entrepreneurship, which describes how digital entrepreneurs engage in continuous digital innovation through the use of digital technology, and (3) identifying avenues that guide future research.

Reis, L. (2022)
Information Overload and Presented Lifestyle in Social Media: A Stress-Perspective on the Effects on Mental Health
Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Atlanta (GA), United States

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To counteract the increasing number of people showing symptoms of depressive disorders since the outbreak of COVID-19, among others, the WHO suggests using social media more intensively to stay in contact and receive positive messages. However, existing literature indicates that this can have the opposite effect. Based on social comparison theory and technostress literature, we examine the impact of the constant confrontation with the overly optimistic presented lifestyle of social media influencers on Instagram on depression. Our quantitative study (N=191) based on structural equitation modeling indicates that influencers' presented lifestyle has a substantial positive indirect effect on depression mediated through negative emotions. In contrast, positive self-esteem can help to reduce depression. We contribute to technostress literature, research on social comparison, and mental health research.

Reis, L., and Maier, C. (2022)
Artificial Intelligence in Mental Health: A Qualitative Expert Study on Realistic Application Scenarios and Future Directions
Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Atlanta (GA), United States

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What can we do to address the rising numbers of people suffering from mental health problems facing the lack of mental health professionals? This study uses 15 qualitative expert interviews to identify six realistic application scenarios for artificial intelligence in mental health that reduce mental health professionals’ workload and improve treatment. We classify the application scenarios concerning the type of intelligence they embed (mechanical, analytical, emotional) and the type of task they support (automation, decision support, engagement) to assess their implementation readiness and success. Based on this classification, we develop four application scenarios with the potential for immediate implementation and two possible future directions. Our results contribute to the research stream of artificial intelligence in general and in mental health.

Reis, L., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2022)
Chatbots in Marketing: An In-Deep Case Study Capturing Future Perspectives of AI in Advertising
Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Atlanta (GA), United States

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A personalized customer approach in marketing offers many benefits to customers and organizations. With chatbots, personalized marketing could reach the next level as they gather, analyze, and use customer data while communicating with them. Based on qualitative data collected with a start-up in the field, this in-depth case study evaluates the potential of chatbots from an industry perspective, identifying significant benefits, challenges, and future directions that organizations can use to engage in chatbots in marketing. Our main results indicate that chatbots offer optimized customer approaches that are less intrusive and provide a better identification and segmentation of customers. We also see that organizations should avoid bombarding customers with advertising messages because the chatbot enables them to approach the customer directly, so use this communication channel wisely. In the future, chatbots can optimize access to a wholesome customer experience that fits customers’ preferences.

Valta, M., Menzel, J., Maier, C., Pflügner, K., Meier, M., and Weitzel, T. (2022)
Digital Nudging: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Directions
Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Atlanta (GA), United States
Best Paper Award

View Abstract

Digital nudging is omnipresent in users’ daily lives and constantly influences decisions in digital choice environments that require users to make decisions such as web-based forms or mobile apps. It uses interface design elements and aims to guide users' behavior in specific directions. So far, there is quite a lot of research in that stream, whereby each article focuses on one specific context in which digital nudging is applied. To assist researchers and practitioners that aim to study or design information systems, we provide an overview of existent research in that stream. Following the groundedtheory method, we categorize 88 publications and reveal ten forms and five contexts of digital nudging. We also provide an overview of relationships between forms of digital nudging and their contexts. Our findings contribute to digital nudging research by offering an in-depth and structured overview of existing research and future research directions.

Hildebrandt , Y., Valta, M., and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Quantifying the Digital Innovation Mindset: Development of a Measurement Instrument
Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Atlanta (GA), United States

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The ‘digital mindset’ is frequently raised by both researchers and practitioners to be an essential factor of the human side of digitalization to successfully cope with the arising challenges of digitalization. Despite existing conceptualizations of the construct, the literature provides no operationalization for quantitative research, so far. Our research pursues the goal to address the question of how the digital mindset can be measured. Literature- and Delphi study-based approaches were used to develop various types of scales which were pre-validated by experts and statistically validated. For contentual validation, 26 participants were interviewed and subsequently completed the developed scales in a panel study. The resulting interview statements were rated by two independent raters and the results compared with the scale results. The correlations of the answers from using the different measures indicate that the developed survey scales can serve as proxies for the qualitative approach, which is assumed to measure the ‘true’ level of the digital mindset. In the future, researchers can choose from different scales based on their requirements for precision and efficiency (i.e., time needed to complete the survey items).

Valta, M., Hildebrandt , Y., and Maier, C. (2022)
Reducing Technostress: The Role of Digital Mindset
Proceedings of the 28th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Minneapolis (MN), United States

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Organizations invest lots of effort and costs in reducing technostress, as it harms their employees’ well-being and reduces their work performance. Therefore, it is imperative to mitigate technostress. We suppose that each individual has a unique digital mindset, a malleable factor describing their specific ways of thinking and awareness, which guides how to react to techno-stressors. We build on the transactional model of stress and survey 151 employees to test the role of the digital mindset. Our results show that individuals with a strong digital mindset respond less strongly to techno-stressors with reduced job performance, reduced job satisfaction, and increased turnover intention. We contribute to research by carving out that individuals react to techno-stressors align with their digital mindset, which might, thus, be an effective way to avoid that techno-stressors have adverse impacts on individuals and organizations.

Valta, M., and Maier, C. (2022)
Digital Nudging to Reduce Techno-Stressors: Insights from Qualitative and Quantitative Studies
Proceedings of the 28th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Minneapolis (MN), United States

View Abstract

Technostress has negative consequences for employees‘ health and job performance. Therefore, organizations search for effective strategies to reduce technostress. Existent research shows that organizational, such as technical support and individual factors, including the user's personality, influence techno-stressors. We aim to complement this by focusing on technological factors, such as the design of digital technologies. We, therefore, use knowledge from digital nudging literature to consider how this might offer a different, technological-oriented strategy to reduce techno-stressors. We collected data from 102 employees and offer two findings. First, we identify eight digital nudges used in organizations to reduce techno-stressors. Second, we offer insights into the usefulness of these eight digital nudges to reduce specific techno-stressors. With those results, we contribute to the existing literature by identifying digital nudging as a practical approach to reducing techno-stressors and providing appropriate digital nudging forms for each of the five techno-stressors.

Schreyer , N., and Weinert, C. (2022)
Breaking Out of the Social Media Prison: Identifying Strategies to Disrupt the IT-Mediated State-Tracking Habit
Proceedings of the 28th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Minneapolis (MN), United States

View Abstract

In recent times, the negative consequences of social network sites (SNS) including social overload, loss of self-control and technology addiction caused problematic usage behavior. Combined with the new phenomenon of IT-mediated state-tracking, the habit of constantly checking for new updates has a rising impact in terms of information technology (IT) usage on the society. Since there is a lack of theoretical insights on how to break checking habits, strategies have been developed to disrupt the user's habit of compulsive and excessive usage. To provide insights on this topic, a literature review has been conceived which invests Information System (IS) journals and IS conferences. The results show six disruption strategies. The paper's findings contribute conceptually to the existing IT literature including an illustration from which users can derive important and useful guides to disrupt their IT-mediated state-tracking habits.

Müller, L., Hund, A., and Wagner, H. (2022)
Digital Convergence: Examining the Dissolution of Industrial and Technological Boundaries.
Proceedings of the 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Timisoara, Romania

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Digital convergence is frequently discussed in research. The concept of convergence describes how formerly separate areas are increasingly merging. So far, however, we have only a rudimentary understanding of digital convergence for several reasons. First, digital convergence is not clearly conceptualized and used differently across contexts. Second, we have little insight into what is converging and at what pace. We conceptualize digital convergence by arguing that its sociotechnical nature requires jointly considering technical and social aspects. Our analysis of a longitudinal patent data set covering 31 years and 677,045 patents from 124 industries shows that (1) industry boundaries defined by the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) are dissolving as companies interact with technological knowledge outside their industrial boundaries. (2) Specific technology classes defined in the International Patent Classification (IPC) increasingly cite - and converge with - other technology classes. We close by highlighting promising avenues for future research on digital convergence.

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Entrepreneurial Support Systems in the Digital Era: A Taxonomy of Digital Company Builders.
Proceedings of the 28th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Minneapolis (MN), United States
Kauffman Best Paper Award

View Abstract

New venture creation is at the core of entrepreneurship and regarded as the source of innovations and new employment. However, despite the potential that digitization bears for innovation and entrepreneurship, the failure rate of start-ups is still very high. In this context, digital company builders (DCBs) are becoming increasingly important as a new form of entrepreneurial support. Based on a multiple case study with ten DCBs we iteratively developed a taxonomy consisting of 13 dimensions, which describe how such organizations provide what kind of support to whom. Based on this taxonomy, we further grouped the cases into four main types of digital company building. These results may provide researchers a tool to systematically compare different entrepreneurial support systems, help both entrepreneurs and incumbents decide which support system is best suited to their individual needs, and furthermore be useful to the owners of DCBs themselves in their strategic positioning.

Knecht, J., and Hund, A. (2022)
How to Establish a Digital Organizational Culture: Insights From a Multiple Case Study.
Proceedings of the 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Timisoara, Romania

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Digital transformation poses numerous challenges for established companies that need to change their established processes and routines. To enable successful digital transformation, the organizational culture must be adapted to the new requirements of an increasingly digitized environment. To date, however, we know very little about what a digital organizational culture looks like and how it can be established in incumbent companies. To address this shortcoming, we conducted a multiple case study with seven cases in different industries. Our findings allow us to discuss the concept of "digital organizational culture" in detail and develop a model that provides actionable insights into how such a culture can be established. Finally, we highlight opportunities for future research.

Dietz, A., Hund, A., and Wagner, H. (2022)
The Role of Digital Technology in Sustainability: A Literature Review.
Proceedings of the 28th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Minneapolis (MN), United States

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Digital technologies can help to fulfill social needs through innovative and socially-embedded solutions. The research fields of digital sustainability, digital social innovation, and social entrepreneurship are about exploring how the tools of our digital age can be designed, adapted, and aligned to achieve local and global social needs. However, despite the current interest, there remain conceptual ambiguities regarding the focus of each field. This review examines current research by reviewing 24 articles across the Basket of Eight and two IS conferences. Our results clarify the different focus areas within each research field but also show that the three research fields overlap due to the remaining conceptual ambiguities. To enable more focus in future research, we discuss implications regarding the conceptual overlap, propose first steps to address them, and close by developing eight avenues for future research.

Meier, M., Mattke, J., and Maier, C. (2022)
Decentralized Finance: A Configurational Perspective on UTAUT
Proceedings of the 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Timisoara, Romania

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Blockchain-based decentralized finance (DeFi) enables financial transactions without intermediaries. Among its most diffused applications is DeFi borrowing, which allows users to borrow money from other users. DeFi borrowing relies on sufficient users requesting money, making it essential for blockchain technology platform providers to understand why users intend to use DeFi borrowing. To explain this, we turn to the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). Given that existing studies differ in how the beliefs of UTAUT influence use intention, we explain previous findings by suggesting that multiple beliefs together, so-called configurations, lead to high and low use intention. Following a configurational approach on potential users of DeFi borrowing, we reveal three configurations resulting in high use intention and two configurations resulting in low use intention. We contribute by explaining DeFi borrowing use intention and resolving previous differing findings on UTAUT by taking a configurational perspective.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Designing Scaled-agile Organizations: A Taxonomy of Design Criteria
Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Nürnberg, Germany

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Scaled-agile organizations (SAOs) have emerged as a popular response to the rapid digital transformation of entire industries. However, we currently lack a conceptual understanding of potential design choices of SAOs and calls for effective organizational structures remain only partially answered. Hence, we seek to answer the question of how different designs affect the implementation of SAOs in incumbent organizations. We do this by developing a taxonomy following the approach by Nickerson et al. and based on data from six cases studies. Our findings provide a taxonomy that identifies a set of eight design criteria across two levels. The taxonomy advances our understanding of the different SAO designs and helps to increase the conceptual clarity of SAOs. We provide a valuable basis for further research and supply practical insights.

Ilek, T., Maier, C., and Weinert, C. (2022)
Electronic Human Resource Management: A Literature Analysis of Drivers, Challenges, and Consequences.
Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Nürnberg, Germany

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There have been significant changes in how human resources (HR) are managed in the last decade. Electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM) systems are implemented to support the HR organization digitally. However, e-HRM projects fail frequently. This requires attention as e-HRM systems are essential for organizations to drive the digitalization of HR and thereby ensure competitiveness. The reasons for project failure are unclearly defined project drivers and improperly handled challenges. Furthermore, the consequences of e-HRM are often not well understood and communicated. Therefore, we assume a lack of comprehensive understanding of drivers, challenges, and consequences of e-HRM concerning the organization and the individual. Thus, we analyze the last ten years of e-HRM research and use a structured way to identify eleven drivers, twelve challenges, and twenty consequences of e-HRM. We cluster these findings in an e-HRM synthesis and contribute to e-HRM research by providing avenues for future research on e-HRM success.

Pflügner, K. (2022)
Technostress Management at the Workplace: A Systematic Literature Review.
Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Nürnberg, Germany
Best Paper Nominee

View Abstract

Technostress is a major problem for employees and organizations, as it impairs employee health and weakens organizational performance. Therefore, it is relevant to effectively manage technostress and reveal ways for mitigating the adverse consequences. Seeing that previous studies on technostress management have provided a foundation for review work, we conduct a systematic literature review and integrate the scholarly findings of 22 research articles of different disciplines on technostress management strategies at the workplace. Our work provides an overview of technostress management strategies highlighting that technostress management strategies address the user, the technological, organizational, or the social environment. Moreover, we shed light on discipline-specific investigations of technostress management and derive five distinct avenues for future research. Our work thereby guides researchers to fill the identified research gaps and extend the understanding of ways for mitigating technostress.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2022)
Organizational Identity in the Digital Era
Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Hawaii

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The perception of an organization is largely based on its identity, which determines how it is expected to act. Yet, digital technology often creates situations where organizations experience conflicting demands from different stakeholders. Over time, organizations are there-fore forced to take actions that may not be consistent with their identity and mission, and must find ways to pursue multiple - sometimes conflicting - goals simulta-neously. Our study examines how organizations frame their identity and discusses how different framings may help addressing different needs while remaining con-sistent with the initial identity. Our findings allow us to contribute to extant literature by: (1) Identifying differences in the framing of organizational identities with re-gard to focus on Purpose, Strategic Boundaries, Value Propositions, and Value Statements. (2) Discussing the implications of our findings for the current literature dealing with the "identity-challenging" nature of digital technology. (3) Outlining promising research questions for future research.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2021)
Scaling Agility: How Organizations Balance Tensions in Scaled-agile Organizations
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Austin, Texas, USA
(Research in Progress)

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Scaled-agile organizations (SAOs) have emerged as a response by incumbent organizations to take on digital transformation efforts. However, these structures come with challenges, especially paradoxical tensions that need to be addressed. Therefore, we employ an exploratory common process case study series design to answer the following research questions: Which tensions underlie SAOs and how can these tensions best be balanced? We identify eight tensions on three levels and along two dimensions and show preliminary resolution strategies to manage these tensions. With this, we seek to shed light on how SAOs can be designed to minimize tensions and maximize their impact on strategic agility. In doing so, we provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners.

Hund, A., Beimborn, D., Wagner, H., Legl, S., and Holotiuk, F. (2021)
How Digital Innovation Labs Use Knowledge: Access Strategies and Recombination Paths
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Austin, Texas, USA

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Current research on digital innovation mainly focuses on the recombination of digital and physical components, yet little attention is given to the recombination of knowledge. Since digital technology enables access to virtually unlimited amounts of knowledge, we explore the strategies used by Digital Innovation Labs to access different types of knowledge and uncover five distinct knowledge recombination paths. Based on our results we develop seven propositions that address the role of different types of knowledge involved in recombination. In doing so, we take a first step toward unraveling the pathways of knowledge recombination and highlight the importance of knowledge recombination for future research on digital innovation.

Pflügner, K., Maier, C., Hielscher, M., and Weitzel, T. (2021)
Online Stress Management Interventions: The Role of Application Features
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Austin, Texas, USA

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Online stress management applications have the potential to reduce chronic stress, depression, cardiovascular diseases, and other severe mental and physical health problems. Basing on the clinical effectiveness of these applications and the relevance of user satisfaction for the success of information systems, we take a user perspective and investigate the role of application features for the satisfaction of potential users with such applications. We identify that there are 44 application features and reveal that these can be classified into different categories, depending on how they bring about satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the application. We show how each application feature influences potential user satisfaction and highlight that the influence can be linear, but also asymmetrical and non-existent. Based on the results, we derive recommendations for the development of online stress management applications and contribute that the complex relationship between application features and user satisfaction requires a feature- and context-specific investigation.

Pflügner, K., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2021)
Dyadic Technostress Coping: Theoretical Foundation and Empirical Evidence Complementing Individual Coping
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Austin, Texas, USA
(Research in Progress)

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Techno-stressors lead to detrimental consequences for employees, e.g. job burnout. To mitigate such consequences, it is essential to understand how employees cope with techno-stressors. We draw on the broader technostress literature and the concept of dyadic coping and theorize that employees also cope with techno-stressors together with another close person at work, e.g. a close colleague. We use two sequential studies. Study 1 uses interviews to identify for which techno-stressors dyadic technostress coping is most relevant. In the ongoing Study 2, we will conduct a survey to evaluate whether dyadic technostress coping reduces the effect of the techno-stressors identified in Study 1 on job burnout. Our findings demonstrate that dyadic technostress coping is not equally relevant for all techno-stressors. With our results, the study contributes to technostress coping literature by developing a theory-based understanding of coping behaviors going beyond individual coping and broadens the view on actors of coping.

Meier, M., and Maier, C. (2021)
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs): A qualitative study explaining retail investors’ switching behavior to IT-enabled investments
Proceedings of the 27th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Montreal, Canada

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Investing money set aside in stocks or funds is becoming increasingly attractive as central banks hardly pay any interest. A recent trend shows that retail investors are investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), because they enable risk diversification and require little administrative effort, so that even experienced retail investors are switching from stocks to ETFs. To explain this behavior, we draw on migration theory and conduct a qualitative study. Our results suggest that such switches are based on five perceptions, characterized as pull, push, and mooring factors and that two different patterns of switching behavior exist. We contribute to research on IT-enabled investments by (1) showing that context-specific perceptions, such as perceived risk reduction, influence retail investors’ switching behavior to ETFs, (2) highlighting that these perceptions let some retail investors invest in stocks and ETFs in parallel, and (3) explaining why experienced retail investors switch to ETFs.

Laumer, S., and Maier, C. (2021)
How Soccer Referees Changed their Mind: A Belief-Update Perspective on Digital Learning during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Proceedings of the 27th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Montreal, Canada

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The Covid-19 pandemic forced soccer referees, among others, to switch from offline to online training by using information and communication technology (ICT). We use belief-update theory to propose and validate a model that illustrates how Covid-19 triggered a positive belief-update for beliefs about ICT-based training in a community sports context. Our study of 523 referees indicates that they had rather negative beliefs about using ICT for learning before Covid-19, but this changed into positive ones after being forced to use ICT for online training and first experiences during Covid-19. This belief-update increases intentions to continue using ICT-based training in the post-Covid-19 period. The paper contributes by illustrating that experiences made in an externally forced mandatory setting can trigger positive beliefs about ICT. A crisis can serve as a driver for ICT-based innovation in a community sports context.

Weinert, C., and El-Robrini, N. (2021)
Challenge and hindrance coping: explaining how users cope with positive and negative technostress
Proceedings of the 29th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), A Virtual AIS Conference

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Recent technostress literature points out the necessity to examine the positive side of technostress besides its well-known negative side. Therefore, the literature introduces challenge techno-stressors (CTS), appraised as opportunities, and hindrance techno-stressors (HTS), appraised as a hindrance towards personal accomplishment. However, recent investigations show how coping strategies regulate HTS but neglect how users cope with CTS and the conceptual differences between challenge and hindrance coping strategies. The paper develops a challenge and hindrance coping model theorizing that CTS leads to challenge coping (i.e., active coping) and then to positive outcomes (e.g., end-user performance). In contrast, HTS leads to hindrance coping (i.e., denial) and subsequently to negative outcomes (e.g., techno-exhaustion). The findings demonstrate that CTS increases active coping and reduces denial. HTS increases only denial. Regarding the outcomes, active coping increases end-user performance, whereas denial reduces end-user performance and increases techno-exhaustion. The contributions to theory and practice are discussed.

Meier, M., Maier, C., Reis, L., and Weitzel, T. (2021)
Amazon Prime Video Yesterday, Netflix Today: Explaining Subscribers' Switching Behavior from a Retrospective
Proceedings of the 29th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Marrakesch, Marokko
Claudio Ciborra Award Nominee

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Video-on-demand (VoD) services attract millions of subscribers around the globe. Despite their popularity, practice shows the interesting behavior of subscribers of VoD services switching regularly between different providers, such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. To sustain their revenues due to subscriptions, providers need to understand the reasons why subscribers switched to other VoD services. While existing research with a prospective point of view explains that users develop switching intentions between different services because of, for instance, dissatisfaction, there is scant research on their actual switching behavior from a retrospective. By analyzing interviews with 23 subscribers that switched VoD services, findings reveal five switching causes and three switching barriers that together explain switching behavior between VoD services. With that, the findings contribute to switching research by identifying switching causes and switching barriers, zooming in on causes of subscribers’ dissatisfaction with VoD services, and studying switching behavior from a retrospective.

Grehling, J., and Maier, C. (2021)
Digital Health: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Directions
Proceedings of the 29th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), A Virtual AIS Conference

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With the widespread diffusion of using Information Systems (IS), we see ambivalent effects on individual’s health. On the one hand, IS use has favourable effects on an individual’s health, such as reducing mortality. On the other hand, we see unfavourable effects of IS use, including technostress-induced job burnout and sleep problems. To provide an overview of research in that stream, we review literature anchored around the topic of digital health. Following the grounded-theory method, we identify 41 articles in the major IS journals and classify them by providing a) three forms of digital health (mental, physical, and social), b) three causes of digital health (individual, environmental, and technological), and c) the relationships between causes and forms. With that, we contribute to digital health research with a more nuanced understanding of causes, forms, and their relationships. We come up with fruitful avenues for future research.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., Weitzel, T., and Joseph, D. (2021)
Are IT professionals better off when they return to their former employer? An employee perspective on IT boomerang careers
Proceedings of the 21th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research

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Rehiring IT professionals is a valuable strategy to fill vacancies. While recent research has shown why IT professionals will return to a previous employer, we extend this line of inquiry to analyze whether boomerang employees who have returned to a previous employer consider their new situation better than the first time. Drawing on the job characteristics model and belief-update theory, we interviewed 39 boomerang employees working in the IT industry. The results indicate that all of them are more satisfied with their job after returning, yet for different reasons. While the majority (31 IT professionals) evaluate core job characteristics as improved after returning, others report increased job satisfaction, among others, for private reasons. Our main contribution to the growing literature on boomerang IT employees is that the grass is not always greener at other firms.

Pflügner, K., Baumann, A., and Maier, C. (2021)
Managerial Technostress: A Qualitative Study on Causes and Consequences
Proceedings of the 21th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research
Best Paper Award

View Abstract

Technostress is widespread among employees in modern work life. While research has identified the causes and consequences of technostress for the general working population, insights into how managers perceive technostress, i.e. managerial technostress, remains scarce. However, these insights are relevant as there are indications that the causes and consequences of technostress for managers are different than for non-managerial employees, for instance because they perceive divergent demands and resources at work related to their hierarchical status. We conduct a qualitative interview study with 20 managers and examine the relevance of multiple techno-stressors for managers as well as their adverse psychological and physical consequences. The results indicate that techno-overload and techno-complexity are high among managers. Results also show that techno-overload and techno-invasion are specifically demanding for managers compared to non-managerial employees, while techno-insecurity is not an issue for managers. We contribute to technostress research by revealing that the techno-stressors are differently relevant for managers, by highlighting which techno-stressors need to be addressed for managers by mitigation strategies. We also show that there are short-term as well as long-term consequences of techno-stressors among managers which both should be considered.

Laumer, S., and Maier, C. (2021)
Why do people (not) want to work from home? An individual-focused literature review on telework
Proceedings of the 21th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research

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One challenge of telework before the Covid-19 pandemic, but even during it, is that even if organizations offer such telework programs employees are not willing to work from home and prefer to stay in the office. We conducted a literature review of 32 studies focusing on telework adoption to propose the employee telework adoption model, informing research and practice about telework and its successful implementation. Guided by the theory of planned behavior we identified six behavioral beliefs fostering telework adoption and five behavior beliefs hindering telework adoption. Moreover, we reveal one normative and three control beliefs that foster or hinder telework adoption. This belief set constitues the employee telework adoption model, which is further discussed in terms of its implications for research and its guidance for future research endoveaurs.

Hund, A., Graser, H., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2021)
Balancing Organizational Identity through Mission Statements: A Topic Modeling Analysis
Proceedings of the 81st Academy of Management Conference, A Virtual Experience

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Organizational identities define how organizations are perceived inside and outside the organ-izational boundaries. Because organizational identity is deeply embedded in an organization's routines and processes, a continuous identity provides stability, whereas changes in organiza-tional identity are risky and difficult to manage. Yet, digital innovation leads to frequent changes in the external environment, resulting in conflicting requirements and the need to manage changes in the organizational identity. To do so, organizations therefore rely on narra-tives such as mission statements to communicate and balance their identity in the face of fre-quent change and often conflicting demands. We examine the mission statements of the top 1000 R&D spenders and uncover 18 topics that are part of such narratives. We discuss our findings in the context of research on digital innovation and conclude by identifying promising avenues for future research.

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2021)
Towards a Conceptual Model of Digital Innovation Success
Proceedings of the 21st ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Nuremberg, Germany

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Although digital innovation (‘DI’) is a popular research field in these days, when it comes to innovation success, it has not yet been properly grounded in theory. Accordingly, there are problems in identifying both generic and context-specific critical success fac-tors (CSF) within the innovation process. Existing literature has fo-cused mainly on the development of dynamic capabilities. We ar-gue that to build digital innovation capabilities, an organization must first understand and support the actions of those who are ac-tively developing DI. To uncover specific actions that constitute CSFs within every dimension of the digital innovation process, we follow a multiple case study design with seven companies from dif-ferent industries. Here, we build upon the ‘digital innovation frame-work’ which defines the process of creating DI across four dimen-sions (initiate, develop, implement, exploit). Based on these case studies, we build a conceptual model consisting of digital innova-tion actions, critical success factors and contingency factors. The proposed model serves as a starting point for future research, which should focus on a detailed quantitative investigation of the cause-effect relationships and the contingency factors to validate our propositions.

Pflügner, K., Hrovat, F., and Maier, C. (2021)
Medical Teleconsulting Applications: An Empirical Study on Elderly Peoples’ Satisfaction
Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Essen, Germany

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Medical teleconsulting applications improve the accessibility, increase the quality and reduce the costs of healthcare services especially for elderly people. Despite these benefits, such applications are still at an early state of diffusion. As the intention to use teleconsulting applications depends on the users’ satisfaction, we aim to reveal the application features of teleconsulting applications that lead to user satisfaction. Based on the theory of attractive quality, we argue that application features can be classified into different categories, depending on how well they achieve user satisfaction. We identify 17 application features and conduct a quantitative study with 87 elderly people for categorization. The results show how each application feature affects elderly peoples’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction with teleconsulting applications, and we derive recommendations for future teleconsulting application development.

Valta, M., Pflügner, K., and Maier, C. (2021)
Guiding Companies to Reduce Technostress: A Mixed-Methods Study Deriving Practice-Oriented Recommendations
Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)

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Technostress is a major challenge for employees using information technology. Technostress research has revealed the causes, i.e. techno-stressors, and resulting adverse consequences for employees and companies. However, there is a lack of practical insights guiding companies on how to reduce technostress. To offer such practical insights, we follow a mixed-methods approach. The qualitative study bases on eleven expert interviews and reveals seven measures that reduce technostress. We then elaborate on these interview results with a quantitative study of 110 employees. The quantitative results reveal the degree to which the seven measures are useful to reduce specific techno-stressors. Our results show that although there are measures used in practice, none reduces all different techno-stressors. We complement existent theoretical technostress research by offering practice-oriented recommendations on how to reduce technostress. Based on the illustration of which measures are useful for which techno-stressors, practitioners can choose the measures that best fits their needs.

Hund, A., Diel, V., and Wagner, H. (2021)
Recombining Layers of Digital Technology: How Users Create and Capture Value
Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Essen, Germany

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Recombination is central to the creation of innovation. Since digital innovation is product and use agnostic, not only producers and firms can carry out recombination, but users themselves can select and recombine different digital resources. We investigate why users select and recombine digital resources from different layers (content, service, network, device) of the layered modular architecture in a personal context. Our results allow us to make three key contributions: (1) We underscore the importance to distinguish between intra-layer and inter-layer recombination and uncover different reasons to carry out intra- or inter-layer recombination. (2) We show that the network layer appears to be invisible to users when recombining digital resources in a personal context. (3) We outline recommendations and research questions for future research, based on our findings.

Straubert, C., Sucky, E., and Mattke, J. (2021)
Blockchain Technology for Tracking and Tracing in Supply Chains: A Critical Viewpoint
Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui, Hawaii

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Tracking and tracing (TnT) in supply chains (SCs) is often mentioned as a very promising area of application for blockchains. At the same time, there is also much reticence and even disillusionment in practice. In this context, we present a literature meta-review and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using blockchains in SCs. We find that public permissionless blockchains offer new functionalities (e.g. pseudonymity), which however are often not desired. Moreover, a blockchain loses value in the context of SCs because there is a physical level (goods) in addition to the digital level (information) and these two levels do not necessarily match. Furthermore, we present a survey of TnT solution providers, which indicates that there are complexity and collaboration problems in supply chains that even a blockchain cannot alleviate. Nevertheless, the surveyed experts generally have a positive attitude towards the blockchain and are willing to give it a chance.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2020)
Governing the Competing Concerns of Digital Innovation
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Hyderabad, India

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Digital innovation creates four competing concerns in which the changes necessary to pursue digital innovation are opposed to existing logics and routines within a firm. Re-viewing extant research that highlights IT governance mechanisms as powerful tool to manage such tensions, we identify 41 governance mechanisms related to innovation. This allows us to discuss in detail which governance mechanisms help managing specific com-peting concerns of digital innovation. We close by developing six research questions that highlight promising avenues for future research on digital innovation governance.

Oehlhorn, C., Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2020)
Gender Diversity in IT: A Case Study on Sustainably Successful Interventions
Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Hyderabad, India
(Research in Progress)
Best Short Paper in Track “IS in the Workplace and the Future of Work”

View Abstract

Our research draws on the persistent issue of sustaining women in the IT domain and the related achievement of more gender diversity. We recognize that the strategic challenge goes beyond just finding and keeping more female IT professionals through single, stand-alone measures. Instead, the development of successful and sustainable diversity strategies as well as long-term talent pipelines is required. We conduct case studies with multiple organizations that obtained significant results in the context of increasing gender diversity. In line with research on the career development of female IT professionals and established human resource management functions, we present initial results on how to develop and implement sustainably successful strategies. The contributions for IS research on female IT professionals and IT human resource management as well as valuable implications for executives of our research are provided.

Mattke, J., Maier, C., and Reis, L. (2020)
Security Token Offerings: A Risk as Feelings Theoretic Perspective on Investment
Proceedings of the 41th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Hyderabad, India
(Research in Progress)

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Security Token Offerings (STOs) are a blockchain-enabled way for organizations to raise capital. To realize this, STO needs to base on a broad user base, which is currently not established. We take an individual-level perspective and examines why individuals decide to invest in STO. We suggest a mixed-method approach and build upon the theoretical perspective of the Risk as Feelings hypothesis to study what shapes STO investment decisions. In Study 1, we identify perceptions and anticipatory feelings. Perceptions include profit expectancy, personal need, benefit of gaining STO expertise, support of disruption, trust in financial regulator’s approval, financial flexibility, low investment barriers, and opportunity for diversification. The identified anticipatory feelings are excitement, enjoyment, anxiety, and fear of missing out that individuals experience when deciding to invest. In the ongoing Study 2, we will analyze how individuals decide when the cognitive evaluation and feelings contradict each other resulting in decisional conflict.

Seeher, V., Beimborn, D., and Holotiuk, F. (2020)
How to Evaluate the Performance of the Chief Digital Officer - A Delphi Study on KPIs for CDOs
Proceedings of the 28th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), A Virtual AIS Conference

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More and more companies are appointing Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) to assume responsibility for digital innovation in and digital transformation of their business activities. However, as this role is relatively new, understanding their precise role and responsibilities varies widely and the assessment of their performance does not follow any standards yet. This study aims to identify which Key Perfor- mance Indicators (KPIs) are relevant for measuring the performance of CDOs and how these KPIs differ for different types of CDOs, which we derived from the literature. To identify the KPIs and their relevance, we performed a Delphi study with a panel consisting of 38 experts. As a result, different sets of KPIs were developed for each CDO type. Whereas the KPIs for the ‘Evangelist’ emphasize at- tention to internal aspects, the ‘Marketer’s’ KPIs have a clear customer focus. For the ‘Innovator’, KPIs regarding new digital ideas and developments are most relevant while the ‘Orchestrator’s’ KPIs reflect overarching digital responsibility. As a conclusion, the identification of these KPI sets might be of great interest to CDOs and their superiors, as an inspiration on how to guide and govern their work, prove their performance, and justify their often scrutinised position.

Hund, A. (2020)
Recombination in Times of Pervasive Digitalization: A Review
Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Hyderabad, India

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Recombination is central to innovation. Stated in simple terms, recombination is the idea that new things are created by combining existing things in new ways. Over time, the application of recombination to different contexts and the influence of pervasive digitalization led to increasingly specialized conceptualizations of recombination. This review takes stock of current research by reviewing 90 articles across 49 different outlets and four leading IS conferences. Building upon the findings, this review makes three key contributions by: (1) Organizing existing knowledge on recombination by inductively developing a typology of four different types of recombination, (2) Addressing the missing focus on digital technology with four propositions that theorize how pervasive digitalization affects recombination, (3) Highlighting new directions for future research by developing specific research questions.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2020)
Achieving Digital-enabled Strategic Agility Through Resolving Tensions in Scaled-Agile Organizations
Proceedings of the EJIS Special Issue Workshop (Pre-AMCIS Workshop), Salt Lake City, USA
(Research in Progress)

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2020)
Digital Company Builders - Exploring a new Phenomenon of Start-up Incubation
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Digital Innovation, Transformation and Entrepreneurship (DITE), Cologne, Germany
(Research in Progress)

Oehlhorn, C., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2020)
Turnover and Turnaway of IT Workers: A Person-Environment Fit Perspective
Proceedings of the 20th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Nuremberg, Germany
(Research in Progress)

Weinert, C., Pflügner, K., and Maier, C. (2020)
Do users respond to challenging and hindering techno-stressors differently? A laboratory experiment
Proceedings of the 2020 NeuroIS Retreat, Vienna, Austria
(Research in Progress)

View Abstract

Techno-stressors are typically hindering for users. These then cause adverse user responses, such as techno-exhaustion, which in turn result in reduced task performance. Latest technostress research adds two types of stressors: hindrance techno-stressors (HTS) and challenge techno-stressors (CTS). Using that knowledge, this research-in-progress paper develops a research model assuming that both types of techno-stressors lead to different user responses (e.g., motivation, techno-exhaustion, arousal) and, in turn, have a different impact on task performance. To validate that empirically, we propose a mixed-experimental research design following a pre-post approach with three different treatments (e.g., HTS, CTS, control) using among other different biomarkers (e.g., SC, sAA, cortisol) to measure arousal. The expected contributions and future steps are discussed.

Mattke, J., and Maier, C. (2020)
Gamification: Feature-Rich Mobile Applications, Brand Awareness and Loyalty
Proceedings of the 28th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Marrakesh, Morocco

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Mobile applications (apps) take advantage of gamification features to increase users’ brand equity in terms of brand awareness and loyalty. Previous research has shown that individuals use three types of gamification features: immersion-, achievement- and social-related features. We base on that knowledge and provide empirical insights into how the use frequency of these three types of gamification features relates to high brand equity. We base on a quantitative study of 150 users of the mobile app Duolingo, apply a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and suggest three ways how the frequency of using the three types of gamification features relates to high brand equity. The results show that there is one way in which the user frequently uses two types of features and there are two ways in which the user uses one type feature frequently and uses a second type of feature seldom. We contribute to gamification literature by revealing that there is an interplay of the three types of gamification fea-tures and to mobile app research by showing how gamification features relate to high brand equity. We also guide practitioners on how to identify users at risk to discontinue and reduce the customer churn.

Mattke, J., Maier, C., and Reis, L. (2020)
Is Cryptocurrency Money? Three Empirical Studies Analyzing Medium of Exchange, Store of Value and Unit of Account
Proceedings of the ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Nuremberg, Germany

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Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Ripple, are discussed as a new form of money. Typically, money fulfills three core functions: 1) medium of exchange, 2) store of value, and 3) unit of account. To examine whether individuals consider cryptocurrencies as money, we conduct three studies. Study 1 (N=57) provides valid and reliable measurement items for the three core functions of money. Study 2 (N=95) shows that the general perception about the fulfillment of the core functions is rather positive for cryptocurrencies. The results from Study 3 (N=99) furthermore reveal that Bitcoin is perceived significantly better in fulfilling all three functions than Ethereum or Ripple. The findings suggest that cryptocurrency research needs to include or at least control for the basic perceptions of core functions when examining individuals’ adoption or use of cryptocurrency as money. Furthermore, the findings suggest that existing knowledge from Bitcoin use or adoption research cannot be easily transferred to the context of another cryptocurrency.

Reis, L., Maier, C., Mattke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2020)
Chatbots in Healthcare: Status Quo, Application Scenarios for Physicians and Patients and Future Directions
Proceedings of the 28th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Marrakesh, Morocco

View Abstract

The implementation of chatbots in healthcare offers high potentials for patients and physicians. Among others, chatbots reduce physicians’ administrative workload and weaken the worse consequences coming along with the lack of physicians. However, to implement chatbots in healthcare successfully, we need to respect special characteristics of the domain, such that the shared data is highly sensitive and that an incorrect or incomplete chatbot answer can have far-reaching negative consequences for health and life. To examine this field of research and its specific characteristics, we perform a qualitative study with 23 physicians from different fields having experience with automation in the healthcare sector. We identify seven application scenarios for chatbots from the physicians’ perspective and seven further application scenarios physicians assess as useful for patients. Nine of them enlarge and five of them validate the existing five application scenarios in literature. We contribute to research in the stream of chatbots by offering a combined perspective of physicians and patients. We also contribute by revealing specific domain characteristics from the physicians’ perspective, such as e.g. the liability question and privacy concerns. Based on that, we offer future research directions, in terms of next steps, but also potential negative sides of chatbot implementations.

Pflügner, K., Reis, L., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2020)
Communication Measures to Reduce Techno-Invasion and Techno-Overload: A Qualitative Study Uncovering Positive and Adverse Effects
Proceedings of the 20th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Nuremberg, Germany
Best Paper Award

View Abstract

The perception of specific techno-stressors, such as techno- invasion or techno-overload, negatively influences employees' performance and organizations' profit. Therefore, it is imperative for organizations to implement specific, deliberate mitigation strategies. Among others, communication measures have the potential to reduce employees' perception of techno-invasion and techno-overload. Basing on 38 semi-structured interviews with working employees, this study identifies five communication measures and their positive and adverse effects in reducing techno-invasion and techno-overload from the perspective of employees. Enlarging related research on technostress mitigation, the results show that none of the analyzed communication measures is limitation-free. Therefore, we conclude that organizations need to introduce more elected and comprehensive communication measures, representing employees' individual needs and characteristics to reduce techno-invasion and techno-overload sustainably. Theoretically, our research enlarges prior findings on technostress and on mitigation of technostress presenting specific mitigation strategies for two specific techno-stressors as well as positive and adverse effects of these mitigation strategies.

Wirth, J., Maier, C., Laumer, S., Oehlhorn, C., and Weitzel, T. (2020)
Benefits in Privacy Research: A Literature Review, Status Quo and Future Research Directions
Proceedings of the 20th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Nuremberg, Germany

View Abstract

Research in the stream of privacy considers benefits as an important and central concept. Benefits are the positive outcomes that individuals will experience when disclosing information. However, we see that only few papers theorize benefits in their research and thereby the operationalization and understanding of benefits is mixed, unstandardized and seems to follow no specific order. Based on that observation, we aim to provide a first step towards a standardized usage of benefits in privacy research studies, by summarizing existing benefits in privacy research and categorizing them. To do so, we base on the theory of perceived value. This theory uses five dimensions (emotional value, social value for myself, social value for others, monetary value as well as utility value), which we use to categorize different benefits. The results confirm our initial observations that indeed different constructs of benefits are used even in the same research context without justification. Implications among others refer to the recommendation to use the same term for the same construct and to consider all five dimensions of benefits in privacy research studies.

Hund, A. (2020)
Understanding Digital Innovation: A Research Agenda
Proceedings of the Doctoral Consortium WI, Berlin, Germany

Reis, L., Mattke, J., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2020)
Conversational Agents in Healthcare: Using QCA to Explain Patients' Resistance to Chatbots for Medication
Proceedings of the Conversations 2020: 3rd International Workshop on Chatbot Research and Design, Amsterdam, Netherlands

View Abstract

Complete information is very important to the accuracy of diagnosis in healthcare. Therefore, the idea to use conversational agents recording relevant information and providing it to healthcare facilities is of rising interest. A promising use case of the involvement of conversational agents is medication, as this data is often fragmented or incomplete. The paper at hand examines the hindrances in the way of patients sharing their medication list with a chatbot. Basing on established theories and using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), we identify bundles of factors that influence patients lacking willingness to interact with a chatbot. Those typologies of patients can be used to address these hindrances specifically, providing useful insights for theory and healthcare facilities.

von Preußen, P., and Beimborn, D. (2019)
Turning Mentoring Around – A Case-based Analysis of the Outcomes of Digital Reverse Mentoring
Proceedings of the 25th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Cancún, Mexico

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Firms have recently employed digital reverse mentoring programs in which young and digitally affine employees are paired as mentors with mentees from senior management to foster their digital mindset. This paper sheds light into the outcomes and success factors of such reverse mentoring relationships by conducting a qualitative analysis of nine reverse mentoring pairs in four different organizations. Using an exploratory approach, we identified 31 different outcomes which are clustered along themes (e.g., technologies/trends or corporate culture), behavior (ranging from just creating awareness to sustainably changed behavior), and scope (ranging from personal to organization-wide impact). Moreover, we extracted success factors that showed to be important preconditions for making digital reverse mentoring successful.

Segert, T., Holotiuk, F., and Beimborn, D. (2019)
The Complexity Trap – Limits of IT Flexibility for Supporting Organizational Agility in Decentralized Organizations
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Siegen, Germany

View Abstract

In times of digitalization, organizations are transforming to become more agile. Decentralizing decision-making to lower levels of the organization allows firms to better detect changes in their environment and to sense new opportunities. Simultaneously, the digital transformation of a firm is increasingly relying on a flexible IT function. This study explores how decentralization of decision-making power increases organizational agility and to what extent this relationship is dependent on IT flexibility. We conducted a quantitative study using two rounds of surveys with 123 respondents from the consulting industry. Based on covariance-based SEM, we find that too much flexibility of the IT function in combination with decentralized decision-rights creates a complexity trap and, thus, decreases organizational agility. These findings carry several theoretical contributions for organizational agility research and shed new light on the role of IT flexibility for digital transformation.

Holotiuk, F., and Beimborn, D. (2019)
Temporal Ambidexterity: How Digital Innovation Labs Connect Exploration and Exploitation for Digital Innovation
Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS)

View Abstract

Firms apply ambidexterity to balance between exploration and exploitation. Exploration enables (digital) innovation when digital technologies are incorporated. Exploitation leverages innovations and generates long-term business value. However, existing forms of ambidexterity are insufficient for digital innovation and firms are implementing new organizational forms, such as digital innovation labs (DILs), to foster digital innovation. We studied the DILs of nine different firms to analyze their contribution to ambidexterity. Comparing these cases regarding intra-organizational exchange and integration, we find that the implementation of DILs yields a new form of ambidexterity. The empirical evidence shows that ambidexterity is achieved through a dedicated unit for exploration (i.e. the DIL) and the temporary transfer of people between the DIL and the operational parts of the firm. Based on this conceptualization we term this new form ‘temporal ambidexterity’. We uncover that temporal ambidexterity is suited better for digital innovation.

Weinert, C., and Weitzel, T. (2019)
How do users cope with technostress over time? A longitudinal study investigating the intra-individual effects of technostress mitigation
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Munich, Germany
(Research in Progress)

Drechsler, K., Hund, A., Müller, B., and Wagner, H. (2019)
Governing Digital Innovation: Examining the Effects of Organizational Restructuring on Firms’ Success
Proceedings of the Dynamic Capabilities and Relationships (DCR) Conference, Heilbronn, Germany

Müller, L. (2019)
Enabling Digital Commerce: Advertising and the Influence of User Behavior
Proceedings of the 25th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Cancun, México

View Abstract

With the rising popularity of digital commerce and rising competition of companies with platforms like Amazon, it is especially important for companies to attract customers' attention. Advertising depicts one possibility to do that, but only if the ad can induce a certain interaction with the customer. As prior research shows that the willingness to interact with an ad depends on how the user perceives the ad, we conduct a literature review on factors shaping those perceptions and interactions. The results of 41 papers are structured along the ad delivery process, including advertisers', here the companies in digital commerce, publishers' and customers' perspectives. The results show, that to use advertising successfully to raise customers' attention and induce purchases, companies in digital commerce need to be aware of all three perspectives and need to collaborate closely with publishers to manage the display of ads to customers. We offer a precise research agenda.

Müller, L., Mattke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2019)
Not Talking to Robo-Doc: A QCA Study Examining Patients' Resistance to Chatbots for Anamnesis
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Munich, Germany
Best Paper Award

View Abstract

The usage of chatbots in healthcare is rising, due to significant cost and time savings. A promising use case is the automation of the time-intensive anamnesis, however many patients are unwilling to share their personal health records with a chatbot. This paper examins patients' resistance to using a chatbot for anamnesis. We base on status quo bias perspective and its provided influencing factors and use a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to identify configurations, thus conjunctions of the factors that when working together lead to patients' resistance of using a chatbot for anamnesis. The identified three configurations contribute to chatbot research, examining causes for resistance instead of acceptance and resistance research, identifying typologies of patients, who resist using a chatbot for anmanesis. We also provide useful insights for healthcare facilities thinking about the implementation of a chatbot for anamnesis.

Müller, L., Mattke, J., Maier, C., Weitzel, T., and Graser, H. (2019)
Chatbot Acceptance: A Latent Profile Analysis on Individuals' Trust in Conversational Agents
Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Nashville, Tennessee,USA

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According to industry reports, the lack of trust in non-human interaction prevents widespread Chatbot acceptance. Since the willingness and the ability to trust varies between individuals, this study examines to what extent the trust in Chatbots varies accordingly to different personality profiles. Drawing on the HEXACO dimensions of personality, we apply a latent profile analysis and identify three distinct personality profiles, which significantly vary in their trust in Chatbots. A high level of trust in Chatbots, e.g. Alexa, is mainly affected by the two personality dimensions Extraversion and Agreeableness and only slightly by Honesty-Humility. To prevent commercial underperformance and the shutdown of their Chatbot, providers should make sure that users trust in their Chatbot. This can be accomplished, if the Chatbot treats each user based on his or her membership in one of the three profiles identified in this study.

Laumer, S., Alter, S., and Maier, C. (2019)
A Systems Perspective on IS User Satisfaction in Digitalized Enterprises: Conclusions from Five Case Studies
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Munich, Germany

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We present a systems perspective on IS user satisfaction that is more appropriate in digitalized organizations than prominent streams of user satisfaction research from several decades ago that focused largely on voluntary, individual use of IT. We developed this perspective by analyzing five case studies commissioned by managers facing user satisfaction issues in important ISs. Direct quotations from recorded transcripts of 111 interviews from the cases illustrated that IS user satisfaction issues involved much more than the IS itself. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the interview data led to the conclusion that IS user satisfaction was formed as work system participants fulfilled responsibilities within work systems that produced product/services for internal and/or external customers. The information systems were integral parts of those work systems. IS users tended to evaluate an IS in relation to the extent to which it helped them perform their work activities and fulfill their responsibilities.

Pflügner, K., Mattke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2019)
Which Combinations of Techno-Stressors Harm Users and Organizations: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Munich, Germany

View Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to examine which combinations of techno-stressors lead users to be burned out or perform low due to their stressful use of information systems. Therefore, we take a configurational approach and investigate configurations of techno-stressors for job burnout and low job performance. We conduct a two-wave study, survey 166 employees and analyze the data by using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results reveal four configurations leading to job burnout and one configuration leading to low job performance. The study contributes to technostress research by showing that techno-stressors need to be studied in configurations, by highlighting that job burnout and low job performance are caused by different configurations and by revealing that high as well as low levels of a techno-stressor can initiate the adverse reactions of users.

Oehlhorn, C., Laumer, S., and Maier, C. (2019)
Sustaining the IT Workforce: A Review of Major Issues in 25 Years and Future Directions
Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Nashville (TN), USA

View Abstract

Attracting, recruiting and retaining a sufficient number of information technology professionals remains a key issue for organizations. Although research and practice call upon this issue for quite some time and suggest various interventions, the shortage of qualified IT professionals does not decline, but seems to increase. Thus, sustaining the IT workforce represents a recurring issue faced with challenges that are fixed firmly within the domain. This literature review aims to identify the major issues related to sustaining IT professionals from a human resource management perspective. Sixty-seven research articles from the AIS Senior Scholars' basket are reviewed to identify the major issues respectively to the past times from the dot com boom during the 1990s, across industry recession in 2001 up to the present day. Four major issues are explained and discussed.

Oehlhorn, C., Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2019)
Attracting Young IT Professionals: An Empirical Study Using the Theory of Attractive Quality
Proceedings of the 2019 on ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Nashville (TN), USA
Best Paper Nominee

View Abstract

Attracting and recruiting qualified information technology (IT) professionals remains one key issue for executives for numerous years. The so-called war for IT talent illustrates the hard competition of employers for well-educated IT professionals who develop and advance future technologies. Thus, employers are required to court the young professionals' attention to recruit the best of them. Previous research lists certain attractiveness attributes but leaves their interrelations open. We therefore evaluate established attractiveness attributes referring to the Theory of Attractive Quality. To answer the research question? What attracts young IT professionals to an employer?' we conduct an empirical study surveying 223 young IT professionals and evaluate 24 attractiveness attributes that employers should or even need to provide in order to recruit young IT professionals.

Niederman, F., Kaarst-Brown, M., Quesenberry, J., and Weitzel, T. (2019)
The Future of IT Work: Computers and People
Proceedings of the 2019 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Nashville, TN, USA

View Abstract

The future of work is widely debated in terms of skills shortages, disappearing or emerging jobs, ongoing automation through artificial intelligence (AI), and what might happen if we do not have to work due to increased substitution of human with machine labor. Our goal is not to rehash these debates, but to reflect on them in terms of information technology (IT) work in particular. The purpose of thinking about the future is not to predict with precision or certainty what will happen. Rather the purpose is to sensitize us toward choosing pathways and taking actions that increase the probability of the futures we would prefer and decrease the probability of future states we would like to avoid. This paper considers a number of trends and reflects upon them from the dual, potentially conflicting perspectives of IT worker and of society. We close with our thoughts on convergence of both trends and impact, and potential implications.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., and Gewald, H. (2019)
The Impact of Digitization on Contemporary Innovation Management
Proceedings of the 25th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Cancún, Mexico

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Innovation management is challenged by the new circumstances created through the pervasive digitization of entire industries and society at large. Since digital technology is an important part of most novel services and products, innovation management is searching for ways to align traditional innovation processes and routines with the new requirements. To better understand how digitization challenges the established assumptions of traditional innovation management, we conducted a total of 27 interviews with senior managers from 11 companies in various industries. Our results empirically confirm and underscore conceptual insights from extant research. We find that the pervasive digitization leads to (1) blurring external boundaries, (2) fusion of process and outcome, and (3) shortened innovation cycles. Most importantly, we uncover first insights into how senior managers react to the ubiquitous challenges of digitization.

Mattke, J. (2019)
Advertising-Funded IS: A Literature Review on Factors Influencing Users Clicking Behavior for In-App Ads
Proceedings of the 25th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Cancún, Mexico

View Abstract

Clicks on in-app ads are the key pillar in financing the development and maintenance of apps. Therefore, the design of apps and in-app ads becomes an important task in the development of an app in order to increase the likelihood that users click on in-apps. To support the design, organizations need to know which factors influence user's clicking behavior. To reveal those factors, we base on the information processing theory and conduct a literature review to reveal structural and semantic factors. We reveal four structural factors (animation, color brightness, location prominence and size), which influence user's clicking behavior. Additionally, we identify seven semantic factors (entertainment value, informativeness, usefulness, personalization, congruity, irritation and privacy concern), which influence user's clicking behavior. Based on these findings, we propose considering additional structural and semantic factors and advise future research to examine the mutual influence of both semantic and structural factors.

Laumer, S., Gubler, F., Racheva, A., and Maier, C. (2019)
Use Cases for Conversational Agents: An Interview-based Study
Forthcoming in: Proceedings of the 25th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Cancún, Mexico

View Abstract

This study explores use cases for conversational agents using an interview-based study with 50 individuals. We report an analysis that illustrates which conversational agents designs are perceived as useful or enjoyable by individuals and are therefore a predictor for adoption and diffusion of conversational agents in both private and professional contexts. The results of the interviews are classified into seven use case categories: Use of conversational agents for information retrieval, smart home control, goods and services, car and navigation, music and entertainment, work and office and other. However, the results also indicate that in order to improve perceived usefulness, conversational agents must improve and become "more intelligent". Though, concerns such as privacy issues and transparency should be addressed by companies in order to ensure a sustainable development and diffusion. Hence, we conclude an agenda for research and designers of conversational agents to focus on use cases and conversational agents designs that provide the breeding ground for adoption and diffusion.

Pflügner, K., and Maier, C. (2019)
Mitigating Technostress: An Empirical Study of Mindfulness and Techno-Stressors
Proceedings of the 25th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Cancún, Mexico

View Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to examine ways for individuals to mitigate technostress. Practical observations indicate the importance of mindfulness for mitigating stress. Therefore, we study the effect of mindfulness on techno-stressors by relying on the theoretical model of mindfulness by Shapiro and colleagues. A self-rating questionnaire was distributed to employees of different companies, industries, business units, and hierarchical levels. The results of 134 responses reveal that mindfulness leads to lower levels of four out of five techno-stressors. The study contributes that mindfulness is a powerful resource in technologized work environments for the effective and healthy dealing with technologies as well as the mitigation of techno-stressors and that techno-stressors need to be investigated separately. Suggestions for the application of the research results and the development of preventive measures are provided.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Gubler, F. (2019)
Chatbot acceptance in healthcare: explaining user adoption of conversational agents for disease diagnosis
Proceedings of the 27th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Stockholm-Uppsala, Sweden

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In this research, we develop a research model explaining the adoption of conversational agents for disease diagnosis. Healthcare is challenged by a parallel increasing demand for healthcare services and a decreasing supply of healthcare professionals. Mobile Health is proposed to overcome geographical, temporal, and organizational barriers of healthcare services. Conversational agents (CA), i.e. software programs that interact with users through natural language, are developed that are even able to diagnose a disease based on an individuals' input using a chat interface. However, these systems face an adoption challenge. To understand that, we use UTAUT2 as theoretical lens and 35 semi-structured interviews with potential users of a CA for disease diagnosis. Based on that we propose a research model that contains (1) well-known UTAUT2 factors (performance and effort expectancy, facilitating conditions), (2) re-defined other factors to better fit the context (social influence, price value, habit), and (3) newly identified ones (privacy risk expectancy, trust in provider and system, compatibility, experience in e-diagnosis, access to health system). We also reveal that hedonic motivation is not relevant for CA adoption. The newly proposed model addresses research gaps in CA research in general, but also in mHealth and especially the use of CA in healthcare research in particular. We also discuss rather general implications for technology acceptance research and provide some suggestions for providers of CA in healthcare to increase the diffusion rates of these systems.

Wirth, J., and Maier, C. (2019)
Privacy and Speech-Disclosure: An Extension of the Privacy Calculus
Proceedings of the 27th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Stockholm-Uppsala, Sweden

View Abstract

Besides disclosing information via keyboard, disclosing information via speech is on the rise, for example, when speaking with digital assistants such as Amazon Echo. However, when disclosing information via speech, additional information is disclosed such as volume, pitch, tone or accent. With this additional information, further information of the individual can be derived such as age, gender or race. Also, other individuals around can overhear the spoken information. Both may lead to additional privacy risks. However, previous research has mainly considered the privacy risks through disclosure via keyboard, neglecting the mentioned additional privacy risks through disclosure via speech. Therefore, to better understand disclosure via speech, we rely on the basic privacy calculus, yet extend it with further privacy risks through additional information and through other individuals around. We propose a quantitative survey, to shed light on the effect of the additional privacy risks on speech-disclosure and aim to contribute to theory by recommending scholars to include the additional privacy risks when researching on speech-disclosure.

Wirth, J., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2019)
Subjective Norm and the Privacy Calculus: Explaining Self-Disclosure on Social Networking Sites
Proceedings of the 27th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Stockholm-Uppsala, Sweden

View Abstract

The privacy calculus postulates that individuals disclose information when benefits outweigh privacy risks. Despite its wide applicability, research has also challenged the privacy calculus. It was shown that individuals disclose information even if benefits do not outweigh privacy risks. Two explanations have been provided: On the one hand, perceptions might lead to a miscalculation of benefits and privacy risks. On the other hand, additional concepts might alter the effect of benefits and privacy risks on disclosure. In this research study we provide a third explanation: We suggest subjective norm to be a factor which overlies the effect of benefits and privacy risk. Subjective norm is the perceived social pressure of individuals that other important referents around expect the individual to undertake a certain behavior. To integrate subjective norm into the privacy calculus, we use the theory of reasoned action as our theoretical lens. Based on a survey with 1,466 participants and a covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, we can conclude that subjective norm has the strongest effect on disclosure. The results contribute to theory in the privacy domain, by questioning in how far the privacy calculus can be considered, without taking the environment into consideration.

Hund, A., Holotiuk, F., Wagner, H., and Beimborn, D. (2019)
Knowledge Management in the Digital Era: How Digital Innovation Labs Facilitate Knowledge Recombination
Proceedings of the 27th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Stockholm-Uppsala

View Abstract

Knowledge is widely regarded as a crucial organizational resource. In the pursuit of finding novel solutions to problems, organizations combine and re-combine knowledge and resources in different ways. This ultimately leads to innovation, which often is viewed as the ultimate reason d'être for organizations. While there exists a rich literature strand on knowledge management, the pervasive digitalization of entire industries creates new challenges. Different areas of knowledge are converging and organizations struggle with managing the rapidly increasing amount of heterogeneous knowledge. An increasingly popular approach to master the challenges of knowledge creation and recombination in the arena of digital innovation is the creation of Digital Innovation Labs (DIL). Although DILs provide a promising approach to the current challenges of innovating in a digital environment, we have only limited insights about DILs. To uncover how DILs facilitate knowledge management and recombination we conducted several case studies in different industries. Our results show how knowledge enters the DIL, how knowledge is applied and recombined and how knowledge is exchanged between units. Most importantly, we identify six key mechanisms that DILs use to master the challenge of knowledge management and innovation in a digital era.

Hund, A., Drechsler, K., and Reibenspiess, V. (2019)
The Current State and Future Opportunities of Digital Innovation: A Literature Review
Proceedings of the 27th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Stockholm-Uppsala, Sweden

View Abstract

Digital innovation has already disrupted numerous industries and is challenging extant theories about innovation. However, until now there is no comprehensive review that systemizes the current state of knowledge on digital innovation. Since publication rates on digital innovation increased fivefold since 2015, it is especially important to understand how the field is developing. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview on how the field has developed, identify under-researched topics and under-used methods to guide future research. In our structured literature review, we systemize the findings by differentiating between two dimensions - digital innovation as a process and as an outcome. Furthermore, we explore determinants of digital innovation by taking three different levels of analysis into consideration: individual, organizational and environmental. By including extant research until today, we provide a comprehensive summary on current knowledge on digital innovation and identify opportunities for future research.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2019)
The Creation of Digital Innovation: Internal Reorganization, External Networks and Organizational Knowledge
Proceedings of the 79th Academy of Management Conference, Boston, MA, USA

View Abstract

Digital innovation already disrupted numerous industries and organizations are challenged to align their innovation efforts with the new reality of a digitized environment. We examine how internal reorganization and the external network of an organization are related to organizational knowledge and the eventual creation of digital innovation. To develop digital innovation, firms tap a variety of heterogeneous backgrounds to exploit the ease with which different knowledge fields can be accessed and recombined in a digitized environment. Therefore, the actors involved in the development process come from different sources from within and without the firm as the inclusion of digital technology challenges previously non-digital organizational innovation logics. We develop a conceptual model, which takes the characteristics of digital innovation into account.

Rockmann, R., and Maier, C. (2019)
On the Fit in Fitness Apps: Studying the Interaction of Motivational Affordances and Users' Goal Orientations in Affecting the Benefits Gained
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Siegen, Germany

View Abstract

Lacking regular physical activity is a pertaining problem in most western societies. Fitness apps are positioned to address this issue by offering motivational affordances to the user, which aim to enhance motivation and increase physical activity: self-monitoring, rewards, and social comparison. Yet research provides inconclusive results about their effectiveness. For clarification, this paper draws upon Achievement Goal Theory and theorizes how and why motivational affordances vary in dependence of users' motivation-relevant goals in supporting motivation and physical activity. Empirical validation among 283 fitness app users generally supports that motivational affordances need to be congruent with users' underlying goal orientations to achieve the benefits. As such, this paper contributes to fitness app research by resolving prior inconsistencies, offers a theorizing on motivational affordances and individual motivation-relevant differences, and aids practice in designing fitness apps.

Pflügner, K., Mattke, J., and Maier, C. (2019)
Who is Stressed by Using ICTs? A Qualitative Comparison Analysis with the Big Five Personality Traits to Understand Technostress
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Siegen, Germany
Best Paper Award

View Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to reveal personality profiles that predispose to the experience of techno-stressors within an organizational setting. These insights are useful because techno-stressors lead to considerable costs and adverse health effects. We use the theoretical lens of the transaction-based model of stress to study the effect of the Big Five personality traits on techno-stressors. We distributed a self-rating questionnaire among 221 individuals and analyzed data using fuzzy set Qualitative Comparison Analysis. The results reveal that six different personality profiles lead to the experience of techno-stressors. The study contributes to research by revealing that personality traits need to be investigated in profiles when studying their role in technostress and that different profiles of the Big Five predispose to techno-stressors. The results are useful for practitioners as they allow the prevention of techno-stressors and negative consequences by detecting users who are at risk at an early stage.

Hund, A., and Wagner, H. (2019)
Innovation Networks and Digital Innovation: How Organizations Use Innovation Networks in a Digitized Environment
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Siegen, Germany

View Abstract

The digital transformation dramatically lowered the costs for communication and coordination, thus, enabling new forms of cooperation. Companies seize this opportunity by creating new types of innovation networks. Until now, we know little about which types of innovation networks are currently prevalent and why organizations use them. In this paper, we build upon a recent study dealing with categorization of innovation networks and present the results of an exploratory series of case studies conducted with 27 high-level executives from 11 organizations in various industries. Our results indicate that companies are maintaining high-levels of centralized control over the innovation network, which is contrary to what the literature suggests. Furthermore, there is a strong trend to-wards more heterogeneous knowledge within a network. Additionally, we identify mechanisms that help companies to transition from one type of innovation network to another one and investigate why organizations use certain innovation networks.

Wirth, J., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2019)
Justification of Mass Surveillance: A Quantitative Study
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Siegen, Germany

View Abstract

Online mass surveillance by governmental organizations is omnipresent. Even though this results in a loss of privacy and further negative outcomes for individuals, a majority is justifying mass surveillance. Understanding, why this is the case is among others important for individuals, who want to decrease justification of mass surveillance. Therefore, this study aims to uncover the factors that drive this justification. Drawing on system justification theory we consider mass surveillance to be a political arrangement. Five factors were identified that potentially drive individuals' justification of mass surveillance which are among others, perceived privacy control or perceived security. A quantitative study was carried out and the results support most of our hypotheses. With our results, we contribute to the privacy-related area in the domain of IS, by indicating that individuals consider mass surveillance not necessarily to be bad and by giving advice on how to alter the level of justification.

Weinert, C., Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2019)
How do Users Respond to Technostress? An Empirical Analysis of Proactive and Reactive Coping
Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui, USA

View Abstract

As technostress costs organizations financial resources and threatens the well-being, it is essential for users as well as companies to manage technostress. To do so, users cope proactive by removing or reducing techno-stressors or reactive by restoring users' emotional state. However, literature is limited by explaining what factors lead to proactive and reactive coping in a short-term technostress situation. The present paper addresses these shortcomings by investigating in how techno-stressors and emotional exhaustion influences proactive and reactive coping. Results based on 110 users show that users respond to techno-stressors in a proactive way, whereas users reactively respond to emotional exhaustion. In addition, proactive coping is stronger affected by techno-stressors, and reactive coping is stronger affected by emotional exhaustion. Thereby, we contribute to technostress and coping literature by demonstrating how users respond in short-term technostress situation and highlight the importance of time in the present context.

Mattke, J., Müller, L., and Maier, C. (2019)
Paid, Owned and Earned Media: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis revealing Attributes Influencing Consumer's Brand Attitude in Social Media
Proceedings of the 51th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Hawai

View Abstract

This paper examines how companies can use paid media (referring to sponsored posts), owned media (company posts) and earned media (influencer post) to create a positive brand attitude. Based on the advertising value model, this paper takes a configurational approach and uses fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The analysis reveals a typology of five types of media, which influence consumers' brand attitude positively. We contribute to research by providing a typology of paid, owned and earned media, which can guide companies to create a positive brand attitude.

Weinert, C. (2018)
Improving the IS Literature Rigor on Habit by Looking Through the Theoretical Lens of the Dual-Process Theory
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), San Francisco, USA
(Research in Progress)

View Abstract

Information system (IS) usage has been extensively researched for decades. These theories are built upon the assumption that human decisions are based only on rationality. However, this notion was challenged in more recent years, as Kahneman (2003) demonstrates that human decisions are not only based on rationality but also on intuition. Kahneman's dual-process theory suggests that cognitive processes underlying social judgments and behavior can be divided into two different systems (system one and system two) depending on whether they operate reflectively or intuitively. Yet, prior IS usage literature examines the construct of habit, which under the evaluation of the dual-process theory is formed in the intuitive system. However, within the research stream of habit, the dual-process theory has not been rigorously considered. Hence, most of the results and implications of habit research are driven by the theoretical assumption of the reflective theories concentrating only on the reflective system and neglect that habit is an unconscious construct formed in the intuitive system. To shed light on IS habit and to improve IS literature rigor on habit, the present research idea aims to analyze IS habit literature to identify whether it has been treated and measured as intuitive or reflective construct.

Oehlhorn, C., Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2018)
Is There an IT Gender Recruiting Gap? Studying Equal Opportunities during Recruitment
Proceedings of the SIG Social Inclusion (SIGSI) Research Workshop, San Francisco (CA), USA
(Research in Progress)

Oehlhorn, C., Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2018)
Females' Handling of Threatening Experiences when Studying IT: An Explorative Study Using Coping Theory
Proceedings of the 4th SIG Social Inclusion (SIGSI) Research Workshop, San Francisco (CA), USA
(Research in Progress)

Maier, C., Laumer, S., Oehlhorn, C., and Weitzel, T. (2018)
A Social Comparison Perspective to Study Negative Effects of Telework
Forthcoming in: Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), San Francisco, CA, USA

View Abstract

Telework is indisputably important for establishing a positive work-life-balance for employees. Teleworkers are less stressed and more satisfied by work implying turnover intentions that are below half of those of regular office workers. However, recent practical indications suggest that there is also a dark side of telework, meaning that telework has adverse effects for office workers, who, among others, develop feelings of envy. To study these adverse effects for office workers, we use social comparison theory and suggest that a disparity of telework causes negative emotions and adverse behaviors. In developing our research model, we posit that office workers become envy, dissatisfied with their job, develop turnover intentions and perform worse. An empirical study with 269 employees working in one organization with telework arrangements confirms the hypothesized relationships. Therewith, this study contributes to telework research by providing an interpersonal perspective on telework and revealing that there is a dark side of telework for office workers, which organizations should account for to prevent employees from developing adverse emotions and behaviors.

Pflügner, K. (2018)
Technostress: An Empirical Analysis for Investigating the Role of Mindfulness
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), San Francisco, CA, USA

View Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to examine personal resources for the dealing with technostress and the alleviation of negative consequences arising from technostress. Based on practical observations indicating the importance of mindfulness, the theoretical lense of the job demands-resources model is used to study the effect of mindfulness on techno-stressors and emotional exhaustion. A self-rating questionnaire was distributed to employees of different companies, industries, business units, and hierarchical levels. The results of 134 responses reveal that mindfulness is associated with lower levels of techno-stressors and lower levels of emotional exhaustion. The study contributes that mindfulness is a powerful resource in technologized work environments for the effective and healthy dealing with technologies, the reduction of techno-stressors, and the prevention of adverse health outcomes. Suggestions for the application of the research results, the development of preventive measures, and the assessment of psychological risk factors are provided.

Drechsler, K., Hund, A., and Wagner, H. (2018)
Governing Digital Innovation: Exploring the Role of Chief Digital Officers
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), San Francisco, CA, USA
(Research in Progress)

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2018)
Organizational Reconfiguration and Digital Innovation Success: A Review and Novel Perspectives
Proceedings of the JAIS Theory Development Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), San Francisco, CA, USA
(Research in Progress)

Mattke, J., Hund, A., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2018)
Will the real Value of Blockchain Please Stand Up? Lessons Learned from Multiple Blockchain Projects
Proceedings of the MISQE Special Issue Workshop, San Francisco
(Research in Progress)

Mattke, J., Maier, C., Müller, L., and Weitzel, T. (2018)
Bitcoin resistance behavior: a QCA study explaining why individuals resist bitcoin as a means of payment
Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), San Francisco

View Abstract

Bitcoin could revolutionize the system of payments, yet most individuals do not use Bitcoin as a means of payment. As the success of Bitcoin as a means of payment depends upon a high number of individuals using Bitcoin, this study examines why individuals resist Bitcoin as a means of payment. We draw on the status quo bias perspective and take a configurational approach, using fuzzy set qualitative comparison analysis (fsQCA). The analysis reveals a typology of four types of resistant users, who resist Bitcoin as a means of payment: the regret driven resistant user, the uncertainty driven resistant user, the transition cost driven resistant user and the cost driven resistant user. We contribute to resistance research and Bitcoin research by providing a typology of resistant users and identifying equifinal configurations of influencing factors leading to individual's resistance to Bitcoin as a means of payment.

Weinert, C. (2018)
Coping with Discrepant Information Technology Events: a Literature Review
Proceedings of the 26th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Portsmouth, England
Best Paper Nominee

View Abstract

Coping theory has been used to explain and predict the behaviors of users facing discrepant information technology (IT) events, i.e., unexpected, negative events that occur due to problems and difficulties when using such technology. However, researchers have examined coping by using a vast array of conceptualizations, discrepant IT events, coping strategies, and behaviors, which have led to considerable het-erogeneity in the existing literature. Therefore, the present paper demonstrates the results of a comprehensive literature review, identifying and analyzing 27 relevant investigations. The present literature review contributes to the literature by identifying six theoretical implications: (1) coping literature can subdivided into research streams on technostress, IT adoption and usage, and IT security, (2) the literature disagrees about the antecedents of coping strategies, (3) coping strategies are heterogeneous, (4) coping strategies show interdependences, (5) coping strategies show paradoxical effects, and (6) development of a framework of coping with discrepant IT events. In addition, the paper proposes new directions for future coping research for all three identified research streams.

Oehlhorn, C. (2018)
The Paradox Evaluation of IT Stereotypes - A Post-hoc Analysis of Women's Decision against IT Studies
Proceedings of the 24th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), New Orleans (LA), USA

Leyer, M., Beimborn, D., and Kettenbohrer, J. (2018)
Will Users of Process Management Systems Be More Innovative? A Study on Process Innovation and Process Orientation in the Financial Industry
Proceedings of the ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Buffalo - Niagara Falls, USA

View Abstract

How can the involvement of employees in process innovation be supported and fostered? In this study, we investigate how the use of business process management systems - tools to design, visualize and document business processes - leads to employees (= users) become more process oriented and thus get engaged in process innovation. Using data from a large-scale survey with 171 participants from the financial industry, we show that BPM system usage mainly drives users' involvement in process innovation implementation and championing but less in the true idea generation. Thus, our study contributes to the IT benefits literature in shifting the focus to individual use and 'softer', but yet highly important outcome dimensions (process innovation).

Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2018)
Organizational Reconfiguration and Knowledge Recombination for Digital Innovation
Proceedings of the Academy of Management Specialized Conference on Big Data and Managing in a Digital Economy, Surrey, UK

View Abstract

We address how organizational reconfiguration and external knowledge leverage is related to a firms' knowledge recombination ability and digital innovation success. To develop digital inno-vation, firms tap a variety of heterogeneous backgrounds to exploit the ease with which different knowledge fields can be represented as digital artifacts. We conceptualize that firms need to be aware of a fluid and dynamic recombination space that faces frequent adaptions and great time pressures incurred by customer demand. Therefore, the actors involved in the development process come from different sources from within and without the firm as the inclusion of digital technology challenges previously non-digital organizational innovation logics. We further theorize that a climate conducive to collaboration within the recombination space motivates all actors to engage in knowledge recombination.

Drechsler, K., Hund, A., and Wagner, H. (2018)
Championing Digital Innovation Success: The role of CDOs
Proceedings of the 22nd Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Yokohama, Japan

View Abstract

The disruptive nature of digital innovation has led incumbent organizations to face enormous challenges and pressure. To address the fundamentally new nature of digital innovations, incumbents have established new managerial roles, such as Chief Digital Officers (CDOs), to champion innovation. We explore the role these innovation champions play for digital innovation success and argue that internal reorganization and the sourcing of external knowledge constitute important mechanisms through which CDOs might contribute to organizations' digital innovation success. We will empirically test our proposed research model using longitudinal data on the world's largest companies. Our study is expected to contribute to literature on knowledge recombination and innovation management by examining how innovation champions at the C-level use internal reorganization and sourcing of external knowledge to enhance digital innovation success.

Demirbas, U., Gewald, H., and Moos, B. (2018)
The Impact of Digital Transformation on Sourcing Strategies in the Financial Services Sector: Revolution or Evolution?
Proceedings of the 24th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), New Orleans, LA, USA

View Abstract

Digital Transformation (DT) is a popular buzzword which is currently being discussed intensively in the financial sector. DT is associated with innovative digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud technologies or blockchain. In order to remain competitive banks are trying to adapt their strategies in accordance with the digital change. Of course this intention entails some changes which mainly affect outsourcing and thus the sourcing strategy. This paper scrutinizes the impact of DT on sourcing strategies in the financial sector. Therefore a sourcing strategy framework is developed and interviews are applied. The results show that DT impacts the sourcing strategy of banks e.g. the strategic intention to outsource shifts from cost reduction to innovation while offshoring activities becomes less necessary. Nevertheless at the end we can conclude that DT has an evolutionary effect rather than a revolutionary one.

Wirth, J., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2018)
The Influence of Resignation on the Privacy Calculus in the Context of Social Networking Sites: An Empirical Analysis
Proceedings of the 26th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Portsmouth,UK

View Abstract

Individuals conduct a privacy calculus before they disclose information by weighing benefits with privacy risks of disclosure. In line with the privacy calculus, if benefits outweigh privacy risks individuals disclose information, otherwise they do not. However, research has also challenged the privacy calculus because individuals also disclose information even in light of low benefits and high privacy risks. Given explanations refer to 1) altering the perceptions of benefits and privacy risks or 2) altering the effect of benefits and privacy risks on disclosure. Whereas studies focusing on the first part have provided explanations for why the privacy calculus is sometimes not confirmed, studies on the second part do not do so. This study is therefore considering the second part and is integrating an individual's level of resignation to protect one's privacy in the context of social networking sites. We consider resignation as a reaction of individuals to given privacy threats. Results show that when including resignation the effect of benefits becomes stronger and the effect of privacy risks becomes weaker. Implications for theory include that resignation helps in explaining why individuals disclose information even when only small benefits and high privacy risks are present.

Reitz, A., Jentsch, C., and Beimborn, D. (2018)
How to decompress the Pressure - The moderating Effect of IT Flexibility on the negative Impact of Governmental Pressure on Business Agility
Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island, Hawaii

View Abstract

In times of digital transformation banks need to behave agile and increase their speed in IT. At the same time, they are bound by an increasing number of regulatory rules at an increasing pace that force them to act carefully. Since governments frequently introduce new regulatory terms, especially in the finance sector, regulation is a changing phenomenon itself, which forces banks to adjust and change their systems constantly. To manage these challenges, we argue that successful businesses need to have a flexible IT architecture in place. This should enable them to update and reconfigure their systems in a cost effective and prompt manner. By doing this, they should be able to compensate for the regulatory pressure and remain agile. Based on an analysis of 119 survey results, we find that business agility is indeed lower for higher regulatory pressure and that this effect is mitigated by a flexible IT.

Holotiuk, F., Beimborn, D., and Jentsch, C. (2018)
The Determinants and Role of Agility in Digital Organizations
Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Portsmouth, UK

View Abstract

The changes in the business environment due to digital technologies and an increasing pace of innovation, have to be reflected in the organizational design of firms. In particular, agility has been put forward as an approach to cope with upcoming changes and to ensure organizational effectiveness in times of digitalization. We conceptualize agility as two types - detecting and reacting agility. In this paper, we analyze the organizational design and identify determinants for these two types of agility within the design. In our empirical study, we identified agility as a determinant of organizational effectiveness and discuss the relevance of agility in new forms of organizing in today's business environment. Our research is based on a quantitative study in the professional services industry where we conducted a survey with 217 respondents. The findings of our study carry theoretical contributions regarding the determinants of agility in the organizational design and the further delineation of detecting and reacting agility. Both of them carry essential importance for the design of digital organizations. Building on that, we derive managerial implications that yield the need to update the organizational design. In addition, we determine new forms of organizing and anchor agility as a management objective for digital organizations.

Müller, L., Mattke, J., and Maier, C. (2018)
Online Advertising Research Through the Ad Delivery Process: A Literature Review
Proceedings of the 18th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York, USA

Müller, L., Mattke, J., and Maier, C. (2018)
#Sponsored #Ad: Exploring the Effect of Influencer Marketing on Purchase Intention
Proceedings of the 24th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Mattke, J., Müller, L., and Maier, C. (2018)
Why do Individuals Avoid Social Media Advertising: A Qualitative Comparison Analysis Study
Proceedings of the 26th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)

View Abstract

Companies spend billions of dollars in social media advertising, yet some social media users actively avoid social media advertising for instance by scrolling over ads. To understand that, this research builds upon the advertising avoidance model and applies a qualitative comparison analysis (QCA) to identify configurations of perceptions of avoidance. We reveal disruption, distraction, excessiveness and lack of incentive as perceptions that are necessary - yet not sufficient for evoking the avoidance of social media advertising. Furthermore, we reveal three distinct configurations of perceptions that are sufficient and lead to avoidance of social media advertising. This research contributes by uncovering the influence of configurations on social media advertising avoidance and companies can use these findings to reduce the effect of social media users actively avoiding social media advertising.

Mattke, J., Müller, L., Maier, C., and Graser, H. (2018)
Avoidance of Social Media Advertising: A Latent Profile Analysis
Proceedings of the 18th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research

View Abstract

Some individuals actively avoid social media advertising, for instance by scrolling over ads or ignoring ads. Therefore, this research aims to identify distinct profiles of individuals avoiding social media advertising. We build upon the advertising avoidance model and take a person-centered approach, using latent profile analysis to identify different profiles of individuals, who avoid social media advertising. We identified three distinct profiles of individuals, differing in their perception and their level of avoidance: unconcerned users, playful avoiding users and goal-oriented users. We contribute by characterizing individuals avoiding SMA, so that companies can use these profiles to derive different strategies how to deal with different profiles of individuals.

Wirth, J. (2018)
Dependent Variables in the Privacy-Related Field: A Descriptive Literature Review
Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Waikoloa, Hawaii

View Abstract

As privacy is an ongoing issue of both society and research, there is a tremendous amount of research on privacy in the domain of information systems. A plethora of these studies has been conducted on privacy-related dependent variables. This descriptive literature review summarizes used dependent variables and gives a detailed analysis of the variables including the research setting, used theories, used methodologies, and used research designs. Results show among others that 1) some dependent variables are under-researched, 2) the majority is using intention to disclose as their dependent variable, 3) many articles are not grounded in a basic underlying theory and 4) the majority is using cross-sectional surveys as their research design. Based on the results several recommendations for future research are given, including to use certain dependent variables, to focus on actual disclosure behaviour and to conduct longitudinal studies.

Laumer, S., Gubler, F., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2018)
Job Seekers' Acceptance of Job Recommender Systems: Results of an Empirical Study
Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Waikoloa, Hawaii
Nominated for Best Paper

View Abstract

Based on UTAUT2 and the importance of trust to explain user behavior in relation to recommender systems, we focus on job recommender systems by developing and validating a job recommender system acceptance model. The results of our empirical, survey-based study with 440 job seekers indicate that beside performance expectancy and habit, trust is among the three most important determinants and it is especially relevant for women, passive job seekers and those without experience in using job recommender systems. The paper extends general trust and recommender system research by revealing three moderators for the trust and intention relationship. It contextualizes the UTAUT2 by incorporating trust as an antecedent of a consumer's intention to use and by revealing three moderating effects for this relationship. Hence, it is the basis for further studies investigating the acceptance of job recommender system, which has rather been neglected by prior research.

Oehlhorn, C. (2017)
Drawing on the Underrepresentation of Women in IT-Professions: An Analysis of Existing Knowledge and Need for Research along the Stages of Educational Systems
Proceedings of the 17th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Bengaluru, India

Oehlhorn, C., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2017)
Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Employer Branding for the Female IT Workforce to Counteract Skill Shortage and Support Diversity
Proceedings of the MISQE Special Issue workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Seoul, South Korea

Neugebauer, P., Maier, C., and Bumann, A. (2017)
Benchmark Proposal for Multi-Tenancy in the Database Layer
Proceedings of the 9th ZEUS Workshop, Lugano, Switzerland

View Abstract

The cloud is often utilized with the hope to increase the IT budget efficiency. The cloud service model Software as a Service in combination with its key feature multi-tenancy shines here brightly, but its adoption is complicated by the multiplicity of possible solutions. In detail, multiple multi-tenancy implementations meet many possible database systems requiring a reliable comparison to find the optimal solution. This article briefly explains multi-tenancy, its benefits and implementations. It also indicates through the results of a literature review that no benchmark for multi-tenancy implementations exists. It proposes and describes a benchmark and its setup to gain reliable results of the disk space usage and performance.

Jentsch, C., Beimborn, D., and Reitz, A. (2017)
Templates for joined work systems - How business process modularity and IT flexibility enable mutual understanding among business and IT
Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Seoul, South Korea

View Abstract

To increase the performance of IT-intensive organizations, a mutual understanding between business and IT professionals has proven to be crucially important. In turn, architecture management - leading to modularization and flexibilization of an organization's IT infrastructure - drives the level of mutual understanding. While previous studies agree on this finding, conceptualizations on mutual understanding are quite dispersed. In our study, we focus on the differing effects of business process modularity and IT flexibility on operational and strategic aspects of mutual understanding. We combine two theoretical lenses to describe this linkage: the template theory to explain the sense-making process and the work system theory to consider different perspectives on a business system. Based on 119 survey results, we find that modularity does not enable business/IT mutual understanding per se. It rather depends on a perfect match of functional and technical aspects. Thus, we determined limited effects of architecture management on mutual understanding.

Mattke, J., Müller, L., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2017)
Engagement with Social Ads: Explaining the Influence of Herding in Social Media Advertising
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Seoul, South Korea
(Research in Progress)
Best Paper Nominee

View Abstract

Social media uses social ads that are enriched with social media likes (SMLs). Yet, existing research on advertising cannot explain how SMLs influence individuals' engagement with social ads. We build upon herding literature and the theory of the strengths of ties and explain how the observation of social ads enriched with SMLs influences individuals' intention to engage with the social ad. This paper explains the effect 1) of the pure number of SMLs of a social ad and 2) the effect of SMLs from strongly or weakly tied friends on individuals' engagement with social ads. We thereby contribute to a better understanding why individuals click on social ads and provide practical implications for social media marketing' campaigns.

Wirth, J., and Maier, C. (2017)
The Influence of Resignation on the Privacy Calculus: A Research Approach
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Information Security and Privacy (SIGSEC) Workshop on Information Security and Privacy (WISP), Seoul, South Korea
(Research in Progress)

Wirth, J., Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2017)
Understanding Privacy Threat Appraisal and Coping Appraisal through Mindfulness
Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Seoul, South Korea
(Research in Progress)
Nominated for the Most Innovative Short Paper Award

View Abstract

Individuals differ in their motivation to protect their privacy. When facing privacy threats, individuals evaluate the threat (threat appraisal) and the extent they can cope with it (coping appraisal) which, in turn, influences their protection motivation. Hence, better understanding both appraisals helps us to better understand an important part of privacy behavior. We introduce the concept of mindfulness to explain privacy threat and coping appraisals. Mindfulness is hypothesized to increase both, threat appraisal and coping appraisal. A quantitative study is to be carried out to examine our hypotheses. We expect to contribute to the privacy literature by demonstrating how different levels of threat appraisal and coping appraisal are formed.

Maier, C., Wirth, J., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2017)
Personality and Technostress: Theorizing the Influence of IT Mindfulness
Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Seoul, South Korea
(Research in Progress)

View Abstract

Even though IT use has numerous benefits for users and organizations, such as improved performance and greater productivity, an increasing number of users experience IT use as a source of stress, i.e. technostress. Since such technostress can result in decreased user well-being, it is important to understand what leads individuals to perceive it. Based on psychology research suggesting user personality as a cause of stress perceptions, this research uses the Theory of Personality to investigate how user personality influences technostress. In developing our research model, we focus on the dynamic, context-specific trait IT mindfulness and on the degree to which this trait determines the perception of technostress. This study contributes to technostress research by revealing that user personality in general and IT mindfulness in particular are determinants of technostress, which organizations should account for to prevent employees from perceiving technostress.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2017)
Analyzing and managing IT-induced work system changes
Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Seoul, South Korea
(Teaching Case)

View Abstract

This teaching case explores the challenges of changing a work system by implementing an information system (IS). The case describes the approach implemented by "The Bank", a financial service provider, when it implemented a new financial and banking IS "SysOne", and thus fundamentally changed its work systems. The case is a real business scenario, which bases on case study research conducted by our research team and it adapts recent theoretical advances in the IS implementation literature. Using this teaching case should encourage students to discuss IS implementations from a general "system thinking" rather than a "tool thinking" perspective. An IS implementation is not just a new tool, it is a change of employees' work systems. This teaching case should guide students to extend the efforts implemented to guide employees when implementing an IS beyond the technology to focus on the major IT-induced work system changes and thereby enable successful technochange.

Großmann, M., Illig, S., and Matejka, C. (2017)
Environmental Monitoring of Libraries with MonTreAL
Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries, Thessaloniki, Greece

View Abstract

An ever-increasing amount of devices connected over the Internet pave the road towards the realization of the 'Internet of Things' (IoT) idea. With IoT, endangered infrastructures can easily be enriched with low-cost, energy-efficient monitoring solutions, thus alerting is possible before severe damage occurs. We developed a library wide humidity and temperature monitoring framework MonTreAL, which runs on commodity single board computers. In addition, our primary objectives are to enable flexible data collection among a computing cluster by migrating virtualization approaches of data centers to IoT infrastructures. We evaluate our prototype of the system MonTreAL at the University Library of Bamberg by collecting temperature and humidity data.

Müller, L., Mattke, J., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2017)
The Curse of Mobile Marketing: A Mixed Methods Study on Individuals' Switch to Mobile Ad Blockers
Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Seoul, Korea

View Abstract

Mobile marketing investment continues to rise steadily even though online publishers have not realized the desired returns, due to increased use of mobile ad blockers. In this study, we take a mixed methods approach, embracing qualitative, quantitative and configurational approaches, to understand why individuals switch to using mobile ad blockers. We draw on the pull-push-mooring model to evaluate what configurations of pull, push and mooring factors influence individuals' decision to switch to using mobile ad blockers, identifying four distinct configurations of influencing factors resulting in the intention to switch. Furthermore, we specify the unequal effects of influencing factors and validate the quality of our results. Our research deepens the theoretical understanding of the phenomenon of switching to mobile ad blockers and provides valuable implications to online publishers facing the challenge of rising mobile ad blocker use.

Jentsch, C., Reitz, A., and Beimborn, D. (2017)
The Impact of Process and IT Modularity for Mutual Understanding among Business and IT
Proceedings of the ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Bengaluru, India

View Abstract

Due to increasing specialization of business models, business systems nowadays can be very complex. To handle the extensive amount of information in a complex business system, the system needs to be supported by an appropriate IT system. However, for the IT unit it can be a challenging task to implement an appropriate IT system in complex business environment. In our research, we argue that mutual understanding among business and IT plays a critical role in the successful management of the business system. To achieve a mutual understanding, the complexity needs to be reduced by a modularization of the system. In our empirical study, based on 119 survey responses, we found that process modularity only in combination with an IT architecture that matches the modular process structure enables a profound mutual understanding. While modular business processes enable mutual understanding of the business strategy, an IT architecture which matches the modular process facilitates mutual understanding of the business process.

Jentsch, C. (2017)
The Impact of Agile Practices on Team Interaction Quality - Insights into a Longitudinal Case Study
Proceedings of the 23th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Boston, MA, USA

View Abstract

Since several years there is a trend of reorganizing the process of software development, by applying agile practices like scrum. These practices attempt to increase customer responsiveness and adaptability of the organization. In a longitudinal case study, I discuss the impact of commonly applied scrum practices on team interaction quality. I collected data in a software development project at three different times during the project. The findings indicate the potential longitudinal impact of scrum practices on team interaction quality and performance. First, the results indicate that daily meetings cannot fully compensate the benefits of colocation, which improves the information flow in a team. Second, the quality of the requirements development approach correlates with the degree of requirements fuzziness. Third, staff turnover does not necessarily impact team performance negatively. Fourth, scrum practices can even benefit in a highly regulated environment, in which agility is not an objective.

Mattke, J., Müller, L., and Maier, C. (2017)
Why do individuals block online ads? An explorative study to explain the use of ad blockers
Proceedings of the Twenty-third Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Boston, MA, USA

View Abstract

Ad blockers are a challenging trend for online publishers, as an increasing number of individuals use ad blockers. To understand why individuals switch to the use of ad blockers, this research presents empirical findings that explain why individuals develop switching intentions. Based on migration theory, we explain that individuals' intention to switch to the use of ad blockers are grounded in factors that pull individuals to use ad blockers, push them away from not using ad blockers, and mooring factors either hinder switching intention or determine how pull and push factors are translated in switching intentions. We conducted 42 interviews and identified relative user experience, increased performance, improved privacy protection and improved security as pull factors, dissatisfaction with online ads as push factor and computer self-efficacy as mooring factor. This contributes to theory by providing an explanation why individuals develop to ad blocker users.

Renner, D. (2017)
Predictors for motivation to learn in the context of technology-related training - an exploratory study in the healthcare sector
Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Guimarães, Portugal

View Abstract

Technology-related training in the healthcare sector is crucial. Based on the high job responsibility and the variety of healthcare professionals with regards to different job roles, tasks etc., the assurance of positive learning outcomes can be a challenge. Prior research shows that motivation to learn is a predictor for positive learning outcomes. Therefore, a literature review is done to show the current state of the art. In the next step and to identify the healthcare professionals' predictors for motivation to learn, an exploratory study is done. 18 French healthcare professionals are interviewed by using semi-structured interviews. Based on the results, several propositions are concluded which suggest that self-efficacy, personal and professional development and learner characteristics are predictors for motivation to learn as well as the environment for learning and working environment conditions.

Wirth, J. (2017)
Strength of Ties as an Antecedent of Privacy Concerns: A Qualitative Research Study
Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Boston, MA, USA

View Abstract

Previous research has indicated that the relationship between individuals might influence privacy concerns of individuals. In particular, the tie strength between the individual who is about to disclose information (discloser) and the individual who is potentially receiving the information (potential co-owner), might determine privacy concerns of the discloser. The discloser and the potential co-owner might be tied up strongly, weakly or not at all. We set up a qualitative research study, asking disclosers in how far tie strength determines their privacy concerns. The results prove that weak ties mainly increase privacy concerns of disclosers, whereas strong and absent ties mainly only increase privacy concerns in certain situations. We therefore contribute to the under-researched field of antecedents of privacy concerns by presenting strength of tie as an additional antecedent.

Wirth, J., and Maier, C. (2017)
Why individuals switch to using mobile payment: A migration-theoretic, empirical study
Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Boston, MA, USA

View Abstract

With mobile payment, individuals can buy goods and services through the use of a mobile device and wireless technology. Still, although the usage of mobile payment provides several advantages, such as a more convenient and faster paying-process, it is hardly used. Individuals rather stick with their current payment method, such as cash, EC card or credit card. In this study, we therefore try to find out, what factors would bring individuals to switch from their current payment method to mobile payment. We rely on the pull-push-mooring framework to depict the migration process from the current payment method to mobile payment. The results prove that dissatisfaction with the current payment method has a rather low influence on the intention to switch to mobile payment in comparison with other factors such as perceived usefulness or alternative attractiveness. Furthermore, switching costs have a negative influence on the intention to switch to mobile payment.

Wirth, J. (2017)
Individuals' Beliefs and Actions in Respect to Privacy: A Research Agenda
Proceedings of the Doctoral Consortium WI, St. Gallen, CH

Dürr, S., Wagner, H., Weitzel, T., and Beimborn, D. (2017)
Navigating Digital Innovation - The Complementary Effect of Organizational and Knowledge Recombination
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, St. Gallen, CH

Renner, D., and Laumer, S. (2017)
Development and Test of a Semi-structured Explorative Survey Methodology to Analyze Appropriate Learning Methods for Technology-related Training across the Phases of Technology Use
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, St. Gallen, CH

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Training is regarded as an indicator for organizations' performance. To analyze appropriate learning methods for technology-related training across the phases of technology use we develop a semi-structured, explorative survey methodology. The methodology is tested with a sample of 53 healthcare professionals from China, France and the USA. Based on that, lessons learnt are concluded that confirm the usefulness of the methodology for research and practice. In addition, further improvements and enlargements of the methodology are illustrated in this paper as basis for further research.

Oehlhorn, C., Laumer, S., and Maier, C. (2017)
About Well-considered Decisions, Favorable Alternatives and Sudden Ideas: A Qualitative Research to Identify Beliefs that Influence Women to Study Information Systems in Germany
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, St. Gallen, CH

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Our research reveals motivational beliefs that influenced the decision to study information systems of female students in Germany. We apply a qualitative methodology in form of narrative interviews and interviewed 21 female students at a German university. On the basis of the theory of planned behavior, our results expose that a range of different beliefs exist which influenced the women's decision. We are able to expand the results of previous studies to the German context regarding especially normative beliefs, alternate choices or prior experiences dealing with information technology. In addition, we also uncover a couple of new beliefs that had not been revealed before.

Laumer, S., Shami, N., Muller, M., and Geyer, W. (2017)
The Challenge of Enterprise Social Networking (Non-)Use at Work: A Case Study of How to Positively Influence Employees' Enterprise Social Networking Acceptance
Proceedings of the Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Portland, Oregon, USA

Kettenbohrer, J., Beimborn, D., and Leyer, M. (2016)
Examining the Impact of Business Process Management System Use on Employees' Process Orientation
Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Dublin, Ireland

View Abstract

Many companies aim to switch from a function towards a process orientation, as the latter provides many benefits for organizations. However, many of these projects fail because of a missing process-oriented mindset among employees. To create the relevant mindset and foster process-oriented thinking, organizations can apply several learning modes. Another promising approach is the use of a business process management (BPM) system to gain a process orientation among employees. Our study aims to examine the role of a BPM system along with job construals (a high perception of embeddedness of their own tasks in the overall process) as a mediator regarding the process orientation of employees. We use data from a survey of 1,170 employees of a multinational company to show that the use of a BPM system as well as job construals has a significant positive effect on employees' process orientation.

Weinert, C., Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2016)
Is Information Technology Solely to Blame? The Influence of Work-home Conflict Dimensions on Work Exhaustion
Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Dublin, Ireland

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Using information technology (IT) can blur the boundaries between work and private life and contribute to an IT-based work-home conflict (WHC). Organizations and governments treat IT usage as the main source of WHC and have implemented laws and policies to restrict access to IT to reduce WHC. In this paper, we investigate the effect of IT usage-related and work-based dimensions of WHC: time-, strain-, and behavior-based WHC. Understanding the dimensions of WHC can help organizations and governments move beyond IS usage restrictions to identify and prevent the negative consequences of each dimension for employees, such as work exhaustion. We distinguish IT- from work-based dimensions and theorize their effect on work exhaustion. The results of a study of 542 employees show that the IT-based dimension of WHC only indirectly influences work exhaustion, whereas time- and strain-based WHC contribute significantly and directly to work exhaustion. Implications for research and practice are suggested.

Renner, D., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2016)
The Appropriateness of Blended Learning across the Phases of Technology Use
Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Dublin, Ireland

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Healthcare professionals are characterized compared to other professionals through their continuous need of training due to constantly implementing complex technologies, which have a direct impact on patients’ well-being. In this context blended learning has been already successfully used. Nevertheless, less is known regarding the appropriateness of blended learning over the phases of healthcare technology. Therefore, we conducted a semi-structured, explorative survey, using a mixed method research design and interviewed 16 healthcare professionals of three Chinese hospitals. We focus in our survey on the appropriateness of traditional and online learning methods across different phases of technology use. Based on our results we conclude three propositions regarding blended learning. The propositions indicate that the appropriateness of traditional and online learning methods differs according to the phases of technology use, the healthcare professionals’ user role and the complexity of the healthcare technology used.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2016)
The influence of change-related stress on user resistance when an enterprise system is implemented: a longitudinal field study
Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Dublin, Ireland

View Abstract

When an enterprise system is implemented employees often respond with user resistance behavior. As employees’ work environment are changed significantly they also experience stress during an implementation. However, neither technostress nor user resistance research have focused on the stress related to the change induced by an enterprise system implementation. Hence, it is not known how change-related stress results in user resistance behavior and thus prevents organizations from managing the implementation process sufficiently. Therefore, we provide a research model that theorizes the influence of change characteristics, such as change complexity, switching costs and switching benefits, on change-related work overload and role ambiguity as change stressors, which in turn determines employees change-induced exhaustion. When this exhaustion is perceived as a threat user resistance behavior will occur. Using a longitudinal field study with 273 employees during an enterprise system implementation we provide empirical evidence for the proposed model.

Jentsch, C., and Beimborn, D. (2016)
It is all about the Game - An Exploratory Study on the Impact of Task Characteristics on the Dimensions of Business/IT Shared
Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 24nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)

View Abstract

While research and practitioners agree that there needs to be shared understanding (SU) between business and IT in any type of collaboration to achieve high performance, empirical studies ex-amining SU have always focused on specific contexts. Thus, the literature has so far remained silent about a more generalized concept of SU that can be applied to different research contexts - like strategic planning, software development projects, or IT operations. Based on a generic multi-dimensional conceptualization of the SU construct, our research objective is to analyze the influence of two contextual characteristics - complexity and relevance - of a collaborative task between business and IT on the importance of these different SU dimensions. In this explorative research we exploit data from 21 case studies, in which we analyze the formation and influence of SU dimensions related to the context of the collaborative task. We find that different aspects in the conceptualization of shared understanding become more (or less) important when changing the task characteristics. Thus, our findings indicate that the importance of SU cannot be discussed separately from the practical context in which SU is created and utilized.

Weinert, C. (2016)
Coping the Dark Side of IT Usage - Mitigating the Effect of Technostress
Proceedings of the Doctoral Consortium ACM SIGMIS CPR Conference, Alexandria, Virgnia USA
(Research in Progress)

Kettenbohrer, J., Kloppenburg, M., and Beimborn, D. (2016)
The Effect of Process Ownership Assignment on Business Process Standardization Success
Proceedings of the 22nd Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Diego (CA)
(Research in Progress)

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Many organizations aim to standardize their processes to increase performance. Organizational governance is an important driver for successful business process standardization. A central role within this governance structure is performed by the process owner who is responsible for the definition of processes. In this paper, the effect of different possible configurations of assigning process ownership in an existing organizational multi-level hierarchical structure is analyzed by conducting an embedded case study. The most important finding was that in most cases process ownership was assigned to a person who was already line manager for a single business unit which was responsible for executing a part of or the whole process. Thus, responsibility for the process itself and for the required resources (e.g., personnel) was combined. Based on these findings, we plan to conduct a study to analyze the impact of the different process ownership assignments on the success of process standardization.

Kettenbohrer, J. (2016)
A Literature-Based Analysis of People's Roles in Business Process Management
Proceedings of the 22nd Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Diego (CA)

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A lot of organizations strive for process orientation to increase their performance. The change from func-tion orientation towards process orientation is a huge project which considers changes in organizational structures but also used information technologies. But many companies struggle by implementing and operating processes successfully. In the last years, culture has examined extensively to be one of the drivers for successful process management. In this context, people have been identified as an important factor for the success of process initiatives. Despite their relevance, only scarce research deals with people as a distinct and fundamental factor in process management as well as in the overall project to achieve process orientation. Goal of this paper is to analyze the different roles of people in process management. Therefore, a literature review is conducted to provide an overview of existing research.

Oehlhorn, C., Maier, C., Wirth, J., Laumer, S., and Dürr, S. (2016)
A Temptation to Stalk: The Impact of Curiosity on User Acceptance of Social Networking Sites
Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 22nd Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Diego (CA)

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Social networking sites occupy increasing fields of daily life and act as important communication channels today. But recent research also discusses the dark side of these sites, which expresses in form of stress, envy, addiction or even depression. Nevertheless, there must be a reason why people use social networking sites, even though they face related risks. One reason is human curiosity that tempts users to behave like this. The research on hand presents the impact of curiosity on user acceptance of social networking sites, which is theorized and empirically evaluated by using the technology acceptance model and a quantitative study among Facebook users. It further reveals that especially two types of human curiosity, epistemic and interpersonal curiosity, influence perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment, and with it technology acceptance.

Dürr, S., Oehlhorn, C., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2016)
A Literature Review on Enterprise Social Media Collaboration in Virtual Teams: Challenges, Determinants, Implications and Impacts
Proceedings of the 16th ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Alexandria (VA), USA

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This literature review focusses research on Enterprise Social Media (ESM) and its use within virtual teams. The paper includes results from 38 articles outlining the existing body of knowledge and showing the steady progress in this research field. Previous literature often thematizes the external use of social media and technological aspects, but this research concentrates on the internal collaborative use, its challenges, related determinants, managerial implications and its impact on business. Existing research illustrates key factors in each of the previously mentioned subjects. However, as research should consider the entire field, a research agenda for further studies in this ESM topic is developed.

Kettenbohrer, J., Beimborn, D., and Eckhardt, A. (2016)
Examining the Influence of Perceived Job Characteristics on Employees' Process Orientation
Proceedings of the 24th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Istanbul, Turkey

View Abstract

A lot of companies struggle by shifting the focus from function orientation to process orientation, especially due to missing process-oriented thinking and behavior of their employees. While, enhancing employees' knowledge about processes by training and empowerment has been considered as the sole adjusting screw to influence process orientation, the characteristics of the jobs, in which the employees work, were not considered in the same extent. As the daily job and its related characteristics represent the core of individuals' working life, we examine in our paper how these perceived job characteristics influence employees' process orientation. Therefore, we develop a research model on the influence of five job characteristics - autonomy, feedback, skill variety, task identity, task significance - on employees' process orientation and evaluate the model by using data from a field survey with 191 employees of a global service company of the aviation industry. The results depict that autonomy, feedback and task significance are all significant predictors for individuals' process orientation. By considering job characteristics, organizations can successfully shift from function orientation towards process orientation.

Laumer, S. (2016)
Information Quality Dimensions: Two exploratory Case Studies with Enterprise Content Management System Users
Proceedings of the 24th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Istanbul
Best Paper Award Nominee

View Abstract

Using two explorative case studies we theorize in this paper about information quality as one variable of the IS success model explaining user satisfaction. We derive four dimensions of information quality which have a diverse and unique impact on user satisfaction: information characteristics, information access and security, information format, and task-information fit. Moreover, we identify contextual factors such as the pace of information change and update, legal and compliance requirements, and employees' skills which determine the importance of each dimensions for explaining user satisfaction. This more nuanced view of information quality as one component of the IS success model enables a better guidance of organizations in improving information quality to increase user satisfaction. Therefore, several organizational interventions are discussed that can be used to improve information quality by focusing on each of the four unique information quality dimensions separately.

Weinert, C., Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2015)
What happens when users are not able to perform coping mechanisms? An investigation of the habituation process
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Forth Worth, TX, USA
(Research in Progress)
Best Paper Nominee

View Abstract

In some situations individuals are unable to perform coping mechanisms against technostress because of low controllability and resources. Thereby, they are repeatedly exposed to technology-related stimuli named IT-stressors, which should result in several user responses such as emotional exhaustion, physiological arousal, and poor performance. However, in these situations individuals might habituate to the IT-stressor such that the user responses are mitigated. We assume that the influence of the IT-stressor on emotional exhaustion, physiological arousal, and performance is moderated by this habituation effect. Therefore, we propose an experimental setting in which individuals are repeatedly exposed to a computer breakdown to which they might get used to over time. During the experiment, we draw on self-reporting and objective methods to capture user responses after each exposure to the IT-stressor, in order to analyze the change of the user responses across time. Thereby, we expect the results to contribute to technostress and coping literature.

Weinert, C., Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2015)
Implicit Attitudes: An Investigation of Implicit Attitudes and Their Influences on Behavioral Intentions
Proceedings of the 14th Annual HCI/MIS Research Workshop (Pre-ICIS-Workshop), Forth Worth, TX, USA

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Attitudes are one of the three most-frequently studied antecedence of user behavior. Most of the investigations in the research stream of IS acceptance and usage have a pure focus on explicit attitudes, although psychological literature distinguishes between explicit and implicit attitudes. These unconscious automatic associations individuals make between an attitude object and its favorable or unfavorable evaluation are not taken into consideration in IS acceptance and usage literature. Hence, the present research zooms into the attitude construct by distinguishing between explicit and implicit attitudes and investigates their influences on behavioral intentions. Based on the Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) and a survey, we conducted a study that captures explicit and implicit attitudes, to evaluate the research model. The research reveals that explicit and implicit attitudes are distinct constructs and that not only explicit but also implicit attitudes have an effect on behavioral intention towards using the IS.

Wirth, J., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2015)
Influence of laziness on data disclosure: an empirical investigation
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Forth Worth, TX, USA
(Research in Progress)

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"Smart devices think you're 'too lazy' to opt out of privacy Defaults". This was the headline of a recent news article indicating that individuals might be too lazy to stop disclosing their private data and therefore to care about their information privacy (IP). IP is an ongoing topic and has become even more important since Edward Snowden has shown that government agencies examine all digital communication worldwide. Nevertheless, research has been found out that individuals still disclose their data although they are concerned about their IP which is commonly referred to the IP paradox. In this research in progress we will research on the question whether individuals might just be too lazy to take care about their IP by not disclosing their data as it was indicated by recent news articles. Results will have implications for the IP research stream by better explaining data disclosure behavior and hence also contribute to the research stream about the IP paradox.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., Wirth, J., and Weitzel, T. (2015)
A work system theory perspective on user satisfaction: Using multiple case studies to propose a work system success model
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Forth Worth, TX, USA

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In this paper we use multiple case studies and apply work system theory to them to better understand user satisfaction in each case. Based on the IS success model and the three case studies we conclude that beside the classic investigated objects information and technology as proposed by the IS success model also additional component of a work system influence user satisfaction. In particular we identified that work practices and also the relation between work practices, information and technologies have an influence on user satisfaction. We also revealed products/services and customers as potential drivers of user satisfaction and analyzed individual, environmental, strategical, and infrastructure characteristics as important contextual factors. Therefore, we suggest a work system success model for an extended understanding of user satisfaction that should better guide organizations when designing and implementing information systems.

Kettenbohrer, J., and Beimborn, D. (2015)
Investigating the Role of Inertia in Business Process Standardization Initiatives
Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Fort Worth, USA
(Research in Progress)

View Abstract

Business process standardization (BPS) is an important instrument for transforming an organization from function orientation to process orientation. But, standardization initiatives' implementation success is highly volatile. One major reason for failure is the behavior and the underlying job-related attitude of the affected employees. Recent research examining BPS implementation success proposes that different factors of employees' current jobs (e.g., job characteristics) influence employees' acceptance of BPS-induced changes. Besides these motivational aspects, IS research has shown that non-adoption of a system is influenced by inertia of the employees. Our research-in-progress paper draws on these findings and aims to analyze the role of inertia in the context of BPS. The contribution of this paper lies in developing a theoretical model for understanding the determinants of individual inertia in the context of BPS. By knowing the influential factors, we will be able to derive adjustable screws for practitioners to successfully implement process standardization initiatives.

Kloppenburg, M., Kettenbohrer, J., Beimborn, D., and Bögle, M. (2015)
Leading 20,000+ employees by a process-oriented management system - insights to process management at Lufthansa Technik Group
Proceedings of the 13th Business Process Management Workshops (used to be: Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM)), Innsbruck, Austria
Best Industry Paper

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As technical division of the Lufthansa Group, Lufthansa Technik and its 30 subsidiaries have to fulfill a wide variety of legislative and normative requirements. To demonstrate and ensure compliance with these requirements, Lufthansa Technik introduced the process-oriented integrated management system IQ MOVE and modeled a wide range of its processes in a plain and simple to understand methodology. Primary target group of the system are the employees who shall find all relevant procedures quickly and easily. To achieve this vision, the system is designed to increase involvement of all relevant roles (i.e., process owners, process architects, process managers, employees, and process modelers) into the creation of the content. A complementary governance model, the Framework for Assignment of Responsibilities (FAR+), enables a clear assignment of process management tasks and thus helps trengthen process management abilities and sustainability of their implementation. Based on IQ MOVE, Lufthansa Technik is able to facilitate process standardization and to lead 20,000+ employees around the world in a process-oriented way.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2015)
Successfully Implementing Enterprise Content Management: Lessons Learnt from a Financial Service Provider
Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Fort Worth, TX, USA

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Information overload and content chaos are major challenges for organizations, as they have to deal with a high amount of unstructured content. With enterprise content management (ECM) systems, a technological solution is developed to deal with such challenges; however, these systems can only provide value to an organization if they are implemented in the context of an ECM strategy. In this paper the implementation of a new ECM strategy at a financial service provider is described to illustrate how organizations can on the one side design an ECM strategy that reduces information overload and content chaos and on the other side implement it successfully. The four keys for successfully implementing ECM based on the lessons learnt derived are an ECM team leading the change process, the acceptance of users by meeting the organization’s business needs, a metadata taxonomy enabling dynamic content delivery, and an effective change management from the outset.

Dugan, C., Laumer, S., Erickson, T., Kellogg, W., and Geyer, W. (2015)
The #selfiestation: Design and Use of a Kiosk for Taking Selfies in the Enterprise
Proceedings of the INTERACT 2015, Bamberg, Germany

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This paper describes the design and use of the #selfiestation, a kiosk for taking selfies. Deployed in an office of a large enterprise, its use was studied through analysis of 821 photos taken by 336 users over 24 weeks and interviews with 10 users. The findings show high adoption amongst residents (81.5%); describe selfie usage patterns (funatics, communicators, check-ins, doppelgangers, and groupies); illustrate social photo-taking behavior (78.6% of users posed as part of groups, and those who did took almost four times as many photos); and raises questions for future investigations into flexibility in self-representation over time. Office residents seeing social and community building value in selfies suggests that they have a place in the enterprise.

Lüders, P., Jentsch, C., and Beimborn, D. (2015)
Measuring Outsourcing Relationship Quality: Towards a Social Network Analysis Approach
Proceedings of the 21th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Puerto Rico, USA

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Outsourcing initiatives are complex undertakings requiring careful management of the client/vendor relationship. While monitoring the vendor's performance is a common practice, insight into the status of the 'soft' aspects of the relationship, such as trust, is often not available, although research highlights the social aspects as a critical success factor. However, monitoring the softer facets' quality is difficult: Vendor managers track the status of the soft aspects, if at all, using survey tools among involved staff. This has shortcomings because it does not only capture subjective perceptions, but also interrupts the daily business of the participants. To develop a more objective instrument that collects data without interfering daily business, we draw on social network analysis. We suggest an approach that will eventually allow managers to monitor relationship quality in an efficient and objective way. The results suggest metrics to measure the soft factors of a relationship, such as trust and commitment.

Lajtkep, F., Beimborn, D., Jentsch, C., and Stimmer, J. (2015)
I choose you - Developing a rating system for software outsourcing arrangements of SMEs
Proceedings of the 21th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Puerto Rico, USA

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The market for outsourcing of IT services constantly grows with one of the major outsourced services being software development, often to emerging economies. Even though the benefits of outsourced software development can be an important incentive there still exist great risks especially for smaller businesses that generally do not obtain the necessary experiences to manage or even find an adequate provider. Thus, the objective of our study is to compile a holistic framework that covers all relevant aspects in the evaluation of a software provider in the context of outsourcing of software development. In order to reuse already proven evaluation concepts the paper identifies nine useful models for evaluating performance or service quality. Based on those, a dedicated model is developed which takes further practical factors in consideration. Through a survey with outsourcing experts the relative importance of the included dimensions and factors were determined.

Kettenbohrer, J., Fischer, D., Beimborn, D., and Kloppenburg, M. (2015)
How Social Software Can Support Business Process Management - Developing a Framework
Proceedings of the 21th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Puerto Rico

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Solving complex tasks by collaborative teams is an important organizational capability. Beside traditional team work, an organization's collective intelligence can be supported by social software technologies. Within business process management (BPM), social software can be used to support the different lifecycle steps of a business process. In this paper, we introduce a framework which shows possible opportunities for social software to contribute to effective BPM. An expert workshop was conducted to receive a first evaluation of the framework. The combination of social software and BPM is supposed to improve the functional performance of IT systems for BPM and the employees' acceptance for BPM systems.

Wirth, J., Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2015)
Drivers and Consequences of Frustration When Using Social Networking Services: A Quantitative Analysis of Facebook Users
Proceedings of the 21th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Puerto Rico

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In this study drivers and consequences of frustration, a negative emotion when using information technology (IT), are theorized and empirically evaluated in a social networking services (SNS) usage context. For example, when users are frustrated by using SNS they might stop using these services. As the number of users mainly determines the value of SNS this paper focuses on frustration while using SNS. It is assumed that both technology and social aspects of SNS usage determine whether users feel frustrated. Empirical evidence can be provided that perceived enjoyment, envy, information overload, and social overload are antecedents of the sentiment frustration. It is also argued that frustration while using SNS will lead to dissatisfaction and discontinued usage. Based on the empirical evidence for this cohesion the paper discusses its theoretical contribution in terms of that discontinuous usage behavior is a coping strategy applied by users to minimize the frustration sentiment.

Kettenbohrer, J. (2015)
The Human Side of Business Process Standardization
Proceedings of the 2015 Doctoral Consortium WI, Würzburg

Weinert, C., Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2015)
Extending Moore's Exhaustion Model: Including Further Dimensions of Burnout and Investigating Their Influence on Turnover Intention Among IT Professionals
Proceedings of the 2015 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Newport Beach, California USA

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This research focuses on burnout as a driver of turnover intention amongst IT professionals. We extend Moore's exhaustion model by including further dimensions of burnout into the model, namely depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. The effect of stressors on these dimensions and the original dimension of emotional exhaustion is investigated, as is their influence on turnover intention among IT professional. Results based on a data sample of 154 IT professionals show that not only emotional exhaustion but also depersonalization leads to turnover intention. This outcome cannot be neglected when trying to reduce turnover intention in an organization in order to maintain competitive advantages. Moreover, while the stressors suggested by Moore influence emotional exhaustion, they only slightly explain the dimensions of depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. This indicates that these two dimensions of burnout are caused by additional factors, which represents a research gap worth investigating in future research.

Weinert, C., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2015)
Do we behave based on our implicit attitudes? Proposing a research model and an experimental study to investigate their influence on behavioral intentions
Proceedings of the 23rd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Münster
(Research in Progress)

View Abstract

Attitudes are one of the three most-frequently studied independent variables to explain user behavior. However, although psychological literature distinguishes between explicit and implicit attitudes, most of the investigations in the research stream of IS acceptance and usage have a pure focus on explicit attitudes and do not consider implicit attitudes. Explicit and implicit attitudes can be contradictory and both might predict behavioral intention. Therefore, the present research-in-progress focuses on closing the research gap of refraining to differentiate attitudes in explicit and implicit attitudes and hence examining the influence of implicit attitudes on user behavior. Based on the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and surveys, we propose an experimental setting that measures explicit and implicit attitudes to validate the research model. The proposed research might contribute to the research stream of IS acceptance and usage by better predicting behavioral intentions by also considering implicit attitudes. Future results might explain distorted predictions of behavior and reduce the intention behavior gap. Furthermore, the present research-in-progress introduces a suitable method to measure implicit attitudes.

Kettenbohrer, J., Beimborn, D., and Eckhardt, A. (2015)
Analyzing the impact of job characteristics on employees' acceptance of process standardization
Proceedings of the 23rd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Münster

View Abstract

Business Process Standardization (BPS) leads to significant changes in employees' working environment which affect acceptance for such initiatives. Organizational psychology and management research have examined the influence of work design on employee behavior (e.g., turnover). Based on that, we develop a model to analyze the impact of job characteristics, such as skill variety, autonomy, or task significance, on BPS acceptance. We surveyed employees of a non-profit organization during a process standardization initiative. As main contribution, this research shows that skill variety is the most important job characteristic for determining BPS acceptance.

Weinert, C., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2015)
What does the skin tell us about information systems usage? A literature-based analysis of the utilization of electrodermal measurement for IS research
Proceedings of the 2015 Gmunden retreat on NeuroIS, Gmunden, Austria

View Abstract

The term NeuroIS appears more frequently within the field of information system (IS). NeuroIS describes the idea of applying cognitive neuroscience theories, methods, and tools to obtain physiological responses of the user while using IS. However, before adopting these methods into IS research, a proper assessment is necessary to determine whether the methods used in other disciplines are also applicable to IS research. The present research introduces the method of measuring the electrodermal activity (EDA). Thereby, the physiology and different measurement parameters are described. By identifying the use of EDA within other disciplines, the present research reveals application areas for EDA in six different research streams in IS research and poses further research questions, which might be answer by applying EDA in these areas.

Jentsch, C., Schlosser, F., and Beimborn, D. (2015)
Applying a configurational approach for explaining the role of relationship quality for successful outsourcing arrangements
Proceedings of the 9th Global Sourcing Workshop, La Thuile, Italy

View Abstract

Relationship quality dimensions like trust or commitment have been proven to be crucial determinants for the success of outsourcing arrangements. Most previous empirical studies focus on the success of relationship quality dimensions within a specific contextual outsourcing arrangement. We argue that the importance and formation of each relationship quality dimension highly depend on the contextual background of the particular study. To substantiate this contingency argument, we conducted 16 interviews with managers in different types of out-sourcing arrangements and questioned them about their understanding of relationship quality. Linking managers' statements with their outsourcing background, we found several configurational patterns that describe the different roles of relationship quality for successful outsourcing

Kettenbohrer, J., Eckhardt, A., and Beimborn, D. (2015)
A Theoretical Perspective on Meaningfulness of Work and the Success of Business Process Standardization Initiatives
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Osnabrück

View Abstract

Business Process Standardization (BPS) leads to organizational changes, which are often faced with employee resistance. To make BPS initiatives successful, the 'human resource' has to be taken into consideration and with it, the job process fulfilled by them, their needs, and their work environment. The objective of this research is to analyze the role of employees affected by BPS initiatives and their perceptions of their work they are doing as part of the processes to be standardized. Based on job characteristics theory and the work-role fit concept, we develop a research model theorizing the role of these concepts for the acceptance of BPS initiatives. As main theoretical contribution, this research explains how employees' job-related attitudes toward their own work and the collaborations with others determine their (non-)openness towards BPS initiatives, while it will also guide managers in incorporating the 'right' people into a BPS project.

Renner, D., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2015)
Blended Learning Success: Cultural and Learning Style Impacts
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Osnabrück

View Abstract

Corporate education in international organizations faces a lot of challenges which are hoped to be addressed by using blended learning concepts. However, the heterogeneity of an international workforce in terms of culture and learning style opposes this objective. Therefore, this research-in-progress paper focuses on cultural and learning style impacts on learning success when using blended learning in organizations. Based on first theoretical ideas of a blended learning success model the impact of culture and learning style on learning outcome is theorized and analyzed using an empirical study conducted with 81 employees of an international organization. The results reveal that national culture has an impact on blended learning success and therefore a cultural sensitive design of blended learning environments is necessary. The results are the basis for further research to develop a blended learning success model including cultural and learning style aspects as it is described in the paper.

Weinert, C., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2015)
Why are teleworkers stressed? An empirical analysis of the causes of telework-enabled stress
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Osnabrück

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Despite the wide dissemination and acceptance of teleworking, there are negative effects for employees. Literature shows that these negative effects of telework lead to undesired outcomes for teleworkers such as telework-exhaustion. The present research, however, goes one step further by identifying three significant telework-characteristics and hypothesizing the relationship between telework-characteristics and telework-enabled stressors. By doing so, one can understand the reason why telework-enabled stressors are perceived and identify the source of these stressors, which can then be counteracted to maintain the advantages of teleworking. Therefore, this research investigates the influence of the following telework-characteristics - information undersupply, autonomy, and isolation - on telework-enabled stressors and accordingly on telework-exhaustion and on the intention to continue teleworking. Results of an analysis on 310 teleworkers show that telework-characteristics influence telework-enabled stressors and accordingly increase the extent of telework-exhaustion and decrease the intention to continue teleworking.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weinert, C. (2015)
Enterprise resource planning systems induced stress: a comparative empirical analysis with young and elderly SAP users
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Osnabrück

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In this research study we investigate whether and how ERP system characteristics cause its users to experience stress. In order to do so, we analyze a research model explaining enterprise resource planning systems induced stress with an empirical study in two organizations (N=227). The results reveal that usefulness, complexity, reliability, and pace of change are important ERP system characteristics leading to the perception of stressors and exhaustion. Furthermore, our comparative empirical analysis with young and elderly ERP users indicate that the elderly ones perceive ERP characteristics more negatively and are more stressed and exhausted than the younger users.

Buettner, R., Sauer, S., Maier, C., and Eckhardt, A. (2015)
Towards ex ante Prediction of User Performance: A novel NeuroIS Methodology based on Real-Time Measurement of Mental Effort
Proceedings of the 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

Wagner, H., and Moos, B. (2015)
Social capital and usefulness of external knowledge: The moderating role of group affiliation
Proceedings of the 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

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Studies show that social capital facilitates access to internal and external knowledge and in turn increases business value. In that respect, studies show that companies sharing some similarities such as organizational values and practices may benefit more than companies differing in various aspects. In particular, group affiliations have been shown to influence performance in specific contexts but results are mixed at best. In addition, the question of how the influence of social capital on transferring useful external knowledge might be moderated by closer affiliations between companies is virtually not addressed. Employing a survey among manufacturing companies, this paper contributes to extant research by demonstrating a moderating effect of group affiliations on the relationship between social capital and useful external knowledge.

Wirth, J., Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2014)
Using a work system theory perspective to review 25 years of technology acceptance research: proposing a research agenda
Proceedings of the 2014 Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Auckland, New Zealand

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IT projects still often fail and do not generate the expected value due to the lack of user acceptance. From the point of view of the work system theory (WST) this might be grounded in the fact that in current technology acceptance research IT is treated as a technical artifact and not as part of a work system. Therefore, we set up a literature review to reflect 25 years of research since the introduction of its most prominent model to discuss in how far a work system theory perspective on technology acceptance research might help to explore possible research gaps. Our results reveal that the technology acceptance model (TAM) is still the predominant model in technology acceptance research and therefore the classic components of a work system namely participants, information and technology and the relation between these components have been researched very well. However, we found out that work practices and also the relation between work practices, participants, information and IT in relation to technology acceptance, which can have an influence on technology acceptance as well, have rather been neglected in current research. We also identified products/services and customers as potential drivers of user acceptance. We derive six propositions that can be further theorized and evaluated by technology acceptance research. Consequently, we conclude that a WST perspective on technology acceptance research is appropriate to discuss the acceptance of IT, which is part of a work system in which participants produce products or services for customers.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2014)
Why are they grumbling about my new system? Theoretical foundation and empirical evidence of employee grumbling as a user resistance behavior
Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Auckland, New Zealand

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This research theorizes employee grumbling as a user resistance phenomenon observed during early information system (IS) implementation phases. When the usage of new IS is mandatory, user resistance cannot be observed when focusing technology usage, instead, employees protest against the IS implementation, or spoke rather negatively of it. This form of user resistance behavior is conceptualized by the newly proposed variable employee grumbling, which provides a different perspective on user resistance that can be used especially in early implementation phases to observe resistance behaviors. Perceived ease of use and usefulness, affective and cognitive resistance to change, and individual differences and basic tendencies are analyzed as antecedents based on study with 106 employees during an IS implementation. The results of the analysis reveal that especially affective resistance to change determine employee grumbling, and technology perceptions are less important in early implementation.

Schäfferling, A., and Wagner, H. (2014)
Institutional Investors and the Development of IT Capability: Evidence from Publicly Listed Companies
Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Auckland, New Zealand

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Investors often influence the strategic decisions of their holdings, such as long-term orientation and investments in intangible assets. Investigating IT capability as a strategic asset, we examine the influence of institutional shareholders' investment horizon and blockholdings on the development of organizational IT capability. We perform a panel data analysis of eleven years of archival data from publicly listed U.S. companies. Our findings show a positive relationship between a firm's ownership structure and the development of its IT capability. In particular, we find that equity owners that remain invested over long periods of time increase firms' likelihood of developing a continuous IT capability. In contrast, investors that can be classified as blockholders do not exert significant influence on their portfolio firms. By linking accounting research on firm ownership with ongoing IS research on IT capability, we provide new insides into the firm-level benefits of long-term oriented institutional investors on IT capability.

Wirtky, T. (2014)
Understanding Corporate E-Learning Use: Does Cognitive Style Matter?
Proceedings of the 22nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Tel Aviv, Israel

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Learning is becoming increasingly digital not only in the academic context, but also in the corporate context. Research on how to adapt e-learning courses to the learner's individual cognitive style is gaining momentum. However, especially in the corporate context, some more basic questions appear to be still unanswered such as whether differences in cognitive style explain differences in corporate learners' usage behavior. Based on data including both users and non-users of a globally operating professional service firm, I identify differences in behavior and attempt to explain them with cognitive style theory. The findings include distinct pattern in usage behavior, which cognitive style surprisingly does not explain. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

von Stetten, A. (2014)
The Social Aspects of Relationship Management - Case Studies with a Special Focus on IS Nearshore Outsourcing
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGMIS CPR Conference, Doctoral Consortium, Singapore

Weinert, C., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2014)
The Relationship between Psychological, Physiological, and Behavioral Strain towards Technostress
Proceedings of the 2014 Gmunden retreat on NeuroIS, Gmunden, Austria
(Research in Progress)

Weinert, C., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2014)
Technostress-induced Skin Conductance Response Patterns and Performance
Proceedings of the 2014 Gmunden retreat on NeuroIS, Gmunden, Austria
(Research in Progress)

Jentsch, C., Schlosser, F., and Beimborn, D. (2014)
From Strategic to Operational Collaborations: The Divergent Nature of Business/IT Shared Understanding
Proceedings of the 20th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Savannah (GA)

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The success of any business/IT collaboration depends on the shared understanding between business and IT professionals (B/IT-SU) on all organizational layers. However, most research on B/IT-SU merely focuses either on top management level or information system development (ISD) teams. This isolated research led to divergent conceptualizations of B/IT-SU. While studies on strategic collaboration concentrate on B/IT-SU of the objectives or the role of IT, ISD research postulates shared language as main B/IT-SU component. In this paper, we build on major findings of B/IT-SU research, and develop an integrated concept of the relevant dimensions that should be studied conjointly to provide a more consistent view of B/IT-SU. Furthermore, we discuss our concept from three perspectives: (1) strategic collaboration; (2) project collaboration; and (3) operational collaboration. The results provide insights into the key dimensions of B/IT-SU in regard to the distinctive hierarchical layer, respectively, and serve as initial foundation for further investigations of B/IT-SU.

Jentsch, C., Beimborn, D., Jungnickl, C., and Renner, G. (2014)
How to Measure Shared Understanding among Business and IT
Proceedings of the 2014 Academy of Management Conference, Philadelphia (PA)
Best Paper Proceedings

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A high level of shared understanding between business and IT is a critical success factor for effective IT usage in organizations. Hence, many studies in the Information Systems field have included shared business/IT understanding as a determinant in their research models. Most studies use a very compact instrument, measuring, typically, a one-dimensional construct that only addresses single facets of the overall concept. While most of these studies fulfill statistical validation requirements, content validity of the construct is seldom addressed. In this paper, we propose that more cognitive methods are needed to develop measures for complex constructs like shared understanding. The goal of our study is the development of a content validity proven survey instrument that measures the degree of shared business/IT understanding in a multi-faceted manner. In this paper, we adopt an innovative method of content validation by comparing survey results with data from a cognitive measurement approach (Repertory Grid Technique). We provide results from two studies: one experiment with students and a pilot field study with practitioners. After further refinements, the resulting instrument can support research on shared business/IT understanding and practitioners who aim at monitoring the relationship between business and IT units in their organizations.

Jentsch, C., and Beimborn, D. (2014)
What Matters in Business/IT Shared Understanding? Development of a Unified Construct
Proceedings of the 22nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Tel Aviv, Israel
(Research in Progress)

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The mutual understanding, shared knowledge, or cognition between business and IT units has been discussed frequently and in wide range of fields in IS research. On the other hand, we are still lacking a consistent and comprehensive conceptualization of what shared business/IT understanding is actually about, and previous studies have usually only taken some aspects of it into account. These often single-dimensional determinations represent an incomplete picture of shared business/IT understanding and thus can potentially lead to wrong or incomplete findings and implications. This research in progress steps into this gap and develops a comprehensive construct of shared business/IT understanding to provide future research with a unified concept that can be applied to various IS research contexts. In this paper, we discuss current conceptualizations of shared business/IT understanding and integrate them to a unified multidimensional construct, which will be validated and adjusted in future empirical research.

Jentsch, C., and Beimborn, D. (2014)
Shared Understanding Among Business and IT - A Literature Review and Research Agenda
Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Tel Aviv, Israel

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Researchers have acknowledged that shared understanding between business and IT is a crucial factor to achieve high performing teams, well aligned units, and superior business value of IT. In addition, they agree, that this determinant of social alignment is very complex and difficult to govern. However, a goal-oriented governance will only be possible if the target is clearly and adequate defined. In this paper, we will provide a structured review of the IS literature addressing the question how shared business/IT understanding has been conceptualized and used in the various fields of our research community. We identify strong differences between and within these research domains regarding the conceptualization. Primarily, we find that most of the papers just analyze single aspects of shared understanding but miss the "big picture". Our findings can point researchers to potential lacks of conceptualization of Business/IT Shared Understanding in their research domain and will help to cross borders among different research strands, which all will potentially profit from a more holistic and comprehensive investigation of shared business/IT understanding and its role for effective collaboration among business and IT.

Renner, D., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2014)
Effectiveness and Efficiency of Blended Learning - A Literature Review
Proceedings of the 20th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Savannah (GA)

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The aim of this paper is to identify measurements of learning efficiency and learning effectiveness of blended learning and to analyze drivers of learning effectiveness and learning efficiency in learning environments of corporate education. Therefore a literature review of the AIS Electronic Library is done. With a single term search including "learning efficiency", "learning effectiveness" and "blended learning" 14 papers are identified. Regarding learning efficiency, less research is available so that only few measurements are available and no drivers are identified In contrary, learning effectiveness is in research focus: 10 measurement indicators and 16 drivers are analyzed. Few of these findings concentrate on blended learning environment in corporate education. In conclusion, an evaluation framework including learning effectiveness and efficiency for blended learning environments of corporate education is desirable. This paper discusses opportunities for future search based on the state-of-art knowledge published by the AIS Electronic Library.

Kettenbohrer, J., and Beimborn, D. (2014)
What You Can Do to Inhibit Business Process Standardization
Proceedings of the 20th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Savannah (GA)
(Research in Progress)

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Business process standardization (BPS) has recently got into focus of the BPM literature as a methodology to substantially enable efficiency potentials and therefore improve process performance. So far, the BPS literature has exclusively focused on success factors for BPS and relevant capabilities. By contrast, inhibiting factors have not been sufficiently considered, yet, but success factors respectively enablers and inhibitors are not simply the opposites. The objective of this paper is to identify factors which inhibit BPS and to deduce management actions which help successfully standardize processes. To answer this question, we study the case of an international process standardization project in a global maintenance company. We derive a set of inhibiting factors for BPS. Thereby, some of these inhibitors have to be considered for any organizational change project while others are BPS specific. The specific inhibitors are analyzed in detail and discussed by mirroring them to non-BP standardization research.

Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2014)
Technostress-induced distorted pre-adoption beliefs
Proceedings of the 2014 Gmunden retreat on NeuroIS, Gmunden, Austria
(Research in Progress)

Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Eckhardt, A. (2014)
The impact of human resources information systems and business process management implementations on recruiting process performance: A case study
Proceedings of the 20th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Savannah (GA)

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This research examines the effects of business process management (BPM) and information systems implementations in secondary service processes. Using a case study of BPM and human resources information systems (HRIS) in the recruiting context at a financial service provider it can be shown that BPM, defined as a structured systematic approach to analyze and continually improve a specific process, and HRIS provide positive effects in terms of cost reduction, increased cycle time, customer satisfaction, and improve quality for secondary service processes in organizations. The results contribute to IS research as they illustrate how combined BPM and IS can be implemented in secondary service processes and provide evidence for the positive effects of BPM and HRIS in this type of processes.

Schilling, A., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2014)
Stars Matter - How FLOSS Developers' Reputation Affects the Attraction of New Developers
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Singapore

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The attraction of new developers is a key challenge for initiatives developing Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). While previous evaluations consider status gains and competence evaluations to be key drivers for novices' joining behavior, it is unclear how FLOSS developers' relationships with others affect the attraction of new developers. In this research, we look at FLOSS developers' relationships in terms of positive evaluations given by others. Using this perspective, we examine how FLOSS developers' reputation among members within and beyond the project community affects their projects' ability to attract new developers. We draw on Social Resource Theory (SRT) and hypothesize that developers with a high reputation among others enjoy high visibility and credibility, which in turn helps their projects to attract new members. Finally, we propose an evaluation approach for our research model that examines the reputation and project behavior of more than 1,000 FLOSS developers on a longitudinal base.

Weinert, C., Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2014)
Does teleworking negatively influence IT professionals? An empirical analysis of IT personnel's telework-enabled stress
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Singapore

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Despite the wide dissemination and acceptance of teleworking in the IT industry, companies like Yahoo!, HP, or Best Buy have stopped their telework programs, which indicates that there might also be some negative side effects in this type of work. In regard to this, our research focuses on one particular negative side of teleworking by focusing on teleworking-induced stress of IT professionals. We theorize that teleworking-induced stressors influence IT personnel's psychological and behavioral strain in the form of exhaustion due to teleworking and discontinuous intention towards teleworking. Results of an empirical online survey with 57 IT professionals validate these dependencies, which gives us the grounds to identify work overload, work-home conflict, information underload, and social isolation as influence factors of exhaustion due to teleworking. Further results reveal that discontinuous intentions towards teleworking is directly influenced by social isolation and exhaustion due to teleworking, whereas the influence of work overload is mediated by exhaustion due to teleworking. Work overload due to telework has the strongest effect on exhaustion due to teleworking, which in turn is the strongest influence factor on the discontinuous intention towards teleworking.

von Stetten, A., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2014)
The Four 'W's of Face-To-Face - Suggesting an Enriched Perspective on Nearshoring Relationship Management
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Singapore

von Stetten, A., and Beimborn, D. (2014)
Analyzing the Effect of Proximity on Clan Control: Results from a Case Study Series on IS Nearshore Outsourcing
Proceedings of the 8th Global Sourcing Workshop, Val-d'Isére, France

Schilling, A. (2014)
What do we know about Floss Developers' Attraction, Retention, and Commitment? A Literature Review
Proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

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Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) is an essential part of our daily life. Many companies and private households rely on FLOSS every day. However, the vast majority of FLOSS initiatives fail. In order to support future research and derive operational advice for FLOSS projects, this research reviews and categorizes the managerial insights from over 20 years of FLOSS research. Based on the central role of the developer base and research on human resource management, developer attraction, retention and commitment are identified as core management areas for FLOSS projects. A detailed analysis of 43 journal articles on FLOSS management identifies an extensive body, which analyses project members' commitment. In contrast, there is relatively little dedicated research on FLOSS developers' attraction and retention. Moreover, the literature review reveals that most articles use solely either an individual-, group- or project-centric research perspective although these perspectives are interrelated with each other.

Illig, S., Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2014)
Why IS after all? An Explorative Analysis of Professionals' Letters of Study Motivation
Proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

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While the selection of majors in Information Systems (IS) is widely discussed, the context of IS in further education lacks attention. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the motivational factors of individuals who intent to study IS, although they have already graduated in another degree program. Based on an explorative analysis of 84 letters of motivation of applicants applying for a further education degree program in IS, we identify determinants of an individual's motivation to study IS after all. Based on that, we conclude that extrinsic motivations such as expected career enhancement are more important than in other contexts such as undergraduate study paths.

Schäfferling, A., and Wagner, H. (2013)
Do investors recognize Information Technology as a strategic asset? A longitudinal analysis of changes in ownership structure and IT capability
Proceedings of the 21th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Utrecht, The Netherlands

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IT capability is known to increase financial performance and affects strategic topics like vertical integration and competitive action. It is seen as a strategic although intangible asset and receives a lot of interest in research and practice. Recent studies show that this organizational asset is developed over time and needs continuous investment to be built. Long-term oriented investors value strategic assets as they are essential drivers for firms' long-term success and survival. Hence, compared to other companies in the same industry, a higher ratio of long-term oriented investors in a firm's ownership structure should reflect a firm's ability to create strategic assets. Based on archival data from 2000 to 2009 we investigate the interplay of a firm's IT capability and its ownership structure. We find that superior IT capability is related to a high ratio of long-term oriented investors. Further, empirical analysis shows that changes in IT capability induce adjustments in the ownership structure. This study contributes to the body of literature on the business value of IT by studying the capital market effects of IT capability. Practical implications and areas of further research are outlined.

Schäfferling, A. (2013)
Determinants and Consequences of IT Capability: Review and Synthesis of the Literature
Proceedings of the 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Chicago (IL)

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As IT spending continuously increased over the past years, it nowadays accounts for a significant amount of total corporate spending. However, firms require the ability to transform these investments into daily operations. Research shows that the organizational IT capability is the key to leverage IT investments and achieve desired outcomes. Research on IT capability thereby evolved as a major stream in the IT business value debate and the number of research articles on IT capability increased constantly over the years. The purpose of this literature review is to provide an overview of current findings on antecedents and consequences of IT capability and to identify directions for further research. This review synthesizes a collection of 30 research articles and thereby contributes to the literature on IT capability by identifying current gaps in the literature and offering new perspectives for future research.

Kettenbohrer, J., Beimborn, D., and Kloppenburg, M. (2013)
Developing a Procedure Model for Business Process Standardization
Proceedings of the 34th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Milan, Italy
(Research in Progress)

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Firms are focusing more closely on standardizing or homogenizing instances of a particular business process across different business units or locations. Our paper introduces research in progress on a business process standardization (BPS) procedure model that guides firms in conducting effective BPS firm-wide. This model is currently being developed and tested by applying it to a business process at Lufthansa Technik, following a design science cycle and taking an action research approach. This paper shows how we are following the good-practice guidelines of design science and how we intend to evaluate the applicability and effectiveness of the model. Eventually, we expect this model to contribute significantly to extant research on BPS, which has to date focused on the outcomes of BPS and on the contingencies of BPS effectiveness rather than making prescriptive suggestions for reaping substantial process efficiency gains in large and decentralized firms.

Buettner, R., Daxenberger, B., Eckhardt, A., and Maier, C. (2013)
Cognitive workload induced by Information Systems: Introducing an objective way of measuring based on pupillary diameter responses
Proceedings of the 13th Annual HCI/MIS Research Workshop (Pre-ICIS-Workshop), Milan, Italy
(Research in Progress)

Weinert, C., Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
The influence of coping mechanisms on technostress
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Milan, Italy

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This paper uses a laboratory experiment with perceptual and objective measures from skin conductance response to analyze the influence of different coping strategies on behavioral and psychological strain in the context of techostress. Thereby, behavioral strain is objectively observed in terms of task fulfillment and psychological strain by skin conductance response in four treatment groups, classified by receiving different coping strategies. Initial results of our research reveal that users with no-coping are strained more than those how utilized coping strategies during stressful situations. This also takes place subsequently to the IT-stressor, as the slope of the skin conductance level is negative when applying coping strategies. However, the first results of the SCR indicate that coping strategies have no influence on behavioral strain such as end-user performance. Furthermore, results of a MANOVA outline that the psychological strain level significantly differs between the treatment groups.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
Although I am stressed, I still use IT! Theorizing the decisive impact of strain and addiction of social network site users in post-acceptance theory
Proceedings of the 34th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Milan, Italy
(Research in Progress)

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This paper examines the decisive roles of strain and addiction in post-acceptance behavior of social networking sites' users. Therefore, we focus in a first step on the formation of discontinuous usage intentions by theorizing strain, addiction, and satisfaction as direct influencing factor that causes and/or inhibits them. In a second step, the influence of these variables on the intention-behavior relation is focused. We theorize that addiction as well as the ratio between satisfaction and strain moderate whether users transfer discontinuous usage intentions into non-usage behavior. To validate the subsequent research model we propose a longitudinal research setting and present initial results, whereupon satisfaction and strain - but not addiction - causes discontinuous usage intentions. We discuss our expected contributions by revealing that satisfaction, strain, and addiction influence whether a technology is used continuously; however, their influence on intentions and actual behaviors differs.

Eckhardt, A., Maier, C., Hsieh, J.J., Chuk, T., Chan, A., Hsiao, J., and Buettner, R. (2013)
Objective measures of IS usage behavior under conditions of experience and pressure using eye fixation data
Proceedings of the 34th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Milan, Italy

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The core objective of this study is to understand individuals IS usage by going beyond the traditional subjective self-reported and objective system-log measures to unveil the delicate process through which users interact with IS. In this study, we conducted a laboratory experiment to capture users' eye movement and, more importantly, applied a novel methodology that uses the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to analyze the gathered physiological data. We also examine how performance pressure and prior usage experience of the investigative system affect IS usage patterns. Our results suggest that experienced and pressured users demonstrate more efficient and focused usage patterns than inexperienced and non-pressured ones, respectively. Our findings constitute an important advancement in the IS use literature. The proposed statistical approach for analyzing eye-movement data is a critical methodological contribution to the emerging research that uses eye-tracking technology for investigation.

Moos, B., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
Innovation Success and Absorptive Capacity: The Combined Influence of Information Systems and Combinative Capabilities - A Theoretical Model
Proceedings of the 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Chicago (IL)

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Innovation is important for a firm's success and has been shown to be essentially influenced by absorptive capacity (ACAP). ACAP has been conceptualized by various dimensions that, in turn, rest on diverse antecedents. Currently, little is known about the impact of information systems (IS) on these dimensions of ACAP. Drawing on the complementarity argument that IS will only render an effect if jointly employed with complementary organizational capabilities, we develop a research model that elucidates the interplay of organizational capabilities, ACAP, and their effect on innovation success. In particular, we deal with combinative capabilities by splitting these organizational capabilities into mechanisms and control modes. Addressing calls in the literature and from industry, this model contributes to our understanding of how to build and improve a firm's innovation capabilities by theorizing combinative capabilities and IS as antecedents of ACAP.

Wirtky, T., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
Using Social Software for Enhancing IS Talents' E-Learning Motivation
Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Cincinnati (OH)

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In the aftermath of the global economic recession, 34% of all companies struggle to fill open positions. IS talents are the top-5 employees in demand. The countries' education systems are not flexible enough to provide enough workers with the right skills at the right point in time. E-learning could be part of the solution, if it were realizing its potential. The facts indicate that success of elearning in the academic context is considerable, but users are not enough motivated to participate in corporate e-learning inhibiting life-long learning. Given the advent of social software and its potential to increase user motivation, this paper specifically develops a model predicting the impact of social software features on user motivation to participate in corporate asynchronous elearning activities. Providing guidance for future e-learning research and implementations, it bases its findings on broad literature reviews.

Wirtky, T. (2013)
Improving E-Learning Motivation Using Social Software
Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGMIS CPR Conference, Doctoral Consortium, Cincinnati (OH)

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Trained personnel are crucial for success in a knowledge society. Unsurprisingly, e-learning is expected to provide more than operational efficiency in organizations, which it did in the academic context, but did not in the corporate context. This research proposal argues that human motivation is the key difference between the two contexts. Social software seems to positively impact motivation, but how and which social software features to implement in a corporate e-learning context is still unknown. Hence, this research hypothesizes and analyzes the impact of social software features on user motivation to participate. It develops a model explaining why social software impacts motivation and ultimately uses experiments embedded in a design science approach to explain how and which social software features to implement in a given context. This proposal details this approach and provides intermediate findings in the quest for personnel motivation and corporate e-learning success.

Beimborn, D., and Palitza, M. (2013)
Enterprise App Stores for Mobile Applications - Development of a Benefits Framework
Proceedings of the 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Chicago (IL)

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Mobile devices and apps have changed the way consumers perceive and use IT. As mobile apps are easy to use and to procure, they have begun to enter the corporate world "under the radar" outside of the control of the IT unit. Employees bring their own mobile devices (BYOD) and apps to do their work - which raises various problems. As a counter-measure, firms have launched BYOD programs and set up Enterprise App Stores (EAS) where their employees can install certified and licensed apps under the firm's control. This paper aims to take a first step in scientifically exploring this new concept of EAS and exploratively develops a benefits framework which can serve as foundation for the conceptualization and empirical investigation of EAS value and adoption by future works.

Kettenbohrer, J., Beimborn, D., and Kloppenburg, M. (2013)
Developing a Governance Model for Successful Business Process Standardization
Proceedings of the 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Chicago (IL)

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Standardization of business processes is considered as one of the most important instruments in the context of BPM. Research has mostly focused on the impact of business process standardization on business process performance while only a few attempts have been made to determine the success factors for effective process standardization, yet. However, a major issue in any standardization initiatives is to convince decision makers to follow the standard. This is particular true when it comes to process standardization: how can a firm be sure that its different divisions have implemented the process standard and that the employees adhere to the rules? In this paper, we propose a governance model that consists of a role concept for successful process standardization and provide first steps of evaluation through a qualitative case study with an international aviation company.

Beimborn, D., and Wolf, M. (2013)
Challenges in Offshore Outsourcing Relationship Management - A Peruvian Perspective
Proceedings of the 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Chicago (IL)

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In this paper, we examine challenges related with offshore outsourcing to Peru and their effect on relationship quality and outsourcing success. In three case studies, we interviewed clients and providers about their experiences with software development outsourcing from Anglo-American countries (U.S., Canada, Scotland) to Peru. We identified particular challenges which have at least a minor negative impact on relationship quality and outsourcing success, however, are manageable - the related management actions were extracted from the cases, as well. We argue that Peru becomes an interesting player in the global offshoring market and which particularities practitioners should be aware of when considering outsourcing to Peru.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Eckhardt, A. (2013)
The Impact of Business Process Management and Applicant Tracking Systems on Recruiting Process Performance: A Representative Empirical Study with Germany's Top-1,000 Organizations
Proceedings of the 75th Wissenschaftlichen Jahrestagung des VHB, Würzburg

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This research focuses on the various effects of different business process management components as well as the joint impact with information technology on process performance in the recruiting context. The results of a study with Germany's Top-1,000 organizations reveal that reduction of recruiting process costs is significantly determined by business process analyses, business process improvement and the usage of applicant tracking systems. An improved cycle time of the recruiting process is significantly influenced by business process controlling, business process analyses, and by using an applicant tracking system that supports the design and evaluation of key performance indicators. Business process standardization and a joint usage of applicant tracking systems and business process documentation as well as controlling has a significant positive impact on stakeholders' satisfaction with the recruiting process. The general quality of the process can be improved by business process controlling as well as a joint usage of applicant tracking systems and business process controlling. Hence, the results reveal that different components of the business process management in conjunction with a supporting applicant tracking system have diverse impacts on different dimensions of recruiting process performance. The results are discussed by focusing on the diverse effects of business process management on process performance and implications for information systems success research.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Eckhardt, A. (2013)
Pinning Down the Sources of Burnout: The Role of Information Technology as Daily Stressor
Proceedings of the 75th Wissenschaftlichen Jahrestagung des VHB, Würzburg

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The research presented in this article aims to pin down some of the sources of the burnout phenomenon in modern organizations. We provide a more detailed understanding of work and techno-stressors, work- and techno-exhaustion, as well as consequences and interrelations of and between these feelings and perceptions. Therefore, techno-stressors and techno-exhaustion are theorized as antecedents of work-stressors, work-exhaustion, and outcome variables, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention. The proposed model enables a comparison of whether technology or other work-stressors induce feelings of exhaustion and consequently negative outcomes in terms of low job satisfactions, low organizational commitments, and high turnover intentions. Based on an empirical analysis (n=306), the results of our study show that technologies are a contributing factor for employee burnout, because techno-stressors are a contributing factor for techno-exhaustion, which in turn influences work-exhaustion significantly. Results also reveal that work-exhaustion causes job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention, whereas techno-exhaustion has solely an indirect effect through work-exhaustion on these psychological and behavioral responses. Furthermore, post-hoc analyses identify that employees, who use IT as a supporting for their daily work process (non-IT professionals, such as recruiters), report higher levels of techno-exhaustion compared to employees, who consider IT as core of their work (IT professionals, such as software developers). These analyses also indicate that techno-exhaustion has a direct and indirect effect on job satisfactions, organizational commitment, and turnover intention for non-IT professionals.

Weinert, C., Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
The Effect of Coping Mechanisms on Technology Induced Stress: Towards a Conceptual Model
Proceedings of the 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Chicago (IL)

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Information and communication technology induced stress, called technostress, influences users negatively. Numerous investigations are made about technostress; however, none consider the concept of coping in order to explain strategies to avoid these negative consequences. Therefore, this paper develops a theoretical model to explain the coping process and how it influences technostress. The model theorizes that threat and coping appraisal are major determinants of emotional- and problem-focused coping whereby coping resources and individual's controllability influence the choice and the efficacy of coping. The resulting problem- or emotional-focused coping strategies are theorized to moderate the stressor-train relationship such that negative consequences can be avoided. The theoretical model suggests a different perspective on the linear view on the relationship between stressors and strain by proposing the consideration of the moderation effect of coping.

Schilling, A., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
In the spotlight - evaluating how celebrities affect floss developers' participation motivation
Proceedings of the 21th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Utrecht, The Netherlands

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Motivating one's workforce is a major challenge for organizations. Demotivated employees not only cause harm to organizations' productivity and innovation but also show increased turn-over intentions. As in the case of organizations, projects developing Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) depend strongly on the motivation of their contributors. Existing research repeatedly highlights project members' motivation for FLOSS projects' success and continuance. However, existing evaluations primarily treat project members' participation motives as exogenous constructs. As a result no operational advice can be derived for FLOSS projects on how to motivate their contributors. This research takes an alternative view and regards FLOSS developers' motivation as product of their self-determination and influences of their surrounding environment. Drawing on Self-Determination-Theory (SDT), we consider FLOSS developers' motivation as multi-dimensional and sensitive to environmental stimuli. As an example for such environmental stimuli we propose that project celebrities (members with a high standing in the FLOSS community) stimulate the participation motives of project members in different ways. An evaluation with 65 participants of Google Summer of Code (GSoC) largely supports our research model and provides evidence for the endogenous character of FLOSS developers' motivation. Our research results suggest that celebrities stimulate rather self-determined than externally regulated motives.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Weinert, C. (2013)
The negative side of ICT-enabled communication: the case of social interaction overload in online social networks
Proceedings of the 21th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Utrecht, The Netherlands

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This research aims to explain the negative side of ICT-enabled communications. Therefore, the perception of users that social interactions on online social networks (OSN) are threatening is suggested as a new variable called social interaction overload. The paper theorizes that individual, OSN-specific, and OSN-specific communication characteristics manifest the extent to which social interaction overload is perceived and how users response to it in a psychological and behavioral manner. Results of an empirical survey with 246 OSN users validate the assumed effects, so that we identify age, number of friends, and communication content as contribution factors of social interaction overload, which in turn has a direct effect on the two outcome variables satisfaction and continuous usage intention. Moreover, results reveal that social interaction overload has higher effects on OSN users' satisfaction than perceived usefulness or perceived enjoyment.

Schilling, A., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
Together but apart - How spatial, temporal and cultural distances affect FLOSS developers' project retention
Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Cincinnati (OH)

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Companies rely more and more on virtual teams which consist of globally dispersed members. Unfortunately, members' separation can raise considerable interpersonal challenges. In order to prevent conflicts from deescalating and ensure effective teamwork, companies pay careful attention to the management of members' spatial, temporal and cultural distances. While initiatives developing Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) similarly combine a worldwide distributed workforce, relatively little is known about how members' separation affects their collaboration. However, without such an understanding no adequate advice can be derived for managers of FLOSS initiatives on how to foster members' collaboration and retention. Building on lessons learned from the organizational domain this research hypothesizes that spatial, temporal and cultural distances are key factors for FLOSS developers' team integration and project retention. To evaluate our research hypotheses, we study FLOSS developers' contribution and conversation behavior and extract objective figures on their spatial, temporal and cultural distances to each other.

Moos, B. (2013)
Managing Acquired Knowledge from Different Network Partners: The Role of Knowledge Management Systems
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Leipzig
Best Paper Nomination

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One key asset of a firm is its knowledge stock comprising different knowledge domains (e.g., market, technological knowledge, etc.). This stock results from firm internal and/or external resources such as exchange partners (e.g. customers and R&D partners). The paper focuses on external partners and explores for which knowledge domain the usage of knowledge management systems (KMS) regarding the management of acquired knowledge from them is beneficial or detrimental to the organization. Further, the importance of each type of partner for knowledge creation is demonstrated. Using data from 154 firms, the results show that (1) each type of partner contributes to most of the knowledge domains, (2) KMS facilitate the management of the knowledge stock of a firm excluding the domain of product knowledge, and (3) the usage of KMS for managing acquired knowledge has two faces depending on the type of knowledge and on the type of exchange partner.

Wirtky, T., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
Towards understanding social software and its impact on corporate e-learning motivation
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Leipzig

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This research combines recent discussions in the cross-disciplinary areas of e-learning, social software, and training motivation. On the one hand, e-learning with its role in a fast paced knowledge society, its potential to revolutionize education and the gap between research and practitioners is already in discussion for years. Discussions are becoming more intense with the rise of social software. On the other hand, human resources, life-long learning, and motivating employees to participate in trainings appear critical to organizations. This research focuses on e-learning in the corporate context and examines the impact of social software features on user motivation based on a review of training motivation literature and on 39 interviews conducted in an international IT services company. Findings suggest that the impact of social software features is still unknown, and that differentiating them by the learner's needs leads to further insights.

Wiesinger, A., and Beimborn, D. (2013)
How management actions affect social exchanges in outsourcing relationships
Proceedings of the 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui (HI)

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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.

Gruschwitz, S., and Schlosser, F. (2012)
Towards an integrated model for managing product and process quality in agile software projects
Proceedings of the 7th International Research Workshop on Information Technology Project Management (IRWITPM) (Pre-ICIS), Orlando (FL)
(Research in Progress)

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Many software projects still experience delays, exceed budget or fail to deliver the expected quality due to poor project management, often caused by a lack of information about the real status of the project. This is particularly problematic in agile projects with their dynamic team configurations, high number of iterations and short development cycle times. A key challenge to effectively and efficiently manage agile projects is to select and implement both the right product and process quality metrics. We develop a catalogue of 40 metrics covering different product and process quality criteria. The catalogue is then used to select and evaluate a specific set of metrics that are implemented in an agile software development project. Our preliminary findings show that while the combination of product and process quality metrics is important, more research into their interdependencies and selection criteria is needed.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
The Role of Techno-Stressors and Techno-Exhaustion in Employees' Daily Work: An Empirical Analysis
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Orlando (FL)

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The research presented in this article aims to provide a more detailed understanding of work and techno-stressors, work- and techno-exhaustion, as well as consequences of these feelings and perceptions. Therefore, techno-stressors and exhaustion are theorized as antecedents of work stressors, work exhaustion, and outcome variables, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention. The proposed theory enables a comparison of whether technology or other work stressors induce feelings of exhaustion and consequently negative outcomes. Based on an empirical analysis (N=306), the results of our study show that techno-stressors have an impact on work stressors and techno-exhaustion is a contributing factor for work exhaustion. Next, we can show that the effects are different for IT and non-IT professionals as techno-exhaustion have an effect on each outcome variable for non-IT professionals, but not for IT professionals. The influence of techno-stressors is mediated on each outcome variable through techno-exhaustion for non-IT professionals but not for IT professionals. Furthermore, techno-exhaustion is significantly higher for non-IT professionals, even if they use IT at work far less than IT professionals, and techno-exhaustion has a stronger influence on non-IT professionals' overall work exhaustion. We conclude that techno-stress research has to consider whether occupations use IT daily as core of their working process or solely as a supporting instrument in order to provide a detailed explanation for technologies inducing stress at work.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
Online Social Networks as a Source and Symbol of Stress: An Empirical Analysis
Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Orlando (FL)

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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.

Eckhardt, A., Maier, C., and Buettner, R. (2012)
The Influence of Pressure to Perform and Experience on Changing Perceptions and User Performance: A Multi-Method Experimental Analysis
Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Orlando (FL)
(Research in Progress)

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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.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
Using User Personality to explain the Intention-Behavior Gap and Changes in Beliefs: A Longitudinal Analysis
Proceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Orlando (FL)

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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.

Schlosser, F. (2012)
Mastering the Social IT/Business Alignment Challenge
Proceedings of the 18th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Seattle (WA)

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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.

Beimborn, D. (2012)
Considering the Relative Relevance of Outsourcing Relationship Quality
Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Barcelona, Spain

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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.

Ott, P., and Laumer, S. (2012)
Adoption of Online Appointment Schedule Platforms - An Interview-based Case Study Series with Micro-Enterprises
Proceedings of the 18th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Seattle (WA)

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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.

Wild, U., Laumer, S., and Krönke, A.H. (2012)
The Bipartite Influence of Information Overload on User Resistance to Knowledge Management Systems
Proceedings of the 18th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Seattle (WA)

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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.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Empirical Evidence for an Individual's Dispositional Resistance to IT-Induced Changes
Proceedings of the 18th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Seattle (WA)

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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.

Weinert, C., Maier, C., and Laumer, S. (2012)
The Shady Side Of Facebook: The Influence Of Perceived Information And Network Characteristics On The Attitude Towards Information Overload
Proceedings of the 18th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Seattle (WA)

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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.

Schäfferling, A., Wagner, H., and Becker, J. (2012)
Exploring the Relation between Firm Ownership and IT Capability
Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Barcelona, Spain

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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.

Schäfferling, A., Wagner, H., and Becker, J. (2012)
IT Capability and Firm Performance: Findings from Periods of Economic Downturn
Proceedings of the 18th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Seattle (WA)

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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.

Maier, C. (2012)
Personality Within Information Systems Research: A Literature Analysis
Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Barcelona, Spain

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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.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
When Social Networking Turns to Social Overload: Explaining the Stress, Emotional Exhaustion, and Quitting Behavior from Social Network Sites' Users
Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Barcelona, Spain
Best Paper Award Nominee

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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.

Schilling, A., and Laumer, S. (2012)
Learning to remain - Evaluating the use of mentoring for the retention of FLOSS developers
Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Barcelona, Spain

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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.

Schilling, A. (2012)
Links to the Source - A Multidimensional View of Social Ties for the Retention of FLOSS Developers
Proceedings of the 2012 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Milwaukee (WI)

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Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) is of vital importance for the daily life of many private and corporate users. However, the majority of all FLOSS initiatives fail, most commonly due to a lack of sustained developers. In contrast to previous research which used an individual centric or a structural perspective, this dissertation combines motivational and relational aspects to build a comprehensive understanding for FLOSS developers' ongoing project commitment. A unified research model is developed by drawing on established theories from organizational and sociological literature, in particular by combining Self-Determination-Theory (SDT) and Social-Identity-Theory (SIT). Both SDT and SIT have been found valuable concepts for staffing decisions in organizations. In addition to the development and evaluation of the research model, this dissertation derives operational strategies for project managers of FLOSS initiatives on how to enhance the retention behavior of their contributor base.

Schilling, A., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
Train and Retain - The Impact of Mentoring on the Retention of FLOSS Developers
Proceedings of the 2012 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Milwaukee (WI)
(Research in Progress)

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The acquisition of new knowledge is a critical task for software development. IT companies spend considerable resources in the training of their employees to succeed in a continuously changing industry. Depending on the voluntary commitment of their contributors, initiatives developing Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) identified members' learning and their retention as vital. Although contributors' knowledge building has been repeatedly found to facilitate their project continuance, FLOSS projects are lacking operational advices on how to assist their members' learning. Drawing on previous literature which emphasizes project members' social interactions and their practical experiences to build new knowledge, we propose mentoring as a training method for FLOSS projects. Based on organizational experiences, we propose a measure to evaluate mentoring as an appropriate strategy for FLOSS initiatives to facilitate individuals' learning and to retain their contributors on longitudinal base.

Wagner, H., Moos, B., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
The Contagious Power of Innovativeness: A Comparison of Different Types of Firm Partners
Proceedings of the Academy of Management Conference, Boston (MA)

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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.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
Are we in the Right Profession? - Comparing Information Systems, Computer Science and other Disciplines' Professional's Perceptions of the Job Market
Proceedings of the 2012 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Milwaukee (WI)

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Based on an empirical analysis with 2,887 professionals with different educational backgrounds, this research shows that Information Systems and Computer Science professionals are more optimistic toward the labor market and available job alternatives than other disciplines such as General Business Management, Engineering, or Social and Humane Science. The results underline that professionals in the IT field have a bright future for their further career. In times of shrinking information systems and computer systems enrollments, this promising prospect can support both undergraduate and graduate schools activities to promote their courses. Several implications for this issue will be discussed in the paper.

Schlosser, F., Wagner, H., and Coltman, T. (2012)
Reconsidering the Dimensions of Business-IT Alignment
Proceedings of the 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui (HI)

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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.

Walentowitz, K. (2012)
Aligning Multiple Definitions of Alignment - A Literature Review
Proceedings of the 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui (HI)

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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.

Laumer, S., Blinn, N., and Eckhardt, A. (2012)
Opening the Black Box of Outsourcing Knowledge Intensive Business Processes - A Longitudinal Case Study of Outsourcing Recruiting Activities
Proceedings of the 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui (HI)

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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.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
The Implementation of Large-scale Information Systems in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises - A Case Study of Work-and Health-related Consequences
Proceedings of the 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui (HI)

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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.

Moos, B., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
Whom to ask for what knowledge? A comparison of exchange partners and their impact on knowledge types
Proceedings of the 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui (HI)

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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.

Schilling, A., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
Who will remain? - An evaluation of actual Person-Job and Person-Team fit to predict developer retention in FLOSS-projects
Proceedings of the 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui (HI)

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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.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Eckhardt, A. (2011)
Identifying Resistant User Groups during the Product Lifecycle of IT Innovations: Proposing a User Transformation Theory
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Shanghai, China

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Motivated by the phenomenon of the digital divide, this research tries to identify resistant user groups in private household settings. Therefore, the concept of dispositional resistance widely studied in psychology, which reflects individuals' predisposition to check out something new, is transferred into information systems research. With the help of this trait, we investigate the groups within the diffusion of innovation theory, and try to identify resistant user groups. Surprisingly, the results do indicate that individuals, who are regarded as innovators, are not less resistant than others. We discuss reasons for this finding like the non-consideration of the point in time to which an individual gets aware of an innovation, or the speed to which an individual decides using an innovation. Based on these reasons, we develop a user transformation theory which clusters users and non-users of a technology in a completely new manner, as we differ between spontaneous and deliberate, as well as aware and unaware non-user. With data of 3,262 individuals, we empirically confirm that these groups differ concerning their dispositional resistance. Our research emphasizes the importance for future research to focus on these resistant user groups and their potential digital divide from society. Potential benefits of these new user group clusters are discussed.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., Weinert, C., and Eckhardt, A. (2011)
Is Facebook Usage Becoming Stressful? Proposing and Validating a Theory of Stress-induced ICT Discontinuous Usage
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Shanghai, China

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Our research responds to an actual phenomenon that individuals experience fatigue while using popular social networking platforms as Facebook. Based on the stress-strain-outcome model, a theory of stress-induced ICT discontinuous usage is proposed to explain this phenomenon. The theory focuses on ICT-induced stress in voluntary usage settings in the household context. The theory provides an extended understanding of stress, as it focuses besides techno-stress on information, interaction, and social overload. The theory argues that an individual's perceived stress in terms of these four stress dimensions is a contributing factor for strain (e.g. emotional exhaustion), which in turn influences one's satisfaction with a technology and the corresponding usage behavior. As technology usage in households is predominately voluntary, we suggest discontinuous usage intention as new dependent variable to capture the phenomenon observed that individuals decrease usage intensity and to respond to current calls for understanding user resistance in a more appropriate way. Consequently, the paper explains how different dimensions of perceived stress mediated by strain influence an individual's resistance behavior. The proposed theory is validated with the help of an empirical study (n=523). Several implications for IT adoption research are discussed.

Wild, U., and Laumer, S. (2011)
Failure and Success of Knowledge Management Systems in the Financial Services Industry
Proceedings of the 2011 Quality Information in Organizations and Society (Pre ICIS siglQ Workshop), Shanghai, China
(Research in Progress)

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The success of information systems (IS) and especially knowledge management systems (KMS) is defined through the acceptance and usage of them. Directly after the implementation the initial success of such systems start with a relatively good acceptance and usage. When the first hype is over the problems of the systems become evident and the acceptance and usage dwindles. But what kinds of problems lead to the decreasing acceptance and finally to the rejection of the system? Our research in progress approach is intended to investigate those reasons for changes in the beliefs, attitudes and satisfaction of KMS users. Therefore one longitudinal case study is conducted in the financial service industry. The main objective is to elucidate inhibitors and enablers of KMS usage over time. The first period of investigation will be conducted before the implementation of a new KMS replacing an old one implemented in 1999 which has been identified as a major research of a declining job satisfaction within the organization observed. The second period of investigation is directly after the implementation and the third one after at least six months. Within our research-in-progress article we describe the theoretical background and research setting of our approach and present first results of the first data collection period.

Wild, U., and Laumer, S. (2011)
Adopting Business Processes - Distinguishing Characteristics of Business Processes and the Role of Standardization
Proceedings of the 2011 IFIP 8.2/Organizations and Society in Information Systems (OASIS) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Shanghai, China
(Research in Progress)

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Venkatesh (2006) prescribed in his article some research scenarios which are very interesting to follow. Although about five years have elapsed little has been done to follow his suggestions to dig deeper into the processes' characteristics and their impact on employees' adoption and the overall individual adoption of business processes and business process standards. We also think that this is a worthy field of study to follow. We want to pursue four steps to better understand the adoption of processes and possible process standards. First of all we need to find out process characteristics that are relevant to and perceived by the users and therefore have influence on their daily use. First steps towards this work have been done by Volkoff et al. (2007) and Orlikowski and Scott (2008) who come from the field of organizational science and throw a specific view onto that topic. The drivers to adopt IT have been widely investigated (only to mention one: Venkatesh et al. 2003). We do not want to further investigate this field. Instead we want to investigate the adoption of business processes. As business processes are almost entirely supported by IT systems and the users are even lead through the process via workflow systems, it is hard to distinguish whether the users adopt the IT or process. We think that it is very important to delineate IT and process characteristics that influence their adoption (second step). As a third step we want to show empirically the impact of the characteristics of processes on their adoption. Additionally, standardization of business processes can prove profitable (Münstermann et al. 2010). But the role of standardization in the adoption of business processes is not quite clear yet. One can imagine that it is a mediator between the process characteristics and the adoption of business processes. We want to investigate this topic further in order to clarify the interrelationship between business processes, business process standardization and the adoption of business processes (fourth step). First, we will conduct an exploratory case study in a large company in the financial services industry to find out characteristics of processes that influence the workers daily tasks. In addition to the elucidation of those characteristics we want to delineate constructs and relations of IT and process adoption. This company introduced a new core banking system in 2008 and is currently but slowly changing its processes towards already developed process standards. This allows us to find out the role of business process standardization in the adoption of processes in a situation of process change. Therefore the case is a good opportunity to answer some of the related research questions and allows us to gain further deep insights into the above mentioned interrelationship. Additionally, a survey is planned in the financial services industry to empower and verify the findings of the case study.

Moos, B., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Knowledge domains, innovation success, and knowledge management systems: Evidence from an empirical study in the manufacturing industry
Proceedings of the 2011 IFIP 8.2/Organizations and Society in Information Systems (OASIS) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Shanghai, China

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Knowledge can be seen as a key asset of a firm for coming up with innovations. Therefore the knowledge stock of a firm comprising different domains like market or technological knowledge builds the basis for innovating successfully. Accordingly, the use of knowledge management systems is of great importance for building and enhancing the knowledge stock. The paper analyses the effect of each knowledge domain on innovations success and what the role of knowledge management systems is about within this context. Using data from 225 firms the results show that the use of knowledge management systems influences each knowledge domain positively and that for innovation success technological as well as process knowledge plays the most important role. Thereby our research gives practical guidelines for investigating into specific knowledge domains for generating innovation success.

Schilling, A., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Is the source strong with you? A fit perspective to predict sustained participation of FLOSS developers
Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Shanghai, China
(Research in Progress)

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Despite the notable success of some Free Libre Open Source (FLOSS) projects, the overwhelming majority of FLOSS initiatives fail, mostly because of insufficient long-term participation of developers. In contrast to previous research which focuses on the individual perspective, we approach developer retention from an organizational perspective to help existing project members identify potential long-term contributors who are worth spending their time on. Methodically, we transfer two concepts from professional recruiting, Person-Job (P-J) and Person-Team (P-T) fit, to the FLOSS domain and evaluate their usage to predict FLOSS developer retention. An empirical analysis reveals that both fit concepts are appropriate to explain FLOSS retention behavior. Looking at contributor retention in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) projects, we find a moderate correlation with P-J fit and a weak correlation with P-T fit.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
An Instrument for Measuring SOA Maturity
Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Shanghai, China
(Research in Progress)

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Existing empirical research on the business value of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) has only measured the extent of SOA adoption - but not maturity - to determine whether typical goals, like increased business agility or IT cost reduction, could be achieved. However, a widely implemented SOA might be less mature than an SOA adopted only in particular areas of the organization, which in turn can lead to mismeasurement and misinterpretation. On the other side, the few existing SOA maturity frameworks that have been specified by previous researchers lack valid operationalizations to make them applicable to empirical research. Ready to use items and scales for evaluating the particular maturity level of an organization are missing. We propose to measure the degree of SOA maturity as a new variable for future empirical research especially in the context of SOA business value. Our analytical approach uses 21 items to classify the maturity of an organization's SOA in seven maturity levels along seven maturity dimensions derived from The Open Group Service Integration Maturity Model (OSIMM). The applicability of this new instrument is shown using data from 121 organizations. The results show that the majority of the organizations has only reached SOA maturity levels two to four. Also, higher levels of SOA maturity highly and significantly increase the realized business value from SOA in terms of business agility, straight through processing (STP), and reduced IT costs. However, the marginal benefits are decreasing for higher levels of SOA maturity in cases of STP and business agility.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Does SOA Create or Require IT/Business Collaboration? Investigating SOA's Potential to Reduce the Gap Between IT and Business
Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Shanghai, China

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By extending the research on identifying the possible benefits of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA), we investigate how SOA delivers its value in an organization. One perspective in the existing literature suggests that service orientation works through creating better IT/Business collaboration as the "services" concept is a shared mental model that reduces the mental gap between IT and business units. Another perspective proposes that SOA benefits require IT/Business collaboration in the first place as IT and business must closely collaborate in order to leverage SOA's potential. We develop a theoretical model to understand how service orientation and close collaboration between IT and business departments are related. An analysis using data from 122 organizations reveals that SOA does not advance - but rather requires - close collaboration between the IT and business departments (i.e., collaboration is a moderator, not mediator, between SOA and its impacts). Therefore, close IT/business collaboration is an important success factor for realizing SOA's value potential and must be established using other means.

Schlosser, F., and Wagner, H. (2011)
Applying Importance-Performance Analysis to IT Outsourcing: A Survey among Financial Institutions
Proceedings of the 15th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Brisbane, Australia

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What is the importance of specific control and contractual mechanisms for IT outsourcing relationship quality and outsourcing success? Employing a survey among financial institutions and applying Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) known from marketing research, we analyse the relative importance of Service Level Agreements, control and contractual mechanisms for relationship quality and outsourcing success. Results show that, consistent with prior research, IT outsourcing relationship quality is positively related to outsourcing success. Extending prior research we show that outsourcing contract quality in general is most important for relationship quality, followed by control mechanisms and the characteristics of Service Level Agreements. We contribute to theory by revealing the differential importance of specific control and contractual factors for relationship quality and outsourcing success. Furthermore, we contribute to outsourcing practice by demonstrating the importance of specific measures in an IT outsourcing context and thus deliver direction for outsourcing management.

Schlosser, F., and Wagner, H. (2011)
IT Governance Practices for Improving Strategic and Operational Business-IT Alignment
Proceedings of the 15th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Brisbane, Australia

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The literature suggests that business-IT alignment is an important antecedent of IS success, business process performance, and competitive advantage. Additionally, IT governance practices are highlighted as being instrumental to fostering business-IT alignment. In this paper, we derive various IT governance practices (in terms of structures, processes, relational mechanisms, and enterprise architecture characteristics) from literature and expert interviews. While prior investigations only considered the effect of such practices on strategic business-IT alignment, we also incorporate alignment at operational level. Using results from a case study in the IT services division of a large multi-national, multi-divisional company acting in diverse industries we highlight the effect of various IT governance practices and offer new insights by showing which mechanisms are effective in facilitating strategic or operational business-IT alignment. Our results indicate the most important practices for both strategic and operational alignment.

Wirtky, T., Eckhardt, A., Laumer, S., Wild, U., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Going beyond operational efficiency in HR using IT - A Literature Review of Human Resources Information Systems
Proceedings of the 17th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Detroit (MI)

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Leading academics claim that the management of human resources will be most critical in gaining competitive advantage. Today, the human resources departments (HR) are transforming themselves from an administrative cost-center to an internal partner delivering additional business value. In this transformation process, information technology (IT) could play a key role. Therefore, this paper aims to unfold both the current state of knowledge concerning the value contribution of information systems (IS) for the HR function and approaches that go even beyond operational efficiency. Reviewing nearly 8,000 articles, published in the proceedings of eight major IS conferences reveals that in total 35 articles exclusively deal with the topic of human resources information systems (HRIS) but only very few research approaches show, how HRIS could help to go beyond operational efficiency. Furthermore, the literature analysis identifies that approaches dealing with the IT support for HR planning processes are completely missing so far.

Schäfferling, A., Wagner, H., Schulz, M., and Dum, T. (2011)
The Effect of Knowledge Management Systems on Absorptive Capacity: Findings from International Law Firms
Proceedings of the 15th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Brisbane, Australia

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This case study is engaged in examining the effects of knowledge management systems (KMS) on absorptive capacity (ACAP). Often regarded as the major source of innovation and firm competitive advantage, ACAP raises questions of how to value, assimilate and apply new knowledge. Based on a multiple case study design we specifically investigate KMS as antecedent of ACAP. We interviewed six experts employed in knowledge management functions at two different international law firms operating in the Asian-Pacific, American, and European legal market. The findings from our case study analysis demonstrate that KMS have a positive effect on ACAP, especially on knowledge acquisition and assimilation.

Joachim, N. (2011)
A Literature Review of Research on Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA): Characteristics, Adoption Determinants, Governance Mechanisms, and Business Impact
Proceedings of the 17th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Detroit (MI)

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This literature review synthesizes existing research in the field of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) from a business perspective and integrates results from 40 works to offer researchers an overview about the existing body of knowledge in this research field as well as a research agenda, which unifies and extends previous efforts. While the literature regarding the technologies and design principles for SOA and even Service-Oriented Enterprises (SOE) converges, especially research regarding the identification of determinants influencing SOA adoption, governance mechanisms for effectively implementing SOA, and regarding SOA's actual business impact is needed. Previous empirical research indicated promising factors in each of these fields. However, future research should especially draw attention to holistically cover each of the research areas. Moreover, extending the use of empirical research methods will further improve our understanding regarding the importance of different adoption determinants, governance mechanisms, and the actual business value of SOA.

von Stetten, A., Wild, U., and Chrennikow, W. (2011)
Adopting Social Network Sites - The Role of Individual IT Culture and Privacy Concerns
Proceedings of the 17th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Detroit (MI)
Best Paper Nomination

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In this paper we examine the role of the concepts of Individual IT Culture (IITC) and Privacy Concerns in IT adoption using the example of the social network site (SNS) Facebook. Analyzing data from a large online survey with Partial Least Squares (PLS), we show that IITC is an antecedent for Privacy Concerns and the TAM sub-constructs Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU). However, contrary to our hypothesis, Privacy Concerns do not have a significant negative effect on the Intention to Use Facebook. The remaining relationships in the TAM (PEOU --> PU; PEOU --> Intention; PU --> Intention, Intention --> Usage) are confirmed. Besides, we contribute to better validate the assessment instrument for IITC as we show by means of a reflective first-order formative second-order construct that six sub-constructs of IITC do have a significant influence on IITC whereas one sub-construct does not.

Laumer, S. (2011)
Why do People Reject Technologies - A Literature-based Discussion of the Phenomena "Resistance to Change" in Information Systems and Managerial Psychology Research
Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Helsinki, Finland

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In 2008, Ford et al. (2008) pointed out for management research, that "it is time to expand our understanding of resistance to change". Since 1947, when Kurt Lewin discuss the first time the concept of resistance to change within his field theory, managerial psychology researchers have extended, criticized, modified and re-conceptualized the understanding of employees' responses to change initiatives. Also information systems research has identified resistance to change as major reason for IT project failures. However, as our analysis in this paper shows, there are a lot of opportunities for IS research to research resistance to IT-induced change. Using a literature review the paper discusses different concepts of resistance to change from managerial psychology and IS research in order to provide a better understanding of resistance to IT-induced change. The paper highlights implications from managerial psychology research to update the understanding of resistance to change in information systems research.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Eckhardt, A. (2011)
Dispositional Resistance to Change and Social Network Site Adopters' and Non-Adopters' Attitudinal Beliefs - An Empirical Analysis
Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Helsinki, Finland

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Using the Model of Adoption of Technology in Households (MATH) (Venkatesh and Brown 2001, Brown and Venkatesh 2005), this research investigates the impact of dispositional resistance to change on Social Network Site (SNS) adopters' and non-adopters' attitudinal beliefs in order to explain, why individuals resist using Facebook. Therefore, the study is based on psychology research and adapts a personality perspective to explain user resistance. Dispositional resistance captures an individual's inclination to react to change with resistance and is based on four dimensions named routine seeking, short-term focus, emotional reaction, and cognitive rigidity (Oreg 2003). By conducting an empirical study, the influences of the four resistance dimensions on individuals' attitudinal beliefs are analyzed within the MATH. The influence is investigated for adopters, actual non-adopters and long-term non-adopters in a separate way. The results indicate significant relations between the dispositional resistance to change and individuals' attitudinal beliefs, which vary for the analyzed groups. The same holds true for the R², as the four resistance dimensions explain up to 54 percent of the variance of individuals' attitudinal beliefs.

von Stetten, A., Beimborn, D., Weitzel, T., and Reiss, Z. (2011)
Managing the Impact of Differences in National Culture on Social Capital in Multinational IT Project Teams - A German Perspective
Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Helsinki, Finland

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How can management handle relationship problems arising from cultural differences in multinational IT project teams? This paper uses a social capital lens to better understand the negative impact of cultural differences in IT project teams. In contrast to many previous works we do not consider cultural differences as a whole but explore the role of the different national culture dimensions. This allows for a more detailed view on cultural differences in a team context and thus contributes to a better understanding about which dimensions of national culture drive relationship problems and which management measures can help to dampen the negative effects. Based on several exploratory cases (6 multinational IT projects in 4 companies, headquartered in Germany), the authors identify three patterns showing typical problems in team social relationships which arise from differences in particular dimensions of national culture. Pattern-specific as well as general management measures, employed to address the culture-driven negative effects, are identified as well.

Moos, B., Beimborn, D., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Knowledge management systems, absorptive capacity, and innovation success
Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Helsinki, Finland

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Innovation is considered a major driving force for the prosperity of firms and entire economies. Research suggests that a firm's capacity to acquire and utilize relevant knowledge from internal and external sources, i.e. its absorptive capacity (ACAP), is decisive for innovation success. But what is the role of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) for a firm's ACAP and innovativeness? Surprisingly, despite lots of mature research on both, ACAP and KMS, there is a gap linking the two. This paper hence asks: What is the effect of knowledge management systems usage on absorptive capacity and innovation success? Responding to recent findings in the management and organizational sciences we develop a theoretical model that links the availability and usage of KMS with a firm's ACAP and its organizational knowledge to explain innovation success. An empirical evaluation using data from 224 manufacturing firms shows that a firm's KMS strongly contributes to its ACAP and catalyzes the innovation process. The results suggest that organizational knowledge is important for innovation success and that successful KMS work through enhancing particular facets of ACAP.

Schroiff, A., Beimborn, D., and Brix, A. (2011)
The Role of Interaction Structures for Client Satisfaction in Application Service Provision Relationships
Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Helsinki, Finland

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This paper presents an embedded exploratory case study of an application service provider's (ASP) client relationships. We focus on the relationship between the vendor and the clients in the ongoing business, which we analyzed based on interviews with client representatives, a pre-interview questionnaire assessing goal achievement, service quality, and relationship quality, and an identification of the real-life social network structure between vendor and client staff (not to be confused with online social networks). We identified two categories of clients fundamentally differing in their expectations for ASP support, which influences the formation of the social network structure between both firms. We found that ASPs should be aware of client differences and differentiate their support services accordingly in order to satisfy their clients in the long run. As main contribution, we extend the Expectation Confirmation Theory by adding a social network-theoretic argument explaining why disconfirmation does not necessarily reduce satisfaction in B2B relationships.

Maier, C. (2011)
Explaining the Influence of User Personality on the Evaluation of IT Usage Drivers and IT Usage Consequences
Proceedings of the 2011 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, San Antonio (TX)

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This proposal pursues the goal to combine personality and IT usage behavior. Therefore, a psychological theory - which is named Five-Factor Theory of Personality - is applied to offer a theoretical framework for the interaction between personality and typical adoption theories or models (as TAM, UTAUT, etc.). The insights should help to gain insights of the impact of personality on IT usage, IT usage drivers and IT usage consequences in different IS research fields. The proposal focuses on IT (non-)usage behavior and IT diffusion, but should also offer valuable insights for IT management research as IT outsourcing decisions or how to handle employees.

Lang, S., Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Eckhardt, A. (2011)
Drivers, Challenges and Consequences of E-Recruiting - A Literature Review
Proceedings of the 2011 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, San Antonio (TX)

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Using a literature review of 80 journals and proceedings we identified 23 research papers discussing driver, challenges and consequences of e-recruiting. In total 14 drivers, 15 challenges and 9 consequences of implementing and using e-recruiting has been identified. Based on these results the paper introduced a model of drivers, challenges and consequences of e-recruiting and discusses implications for research and practice. The analysis reveals that e-recruiting will reduce costs for recruitment and selection, increase the number of suitable applicants, enable time savings for both organizations and applicants and improve the corporate image. These four consequences also have been identified as major drivers of e-recruiting projects. The identified challenges include the exclusion of potential applicants, the deception of applicants in e-assessment procedures, the security of applicants' data and low qualification of applicants.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
The Trend is our Friend - German IT Personnel's Perception of Job-related Factors before, during and after the Economic Downturn
Proceedings of the 2011 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, San Antonio (TX), Winner of the ACM SIGMIS Magid Igbaria Outstanding Conference Paper of the Year 2011 Award
Winner of the ACM SIGMIS Magit Igbaria Outstanding Conference Paper of the Year 2011 Award

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With the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers the global economic crisis has reached one of its summits. Before that time CIOs challenged high turnover rates of IT personnel and recruiting, developing and retaining the IT workforce was one of the most important concerns of CIOs. However, the global economic development has changed on the one side the challenges of organizations, and on the other side also the perception of job-related factors of IT talent. Based on this development we compare major IT turnover constructs using three empirical surveys in 2008, 2009 and 2010 in order to discuss how the global economic development influences the perceptions of job-related factors and turnover intentions of German IT personnel. The analysis showed that job satisfaction and organizational commitment is decreasing since 2008, perceived job alternatives are increasing compared to 2009 and turnover intention has reached a maximum in 2010 compared to the two other years in question.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Eckhardt, A. (2011)
Technology Adoption by Elderly People - An Empirical Analysis of Adopters and Non-Adopters of Social Networking Sites
Proceedings of the 10. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Zürich, Schweiz

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
SOA-Governance für effektive serviceorientierte Architekturen - Eine empirische Studie in der deutschen Dienstleistungswirtschaft
Proceedings of the 10. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Zürich, Schweiz

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Sowohl die jüngere Forschung als auch die Erfahrung von Praktikern postulieren, dass eine SOA-Governance kritisch für eine erfolgreiche Implementierung von serviceorientierten Architekturen (SOA) ist. Dieser Beitrag bietet eine der ersten empirischen Untersuchungen bezüglich der Bedeutung verschiedener SOA-Governance-Mechanismen (Schaffung von Entscheidungsstrukturen, Nutzung von Standards, Verwendung von Servicemanagement- und Serviceentwicklungsprozessen, Qualifikation von Mit-arbeitern und Zusammenarbeit von Fachbereichen) für das Erreichen der gewünschten Modularität und einer hohen Wiederverwendungsrate. Die Ergebnisse basieren auf einer Umfrage unter deutschen Dienstleistungsunternehmen und zeigen, dass eine höhere Wiederverwendung nicht nur direkt durch verschiedene SOA-Governance-Mechanismen, sondern vor allem auch durch eine geeignetere Modularität als Mediator erreicht wird. Außerdem ist die Verwendung bestehender Entscheidungsstrukturen gegenüber der Schaffung neuer Entscheidungsstrukturen in Bezug auf die Erreichung von Modularität und Wiederverwendung zu favorisieren. Zuletzt wird ein starker Einfluss der Verwendung von Standards und klar definierter Servicemanagementprozesse auf die Effektivität von SOA deutlich.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Eine empirische Untersuchung des Wertbeitrages von serviceorientierten Architekturen (SOA)
Proceedings of the 10. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Zürich, Schweiz

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Bisher wurde der Wertbeitrag der Nutzung von serviceorientierten Architekturen (SOA) für Unternehmen weder in der Praxis noch in der Forschung jenseits von Einzelfallbetrachtungen nachgewiesen. Wir untersuchen in einer ersten quantitativen Studie die realisierten Vorteile einer SOA-Nutzung im Hinblick auf Kostenreduktion, unternehmerische Agilität, Datenqualität, Prozess-Monitoring, interne Geschäftsprozessintegration (STP) und unternehmensübergreifende Integration (B2B). Die Analyse von 134 Unternehmensantworten zeigt, dass SOA zu allen sechs Unternehmensvorteilen beiträgt. Außerdem ist erkennbar, dass sich SOA in klassischen Aspekten flexibler IT-Infrastrukturen wie Modularität, Flexibilität und Skalierbarkeit widerspiegelt. Und auch die Realisierung von Unternehmensvorteilen durch SOA kann zu bedeutenden Teilen über die Verbesserung der IT-Flexibilität als Mediator erklärt werden.

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., Schlosser, F., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Die Bedeutung relationaler Faktoren für den IT-Wertbeitrag - Eine Studie unter den größten 1.500 US-Banken
Proceedings of the 10. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Zürich, Schweiz

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Diese Arbeit untersucht die Auswirkung von operativem ITBusiness-Alignment sowie insbesondere der Gestaltung der Beziehungsschnittstelle zwischen verschiedenen Fachbereichen auf die Nutzungsintensität von Informationssystemen sowie auf die Geschäftsprozessleistung. Wir entwickeln ein theoretisches Modell unter Anwendung einer sozialen Perspektive auf Alignment und auf die Beziehungsschnittstelle und evaluieren es anhand einer Studie der IT-Nutzung im Firmenkreditprozess US-amerikanischer Banken. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Qualität der Beziehungsschnittstelle zwischen verschiedenen Fachbereichen einerseits und zwischen IT-Einheit und Fachbereichen (gemessen in Form von Vertrauen, gemeinsames Wissen und struktureller Interaktion) andererseits erhebliche Auswirkungen auf die Nutzung der Informationssysteme im Kreditprozess und darüber auf die Leistung des Kreditprozesses haben. Insbesondere der Zusammenhang im Dreieck operatives Alignment, Beziehungsschnittstelle zwischen Fachbereichen und Nutzung von Informationssystemen liefert einen neuen Beitrag zu unserem Verständnis des Geschäftswertbeitrages der IT.

Moos, B., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
The Role of Innovation Governance and Knowledge Management for Innovation Success
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

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To innovate is one of the basic functions of a firm and a competitive necessity in dynamic markets. So what management mechanisms can a firm use to foster innovation success? This paper analyzes if knowledge management (KM) and innovation governance (IG) distinguish top innovation performers. Theoretically, we scrutinize if KM and IG mechanisms, composed of systems capabilities (organizational structures, policies, and processes) and coordination capabilities, are antecedents of absorptive capacity, knowledge stock and, eventually, innovation success of a firm. Using data from 204 firms, the results show that (1) IG and KM applying firms have significantly higher innovation success resulting from higher absorptive capacity and greater knowledge stock, (2) the most important IG mechanisms are measuring innovation success, using tools for monitoring the innovation process and a structured idea management, (3) KM drives innovation generation but not its transfer to products and markets.

Walentowitz, K., Beimborn, D., Schroiff, A., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
The Social Network Structure of Alignment - A Literature Review
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

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The social network structure at the interface between a firm's business and IT units is of vital importance to business/IT alignment and hence an important IT governance object. Yet, there is a substantial gap in understanding the nature of these social structures and how they affect IT business value. Based on a literature review that comprises articles published in eight top IS journals since 2000, this paper identifies social network structure characteristics which represent antecedents of alignment. These are subsequently translated into precise concepts of social network analysis (SNA). The identification and formalization of such social network structures allow IT governance to implement social engineering mechanisms in order to influence the social network structure and thus business/IT alignment and IT value. Examples for such translated arguments are a high degree centrality of CIOs vis-à-vis other executives and strong ties in terms of cross-domain knowledge between the CIO and other executives.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
What Are Important Governance and Management Mechanisms to Achieve IT Flexibility in Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA)? An Empirical Exploration
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

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Recent research results and practitioner experience both posit that Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) governance is critical to successfully implement and utilize SOA. We investigate the impact of different SOA governance and management mechanisms (structures, processes, and employees) for leveraging SOA's potential to increase an organization's IT infrastructure flexibility. The results based on data from 73 SOA using organizations reveal: (1) a negative impact of implementing new decision-making bodies on 2 dimensions of IT flexibility (IT modularity and integration) (2) a positive impact of the SOA management processes service management and service development on 2 dimensions of IT flexibility (modularity and integration of IT infrastructure) (3) a positive impact of business units collaboratively identifying jointly utilizable services on modularity (4) and a particularly strong impact of standards, and also of employee qualification, on all dimensions of IT infrastructure flexibility.

Wagner, H., Dum, T., Schäfferling, A., and Schulz, M. (2011)
The Effect of Knowledge Management Systems on Absorptive Capacity: The Case of a German Law Firm
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

Beimborn, D., Moos, B., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
The Impact of Knowledge Management on Absorptive Capacity
Proceedings of the 2010 IFIP 8.2/Organizations and Society in Information Systems (OASIS) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), St. Louis (MO)
(Research in Progress)

Eckhardt, A., Laumer, S., and Nguyen, N. (2010)
Social Influence in Technology Adoption Research - A Scientometric Study over two Decades
Proceedings of the 2010 Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), St. Louis (MO)

Laumer, S., and Eckhardt, A. (2010)
Why do People Reject Technologies? - Towards a Unified Model of Resistance to IT-Induced Organizational Change
Proceedings of the 2010 Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), St. Louis (MO)

Walentowitz, K., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
The Influence of Social Structures on Business/IT Alignment
Proceedings of the 2010 JAIS Theory Development Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), St. Louis (MO)

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Motivated by the importance of business/IT alignment for IT value creation and the fact that despite an extensive stream of literature discussing drivers of and success factors for alignment, the problem of reaching business/IT alignment is still not fully solved and alignment still ranks among the top three concerns of CIOs, we strive to explain alignment success based on the social structures present at the interface of business and IT on an operational level. While such structures at top management level are prominently discussed success factors of alignment, the analogues structures on the operational level have rarely been analyzed and there is a substantial gap in understanding the nature of these social structures and how they affect IT business value. We extend our prior research, which identified social patterns that are potentially beneficial for business/IT alignment, by adding detailed explanations of why these are beneficial for business/IT alignment. Hence, this paper contributes to existing research by providing new insights to the general assumption that social structures are important and by explaining why, despite the vivid discussion, still many firms fail to establish business/IT alignment. We find that strong bridges at the interface between business and IT, as well as strong connections of interface actors with their management and their unit are advantageous for the creation of IT/business knowledge, solidarity between IT and business and the power of the interface actors between IT and business, and in this way are beneficial for business/IT alignment.

Schroiff, A., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
The Role of Social Network Structures in Outsourced Projects
Proceedings of the 2010 International Research Workshop on Information Technology Project Management (IRWITPM) (Pre-ICIS), St. Louis (MO)

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IT management increasingly involves teams dispersed throughout a globalized world in internal as well as outsourced projects. In this work, we focus on the latter and analyze the impact of social network structures between vendor and client team members on project success. We present the findings of a comprehensive literature analysis and give an outlook on the ongoing empirical investigation. The goal is to propose a model linking structural properties of social networks to dimensions of success of outsourced IT projects. We base this model on indications found in prior research and the results of explorative case studies in outsourcing arrangements. Our findings so far show that the network density at the client-vendor interface and the multiplexity of ties are the salient, but not sole, network properties for which existing research implies an influence on success of outsourced IT projects. Case studies will reveal how and why these and other social network properties have an impact on project success.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
Investigating Adoption Determinants of Service-oriented Architectures (SOA)
Proceedings of the 2010 Special Interest Group on Services (SIGSVC) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), St. Louis (MO)
(Research in Progress)

Laumer, S., and Eckhardt, A. (2010)
Why do People Reject Technologies? - Towards an Understanding of Resistance to IT-induced Organizational Change
Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), St. Louis (MO)
(Research in Progress)

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Research on resistance to information technology is characterized by the fact that there is still no unified understanding about resistance to change of IT-induced organizational change projects (Vithessonthi 2007). In order to provide a deeper understanding why people reject technologies when introduced in organizations this paper develops a Model of Resistance to IT-induced Organizational Change based on micro-organizational change (Oreg 2006) and technology acceptance literature (Venkatesh and Bala 2008). The model posits that work, technology and process related outcomes of business process change are determined by a tri-dimensional resistance to change conceptualization (Piderit 2000; Oreg 2006) and evaluation of process and technology characteristics (Venkatesh 2006). Moreover these dimensions are determined by the context of the change and individual differences such as personality traits. First case study results show that the model is appropriate to gain a deeper understanding why people reject technologies.

Laumer, S., and Eckhardt, A. (2010)
Online Gaming Platforms to Apply for Jobs - Proposing a Research Model to Investigate Job Seekers' Behavior
Proceedings of the 3rd Academic Workshop on Electronic Human Resource Management, Bamberg

Schäfferling, A., and Wagner, H. (2010)
IT capability, innovation capability, and long-term performance: A research approach
Proceedings of the 16th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Lima, Peru

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The business value of IT is a central tenet of IS research. In this regard organizational IT capabilities are identified as a significant impact factor for performance and competitive advantage. Based on the dynamic capabilities view, this paper aims at extending existent research on IT capabilities and performance by incorporating innovation capability as a substantial driver of long-term performance. However, existing research falls short in investigating these relationships over time. To address these issues, several propositions are developed to link IT capability, innovation capability and long-term performance. This work aims at revealing the interdependencies among IT and innovation capability and to shed light on the temporal effects such as lag effects between investments into IT- and innovation capability and their effect on long-term performance.

Laumer, S., and Eckhardt, A. (2010)
The Internet as Additional Secondary Source - First empirical Results for Differentiating the Impact of Secondary Sources on the Intention to use IT
Proceedings of the 16th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Lima, Peru
(Research in Progress)

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The research about adoption decisions in a household context brought the factor of secondary sources as part of a normative beliefs construct to explain an individual's behavioral intention. The secondary sources included mass media as TV, radio and newspapers but not the largest global information medium, the internet. With billions of information provided by the internet in every minute it seems to be very likely that this factor depicts an important determinant for an individual's IT adoption decision as well. So for this reason the aim of our paper is to propose a research model to integrate the explicit influence of the mass medium internet on an individual's IT adoption decision and to discuss the relationship and interplay between attitude towards an information system, intention to use an information system and the secondary source "Internet". Furthermore a research description how the influence can be validated is provided and first empirical results are presented.

Schreiber, B., Eckhardt, A., and Laumer, S. (2010)
Between Cost Efficiency and Limited Innovation - A Scientometric Study of Business Process Standardization
Proceedings of the 16th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Lima, Peru

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While process standardization is a usual component in companies' daily BPM toolkit research and practice still struggle to determine and realize the particular value and impact of process standardization for process performance especially independently from its drawbacks. As the basic idea of process standardization in research is spread across different fields a complete overview on this topic and its related benefits and drawbacks especially in Information Systems research is still missing. Therefore within this approach we provide a scientometric study including all publications of the JAIS ranking, the LSE ranking of IS top journals, the WKWI list for 2008 and the power publication approach for IS top journals. In total 80 peer-reviewed research articles of different fields such as information systems and management, different outlets, as proceedings and journals were identified and analyzed due to their methodology, relevancy, spreading and content.

Schlosser, F., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2010)
Who Is Doing What? The Impact of Task and Role Documentation on Outsourcing Service Quality
Proceedings of the 16th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Lima, Peru

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Our research contributes to the quest for management action items that drive outsourcing management success. We hypothesize and empirically show that a certain piece of IT governance, the explicit documentation of roles and responsibilities of staff residing in the client firm's retained organization contributes to social alignment in terms of interaction quality, shared knowledge, and trust between the client firm's business and side and the outsourcing vendor. Our model is quantitatively tested by using data from 171 IT outsourcing arrangements in the German banking industry. We show that the documentation of tasks and responsibilities affects the service quality delivered by the vendor in terms of reliability and responsiveness, and that this impact is fully mediated by both client-internal social alignment and vendor/client alignment. This result represents a piece for helping practitioners to develop a better understanding of how to design their outsourcing governance to maintain and improve ongoing outsourcing relationships.

Schroiff, A., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
Structuring the Structure in Outsourcing Research - A Social Network Perspective on Outsourcing Relationship Management
Proceedings of the 16th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Lima, Peru

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To what extent are structural assumptions veiled in extant outsourcing research? In this paper we suggest a unified view on social ties between individuals in outsourcing relationships. In a comprehensive literature analysis of outsourcing research since 2001, we identified structural assumptions and categorize them based on social network measures. Our analysis uncovers two salient patterns: 1) The gatekeeper vs. high density trade-off in interaction between client and vendor employees, and 2) the question whether the strength of ties between individuals can be too high for a professional outsourcing relationship. We present these patterns and other social network structures to formalize assumptions mostly not explicated yet considered important in existing outsourcing research. Based on our results, further research should analyze the impact of these patterns of social structure on outsourcing success.

Walentowitz, K., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
The Impact of Business/IT Social Network Structures on IT Service Quality
Proceedings of the 16th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Lima, Peru

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In this paper, we explore the basic premise that IT service quality follows the structure of business/IT interactions and thus highlight an important organizational design issue in IT governance. Motivated by concepts used in social network theory we build a model that proposes a causal relationship between structural characteristics of social business/IT networks and IT service quality. The model is empirically evaluated and explained using case studies based on five interviews in three firms. Thus we extend the general assumption that the business/IT partnership is crucial for IT service quality by identifying structural characteristics of the network among and between business and IT staff which enhance this partnership. Important results are that strong and bridging ties at the business/IT interface are crucial for IT service quality and that a good integration of interface actors within their own unit supports IT service quality.

Laumer, S. (2010)
Why do People Reject Information Systems? - An Investigation of IT Resistance and Personality
Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Doctoral Consortium, Pretoria, South Africa

Laumer, S., and Eckhardt, A. (2010)
Analyzing IT Personnel's Perception of Job-related Factors in Good and Bad Times
Proceedings of the 2010 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Eckhardt, A. (2010)
Why do they resist? - An empirical analysis of an individual's personality trait resistance regarding the adoption of new information systems
Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Pretoria, South Africa

Münstermann, B., Möderer, P., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
Setting up and managing business process standardization: Insights from a case study with a multinational e-commerce firm
Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

Moos, B., Beimborn, D., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
Suggestions For Measuring Organizational Innovativeness: A Review
Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

Schlosser, F., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
The Role of Internal Business/IT Alignment and IT Governance for Service Quality in IT Outsourcing Arrangements
Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

von Stetten, A., Beimborn, D., Kuznetsova, E., and Moos, B. (2010)
The Impact of Cultural Differences on IT Nearshoring Risks from a German Perspective
Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

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Which nearshoring risks arise from cultural differences between German outsourcers and IT providers located in the nearshore environment? This paper focuses on the domain of IT nearshoring which is quite sparsely researched. Based on exploratory expert interviews from the IT service industry in six typical nearshoring countries from a German perspective (Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey), we analyze which and how cultural differences influence typical outsourcing risks. We develop a causal model which derives outsourcing risk factors (such as insufficient formal communication, insufficient interaction, emotionally laden communication, and insufficiently open communication) from different cultural dimensions and links them to traditional outsourcing risk dimensions.

Münstermann, B., and Eckhardt, A. (2009)
What drives Business Process Standardization? A Case Study Approach
Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Information Resources Management (CONF-IRM), Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

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Business process standardization is of growing importance for both researchers and practitioners alike. Corporate experts and process owners meanwhile consider business process standards to be a prime action item and major instrument in a firm's BPM toolkit. An increasing number of scientific publications show also growing interest of the scientific community. But to date Information Systems (IS) research on business process standardization most notably is focused on the impact of business process standards on business process performance abstracting away from a concise analysis of their antecedents. Therefore in this paper - based on an exploratory case study from healthcare industry - we present a conceptual framework describing three antecedents of business process standardization: Top management support, involvement of the HR-, business- and IT departments and organizational governance/topology. As this approach is conceptual in nature future research should empirically evaluate our framework.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., Hoberg, P., and Schlosser, F. (2009)
Examining the Organizational Decision to Adopt Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) - Development of a Research Model
Proceedings of the 2009 Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Phoenix (AZ)

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What are the determinants of an organization's decision to adopt Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)? Although the paradigms of service orientation and SOA have become quite omnipresent in the IS literature, research is still lacking to provide a comprehensive view upon drivers and inhibitors of the organizational decision to adopt SOA. Based on the mature strand of adoption research, this paper develops a conceptual model in order to increase the understanding of the determinants influencing this decision. Thereby, the drivers and inhibitors are distinguished in organization-specific and innovation-specific factors. The organization-specific factors cover two aspects: (1) the compatibility of technology and organization (i.e., SOA expertise of the employees, management support for SOA, IT/ Business alignment, degree of process documentation) and (2) management fad and fashion. The innovation-specific factors cover the perceived benefits, perceived complexity, and standardization of available technologies related to SOA. Beside developing this theoretical model for laying the foundation for future empirical research, a further contribution of this paper is the development of a comprehensive measurement model for SOA adoption, which differentiates between the IT and the enterprise layer.

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., and Schlosser, F. (2009)
The Role of SOA for BPO Intention - Proposing a Research Model
Proceedings of the Workshop on eBusiness (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Phoenix (AZ)

von Stetten, A., Beimborn, D., and Kuznetsova, E. (2009)
Cultural Differences between Client and Vendor in IT Nearshoring Relationships and their Impact on IT Nearshoring Risks - A Research in Progress
Proceedings of the 17th SIG-CCRIS Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Phoenix (AZ)
(Research in Progress)

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This paper focuses on the domain of IT nearshoring which is quite sparsely researched compared with IT offshoring or IT outsourcing in general. We conducted eleven exploratory expert interviews from the IT service industry in six typical nearshoring countries from a German perspective (Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey) and in a German consulting firm being specialized in advising German client companies that intend to outsource IT related activities to vendors in nearby countries. Based on these interviews, we analyze which and how cultural differences between client and vendor influence typical outsourcing risks. We develop a causal model which derives outsourcing risk factors (such as insufficient communication, management, and cooperation) from different dimensions of national culture and links them to traditional outsourcing risk dimensions. This is a research in progress as more interviews, especially on the client side, will follow.

Laumer, S., Maier, C., and Eckhardt, A. (2009)
Towards an Understanding of an Individual's Resistance to Use an IS - Empirical Examinations and Directions for Future Research
Proceedings of the 2009 Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Phoenix (AZ)

Joachim, N. (2009)
Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA): An Empirical Investigation of Adoption Determinants and Resulting Business Value
Proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Doctoral Consortium, Phoenix (AZ)

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This research investigates the economic benefits which Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) promise. While more and more organizations adopt SOA, virtually none of them is able to predict the realizable business value of SOA ex ante. In contrast to the mature literature on the technological aspects of SOA, the organizational impacts of SOA are not explored in detail in the academic literature yet. Consequently, this proposal addresses two problems identified in current SOA research: First, a SOA adoption model is developed to evaluate the determinants of an organization's decision to adopt SOA. Second, a research model for enhancing the understanding of SOA's business value is developed. The first part of the proposal will draw on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework in order to increase the knowledge about the dissimilar impacts of different determinants which influence an organization's decision concerning the adoption of SOA. To address the second part of this research proposal, the model regarding the business value of SOA is based on the dynamic capabilities theory. Comparing organizations, which have adopted SOA with varying degree with others which have not adopted SOA at all, allows to determine the realistic economic impacts of SOA on an organization. Moreover, the business value model further investigates IT flexibility and IT business alignment as promising mediating factors which support the actual realization of SOA's potential business value.

Laumer, S. (2009)
Non-monetary solutions for retaining the IT workforce
Proceedings of the 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Francisco (CA)

Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2009)
Status Quo and Trends in E-Recruiting - Results from an Empirical Analysis
Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Information Resources Management (CONF-IRM), Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

von Stetten, A., and Beimborn, D. (2009)
Analyzing National Differences in IT Adoption between Culturally Close Countries - A Conceptual Model
Proceedings of the 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Francisco (CA)

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Cross-cultural research in IT adoption has so far most often concentrated on disparities in IT adoption between countries with highly different culture profiles. Instead, we argue that there are also differences between cultural closely related countries (which, e.g., are geographically close and share the same language) which need to be understood. The question raises whether the dimensions of culture applied in prior literature to analyze IT adoption in highly distinct cultures are sufficient for explaining the differences in a close culture context as well or whether a more differentiated model of cultural dimensions has to be drawn. Based on indicative results from a three-country comparison within Central Europe, we find substantial differences in adoption drivers (Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use) which seem to be impacted by "microcultural" disparities. As a consequence, we develop a conceptual model based on human values and cross-national differences in IT adoption which will allow us to analyze and explain these differences in future research.

Schlosser, F. (2009)
Die Bedeutung von operativem IT Business Alignment für nachhaltigen Unternehmenserfolg - Ein theoretisches Rahmenwerk und Richtlinien für die Praxis
Proceedings of the 9th Doctoral Consortium WI, Wien, Österreich

Beimborn, D., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2009)
Examining the Relationship Between Trust and Control in IT Outsourcing Relationships
Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Verona, Italy

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What is the role of control in maintaining trust in outsourcing relationships? Although the literature is quite rich on conceptualizing the relationship between control and trust in inter-organizational relationships, there exist quite sparse quantitative works which help to evaluate the models developed. In this paper, we analyze data from 156 IT outsourcing relationships of German banks in order to get insights into the actual relationships between different modes of control and the level of relational trust in these relationships. Additionally, we examine the role of service quality (measured in terms of reliability and responsiveness) in this context. The results show that trust is positively related with most modes of control, and that there is indicative evidence that control supports trust in high-service quality situations while it leads to a reduction of trust in relationships suffering from bad service quality (cycle of trust vs. distrust).

Schlosser, F. (2009)
A Social Linkage View on the Business Value of IT
Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Doctoral Consortium, Verona, Italy

Beimborn, D., Moos, B., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2009)
The Role of Client-internal Social Linkages for Outsourcing Success - An SNA Approach
Proceedings of the 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Francisco (CA)

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What is the role of a firm's internal social relations between business departments and IT unit for the success of its IT outsourcing relationship? In this paper, we propose that the relationship between business and IT of a firm is crucial for achieving effective outsourcing management and for enabling the vendor to deliver the services as demanded. Since the business side of the client firm represents the users of the information systems but the IT unit represents the interface to the outsourcing vendor firm, interaction between both units is proposed to be required for maintaining a good outsourcing relationship. Based on a survey in the German Banking Industry and by adopting a Social Network Analysis Approach which captures the interaction structure within the client firm and thus represents an innovative scale to outsourcing research, we show that tight social linkages within the client firm lead to higher service quality achieved by the vendor firm.

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., Schlosser, F., and Streicher, B. (2009)
The Role of IT/Business Alignment for Achieving SOA Business Value - Proposing a Research Model
Proceedings of the 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Francisco (CA)

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What is the interplay between IT/Business alignment and Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) regarding the achievement of business value in terms of business flexibility? This paper introduces a conceptual model that derives propositions about how IT/Business alignment, IT flexibility, and business flexibility are interrelated and how SOA and alignment interact in order to increase business flexibility. We apply and integrate well-known multi-dimensional concepts of both IT/Business alignment (in terms of strategic alignment, structural alignment, and social alignment) and IT flexibility (technical and non-technical IT flexibility) and map the conceptual components of SOA (architectural and the governance dimension) to this resulting model. This conceptualization will allow for more profoundly structured research on how SOA contributes to business value.

Münstermann, B., Joachim, N., and Beimborn, D. (2009)
An empirical evaluation of the impact of process standardization on process performance and flexibility
Proceedings of the 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Francisco (CA)

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This paper argues that business process standardization, as part of BPM activities, is an effective way to improve business process flexibility and performance. We develop and empirically evaluate a theoretical model of the differential impact of business process homogenization and optimization on business process flexibility and performance. The analysis based on data from 85 large firms shows a strong and highly significant influence of process standardization on business process flexibility and performance. This paper is among the first to propose a research model and empirical operationalization to analyze the twofold impact of process standardization on business process flexibility and performance. For practitioners the paper provides actionable recommendations on how to apply the findings to their management context.

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., and Münstermann, B. (2009)
Impact of Service-oriented Architectures (SOA) on Business Process Standardization - Proposing a Research Model
Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Verona, Italy

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What is the impact of a Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) on the efficiency and effectiveness of business process standardization (BPS)? The contribution of this paper is the development of a research model around the impact of SOA on BPS in terms of achieving fundamental efficiency and flexibility potentials while covering both the business layer and the IT layer of the firm. Drawing on an accepted and widespread enterprise architecture model, we derive propositions that explain why and how SOA's characteristics help to standardize business processes and how the interplay between SOA and BPS leads to an increased overall business value. Additional moderator arguments, such as the level of service granularity, the centrality of SOA governance, or Business IT alignment, are added to the research model as critical success factors of achieving business value of SOA.

Maier, C., Laumer, S., and Eckhardt, A. (2009)
An Integrated IT-Architecture for Talent Management and Recruitment
Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), Milan, Italy

Laumer, S., and Eckhardt, A. (2009)
Help to find the Needle in a Haystack - Integrating Recommender Systems in a IT supported Staff Recruitment System
Proceedings of the 2009 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Limerick, Ireland

Eckhardt, A., von Stetten, A., and Laumer, S. (2009)
Value Contribution of IT in Recruiting - A Multi-National Causal Analysis
Proceedings of the 2009 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Limerick, Ireland
(Research in Progress)

View Abstract

Despite an era of global recession qualified staff is still rare due to the demographical situation worldwide. Companies are forced to develop new cost saving recruitment strategies to ensure the necessary labor supply while recruitment budgets are pruned. In this area, the use of information technology creates interesting opportunities to contact candidates and process applications, not only more economically but also more quickly. The actual value of the contribution made by IT in HR is nevertheless still disputed. For this reason, we conducted an empirical analysis in three different countries examining the impact of IT on process performance determinants in staff recruitment. With the aid of three causal models for Germany, Austria and Switzerland we could confirm a positive impact of IT use on time and costs per hire as well on the overall recruitment process quality.

von Stetten, A., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., and Keim, T. (2009)
Does IT matter in recruiting - Eine länderübergreifende Kausalanalyse
Proceedings of the 9. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Wien, Österreich
Nominated for Young-Researcher-Award

View Abstract

Der weltweit fortschreitende Fachkräftemangel fordert von Unternehmen, neue Strategien für ihre Personalbeschaffung zu entwerfen. Dabei bietet der Einsatz von Informationssystemen eine interessante Möglichkeit, nicht nur günstiger, sondern auch schneller Kontakt zu qualitativ hochwertigen Kandidaten herzustellen. Nachwievor ist der tatsächliche Wertbeitrag von IS jedoch umstritten. Aus diesem Grund wird im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit mit Hilfe eines Kausalmodells für Deutschland, Österreich und die Schweiz empirisch belegt, dass der Einsatz von Informationssystemen in der Personalbeschaffung einen positiven Einfluss auf Rekrutierungszeit, -kosten und die Qualität des Personalbeschaffungsprozesses hat.

Münstermann, B., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2009)
Join the standard forces - Examining the combined impact of process and data standards on business process performance
Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

Blumenberg, S., Beimborn, D., Martin, S., Brodnik, B., Gunne, C., and Wendt, S. (2009)
Determinants of Outsourcing Success in the Financial Industry: The Impact of Importance
Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

Beimborn, D., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2009)
Proposing a theoretical model for IT governance and IT business alignment
Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

Laumer, S., von Stetten, A., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2009)
Online Gaming to Apply for Jobs - the Impact of Self- and E-Assessment on Staff Recruitment
Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

The process of recruiting employees has changed since the internet entered enterprises. From simply posting job ads and information on the internet to online application forms and holistic e-recruiting system architectures the way of recruiting has changed a lot. With the introduction of virtual worlds and the increasing number of online games this paper is discussing the next step of e-recruiting: online games to apply for jobs. With a single explorative case study the implementation of self- and e-assessment as online games could be explained. Furthermore with an SEM based on the empirical data of a survey with the Fortune 1,000 companies in Germany (response rate 19.1%) evidence for the motivation of companies to use online games can be provided. Perceived quality improvements, perceived cost savings and perceived time savings as well as perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are the most important drivers for companies intending to use online games in staff recruitment.

Beimborn, D., Gleisner, F., Joachim, N., and Hackethal, A. (2009)
The Role of Process Standardization in Achieving IT Business Value
Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

We empirically investigate the interplay and impact of process standardization and IT intensity on business process performance in terms of efficiency, quality, control, and processing time. To this aim we surveyed the retail advisory operations of Germany's largest banks. We find that standardization enhances efficiency, quality and control of the advisory process. Additionally, IT intensity on its own shows positive effects on efficiency and quality as well, while it leads to more customer facing time needed for a single customer. Also, the interaction effect with process standardization is relevant. We conclude that IT creates business value through facilitating process standardization and process control. Our results strongly indicate that managers have to look carefully at the type of the processes before standardizing it.

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
A Social Linkage View on the Business Value of IT
Proceedings of the 2008 JAIS Theory Development Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Paris, France

View Abstract

Our research intends to explore whether a social perspective on IT business alignment can help shed light on the IT value creation process by considering different facets of interpersonal linkage. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model which could be discussed at the JAIS workshop. Further, we use some empirical data from 149 US banks in order to find first empirical evidence whether our research focus represents a promising direction. We find initial support for our main hypotheses that communication, cross-domain knowledge and mutuality among and between IT and business staff significantly impact IT usage and business process outcomes. The final results of our research could contribute to our understanding of how the IT resource should be understood and used to measurably contribute to firm goals. The initial findings support the caveat of recent studies suggesting that informal aspects of alignment might be quite notable (e.g. Chan, 2002) and show that our theoretical understanding of alignment should be extended to better incorporate social aspects of daily work life.

Martin, S., Wagner, H., and Beimborn, D. (2008)
Process Documentation, Operational Alignment, and Flexibility in IT Outsourcing Relationships: A Knowledge-Based Perspective
Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Paris, France

von Stetten, A., and Beimborn, D. (2008)
Towards an explanation of differences in IS adoption between German speaking countries: Comparing Switzerland, Austria and Germany
Proceedings of the 16th SIG-CCRIS Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Paris, France

View Abstract

The way cultural values affect the adoption of information technology is an important field of research within the area of Information Systems. Up to now, much research work has been done to explain differences in IT Usage between totally different cultural regions. By contrast, in this paper we discover significant differences regarding the usage of information technology respectively the Internet in HR marketing between the German speaking and culturally rather close countries Austria, Switzerland, and Germany within a survey among the 1,000 largest companies in the particular countries. The paper in hand develops a theoretical model to analyze these differences and outlines our plans for empirical research pursuing the objective to scrutinize and explain the ascertained differences in IT Usage between the mentioned countries.

Eckhardt, A., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
Hire Education For Firms - Successful IT Hires in Five Firms
Proceedings of the 14th SIM Academic Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Paris, France

Beimborn, D., and Joachim, N. (2008)
Proposing the Relationship Between IT Business Alignment and the Business Value of Service-Oriented Architectures in Financial Firms
Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Enterprise Applications and Services in Finance Industry (FinanceCom) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Paris, France

View Abstract

What is the business value of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) and how can we achieve it? This paper represents a conceptual piece of research which focuses on the impact of IT Business Alignment (ITBA) on the successful implementation of SOA, in terms of its business value. The contribution of this model is predominant in proposing a threefold effect of ITBA on achieving a successful implementation of SOA through the specific strategic needs defined by a particular firm in a specific industry, i.e., the banking industry. As a result, we show that the business strategy moderates the impact of SOA‟s general potentials on its actual business value and claim that this relationship is further moderated by ITBA, which must be thoroughly considered by practitioners deciding on introducing SOA in their firm.

Beimborn, D., and Joachim, N. (2008)
How to Achieve Business Value of SOA? - Investigating the Relationships between SOA, IT Business Alignment and Sourcing Strategies
Proceedings of the 2008 Special Interest Group on Services (SIGSVC) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Paris, France

von Stetten, A., Münstermann, B., Eckhardt, A., and Laumer, S. (2008)
Towards an Understanding of the Business Value of Business Process Standardization - A Case Study Approach
Proceedings of the 14th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Toronto, ON, Canada

View Abstract

What is the business value of process standardization? Alongside the development of industrial engineering of information technology and of business process redesign studied by Davenport and Short (1990), and Davenport's approach defining business processes (Davenport, 2005), other researchers offer initial insights into business process standardization research opportunities (Venkatesh, 2006). Based on this new thinking about business process standardization, this paper presents a step towards understanding the business value of business process standardization. A single case study with a global operating company was conducted to show how a successful standardized business process and a supporting information system can impact the process performance in terms of cost, time and quality. The process studied within the case study is the company-wide recruiting process. As the results indicate, the company has improved the overall process performance. The results provide an initial insight into an understanding of the business value of process standardization.

Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
Recruiting IT Professionals in a Virtual World
Proceedings of the 12th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Suzhou, China

Eckhardt, A., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
Reconsidering Subjective Norm - A Multilayer-Framework for Modeling Normative Beliefs in IT Adoption
Proceedings of the 14th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Toronto, ON, Canada

Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
Do as your Competitors Do? - Analyzing Competitors' Influence on the Non-Adoption of Information Systems In Organizations
Proceedings of the 16th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Galway, Ireland

Eckhardt, A., Laumer, S., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
Extending the Architecture for a Next-Generation Holistic E-Recruiting System
Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Information Resources Management (CONF-IRM), Niagara Falls (ON), Canada

Beimborn, D., Hirschheim, R., Schlosser, F., Schwarz, A., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
How to Achieve IT Business Alignment? Investigating the Role of Business Process Documentation in US and German Banks
Proceedings of the 14th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Toronto (ON) Canada

Beimborn, D., Hirschheim, R., Schlosser, F., Schwarz, A., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
Comparing the Operational Integration of a Core Information System in Insourcing and Outsourcing Firms
Proceedings of the 14th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Toronto (ON), Canada

Münstermann, B., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
What is process standardization?
Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Information Resources Management (CONF-IRM), Niagara Falls (ON), Canada

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
Drivers and Inhibitors of SOA Business Value - Conceptualizing a Research Model
Proceedings of the 14th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Toronto, Canada

Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
IT Business Alignment as Governance Tool for Firm-Internal Relationship Quality: A Longitudinal Case Study
Proceedings of the 41th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

Many business processes are relying on a smooth and flexible IT support. A major finding of IS research is that in order to generate value from IT the complementarities between IT and non-IT resources need to be understood and orchestrated. Especially, IT Business Alignment has been found to be a key driver of both, IT value and business process quality. <b>But how to achieve alignment?</b><br><br> We present the results of a longitudinal case study in a globally active firm from the aerospace industry that shows how a new CEO implemented better business processes by increasing alignment. The results show an enhancing relationship between business and IT resources and concretize key findings from the resource based view. Overall, the case contributes by indicating that business value accrues from a simultaneous change of IS and business practices that was enabled by an increase in the level of IT business alignment.

Martin, S., Beimborn, D., Parikh, M., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
Organizational Readiness for Business Process Outsourcing: A Model of Determinants and Impact on Outsourcing Success
Proceedings of the 41th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

Beck, R., and Beimborn, D. (2008)
The Impact of Direct and Indirect Network Effects on the Diffusion of Communication Standards
Proceedings of the 41th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

Expectations about stand-alone and network benefits determine the adoption decision of customers and hence the diffusion of standards. To increase the number of adopters of a communication standard like EDI, not only the ability to exchange messages (as a source of direct network effects), but also the provision of complementary services such as standardized master data, e.g., by establishing a central, industry-wide EDI data pool (as a source of indirect net-work effects) is important. We thus examine the differing impact of direct and indirect network effects on the adoption and diffusion of communication standards. The incorporation of both network benefits into an agent-based simulation model may help to better understand the underlying diffusion problem.

Blumenberg, S., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2008)
Determinants of IT Outsourcing Relationships: A Conceptual Model
Proceedings of the 41th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

How can relationship quality in outsourcing partnerships be achieved, sustained, and improved? In this paper we present a conceptual model that focuses on the identification of the relevant determinants for a successful IT outsourcing relationship as well as on the operationalization IT outsourcing relationship quality. We contribute to existing relationship literature by thoroughly examining existing constructs and, if applicable, spliting and redistributing them. We also consider additional relationship quality dimensions and determinants. The derived eleven dimensions and fifteen determinants are empirically validated in a subsequent three step empirical approach providing a much more detailed and throroughly structured relationship quality model which will eventually help practitioners in improving their crossorganizational IT-business relationships.

Beimborn, D., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
What makes successful banks successful? - The key role of alignment in financial process quality
Proceedings of the 2007 SIM Academic Workshop on IT Business Alignment (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Montreal (QC), Canada

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
Proposing an Instrument for Evaluating the Business Value of Service-Oriented Architectures
Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Enterprise Applications and Services in Finance Industry (FinanceCom) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Montreal (QC), Canada

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
The Impact of Operational Alignment on IT Flexibility - Empirical Evidence from a Survey in the German Banking Industry
Proceedings of the 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Keystone (CO)

Wüllenweber, K., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
Business Process Outsourcing: The Challenge of Process Standardization
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Outsourcing of Information Services (ICOIS), Heidelberg

Eckhardt, A., Weitzel, T., König, W., and Buschbacher, J. (2007)
How to Convince People who don't Like IT to Use IT - A Case Study On eRecruiting
Proceedings of the 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Keystone (CO)

Martin, S., and Beimborn, D. (2007)
Modeling the Impact of IT Business Alignment on Business Process Outsourcing Success
Proceedings of the 2007 Special Interest Group on the Adoption and Diffusion of IT - European Diffusion Interst Group in Information Technology (Pre-ECIS Workshop), St. Gallen, Switzerland

Martin, S., Beimborn, D., Parikh, M., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
Getting ready for success: may alignment be of help?
Proceedings of the 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Keystone (CO)

Beimborn, D., and Blumenberg, S. (2007)
How to Measure Relationships - Merging Alignment and Outsourcing Research towards a Unified Relationship Quality Construct
Proceedings of the 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Keystone (CO)

View Abstract

The literature has shown that relationship management between and within different entities is crucial in manifold contexts. The prominent IS research strands of IT business alignment and outsourcing relationships tackle this topic from different perspectives. We argue that there are strong overlaps of these concepts and claim for a consolidation of both research strands. We match both research stream´s measurement constructs, show the overlap as well as the remainder and propose a unified model. This model consists of six dimensions and allows for a combined measurement of relationships between business and IT units within as well as across organizational boundaries.

Beimborn, D., Fladung, R., and Rothlauf, F. (2007)
How to Configure Cost-Optimal Procurement Consortia for Academic Libraries
Proceedings of the 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Keystone (CO)

View Abstract

The academic sector has been faced with strong monopolization tendencies occurring in the academic publisher market in recent years. A countermeasure from the demand-side has been the formation of procurement consortia by academic libraries which are intended to reduce costs and simultaneously optimizing the availability of academic journals in order to sufficiently serve their customers (i.e. faculty and students). The objective of this paper is to determine cost-minimal structures for library consortia. We develop a non-linear and binary optimization model which is solved by applying a genetic algorithm (GA). The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the GA by applying it to a real-world problem in the German academic e-journals market. The results show that the found solution results in costs that are approximately 30 % lower than the current regional-based solution.

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
The Influence of Alignment on the Post-Implementation Success of a Core Banking Information System: An Embedded Case Study
Proceedings of the 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

The literature suggests that the success of an information system among others depends on its utilization. In this paper, we argue that operational IT business alignment is an important driver of system usage and thereby of the market success of the supported business process. Using an embedded case study in four branches, the back office, and the IT department of a retail bank, many findings of the recent alignment literature can be supported. Using a strict business process perspective, we also offer new insights by showing that alignment is important for IS success in operations as well and positively influences post-implementation IS usage. In particular, mutual understanding between the units and shared domain knowledge not only between IT and business but also between different business units supported by the same core IS turned out to be very important factors of IS usage that have so far been neglected.

Wüllenweber, K., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
An empirical exploration of how process standardization reduces outsourcing risk
Proceedings of the 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

Are standardized business processes less risky to outsource? Despite the importance of both areas, neither the outsourcing nor standardization literature has so far offered a conclusive picture of the value of standards to outsourcing. We aim to provide an exploratory first step by suggesting that process standards have a positive impact on business process outsourcing (BPO) risk. Theoretically drawing from perceived risk theory and the theory of reasoned action we develop a model of BPO risk and empirically show that indeed risk perception is higher for less standardized processes. Using data from 126 German banks, it turns out that financial and performance risks of BPO significantly differ between high- and low-standardized processes and are consistently higher for less standardized processes. While this work is very exploratory and the findings are quite preliminary, they are very encouraging as they indicate promising further research into the value of standards for business processes and outsourcing.

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
The Impact of Outsourcing on IT Business Alignment and IT Flexibility: A Survey in the German Banking Industry
Proceedings of the 12th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Acapulco, Mexico

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., and Martin, S. (2006)
The e-Business Potential of Value Chain Crossing
Proceedings of the 2006 Workshop on eBusiness (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Milwaukee

View Abstract

This paper provides exploratory findings of an empirical survey accompanied by a series of case studies that motivates research in e-Business largely neglected before, namely the lateral cooperation of firms from two different industries that interconnect their business processes by means of electronic integration. The integration of financial processes in non-banks and financial service providers. We identified empirical evidence for a large potential of value chain crossing but also found substantial inhibitors for the adoption of this idea. Starting from those findings, we outline a research program to tackle this promising area of e-Business research in future.

Beck, R., Beimborn, D., Franke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
Strategies to Boost Standard Diffusion in Communication Networks - Insights from Network Effect Theory
Proceedings of the 2006 Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Milwaukee (WI)

View Abstract

IT standards are subject to network effects which establish challenges concerning a successful diffusion of standards. A renowned example is a mobile service provider trying to establish a network of customers while potential user often wait until the network is sufficiently large in terms of other users (direct network effect) or content available (indirect effect). Despite the potential benefits to adopters and providers, there is still much uncertainty on the differential impact of direct and indirect network effects on the diffusion of standards and their impact on successful diffusion strategies to establish a user base. Our research questions thus are: (a) ...what are the adoption drivers of IT standards and (b) ...how can providers influence these drivers to develop an installed base? Based on network effect theory, we propose a formal model that simultaneously considers the different effects of direct and indirect network effects on the diffusion of communication standards. Using com-puter-based simulations we can show that IT providers could exploit the alternating impact of direct and indirect network effects at different diffusion stages to successfully establish an installed base. This has fundamental implications for the provider's pricing and market strategy.

Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
Operational IT Business Alignment as the Missing Link from IT Strategy to Firm Success
Proceedings of the 12th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Acapulco, Mexico

View Abstract

Strategic alignment deals with the capability of IT to both shape and support business strategy. It can be interpreted as an organizational learning process that combines business and IT knowledge to support business objectives and can positively affect organizational profitability by creating superior strategies that achieve a competitive advantage. These strategies have to be implemented, because strategies are only effective when they are translated into actions readily. Therefore, in this paper we introduce the concept of operational IT business alignment, reflecting the functional integration at the structural level and representing the link between business and IT structure. Using structural equation modeling and data from 136 banks we show that operational IT business alignment positively impacts dynamic IT and business capabilities and in turn strategic alignment and firm performance.

Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
Social Interaction as Constituting Element of Routines: Incorporating Social Network Analysis into IS research
Proceedings of the 12th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Acapulco, Mexico

View Abstract

Organizational routines known from the Resource-based View (RBV) are considered elementary for IT value creation as they determine the efficiency with which firms transform inputs to outputs. As routines are socially complex patterns of inter-action, we incorporate findings from the literature on the Resource-based view and Social Network Analysis to disclose the social formation of organizational routines as a constituting element. Our model extends the central findings of the RBV by considering the impact of the social embeddedness of a firm's employees using Granovetter's strength of ties argument. The proposed model can be used for a sensitivity analysis regarding the impact of different interaction patterns between and among organizational units on business process performance. The model provides good support for the effects cited in the literature and is illustrated by a case.

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
Strategy Matters - The Role of Strategy Type for IT Business Value
Proceedings of the 12th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Acapulco, Mexico

View Abstract

There is a general consensus among practitioners and researchers alike that IT business alignment improves business performance. Alignment mostly is researched at a strategic level, but has to be implemented in daily operations to be effective. Therefore, in this paper we introduce the concept of operational IT business alignment, reflecting the functional integration at the structural level and representing the linkage between business and IT structure. Using structural equation modeling and data from 136 banks we show that operational IT business alignment positively impacts IS usage and IT flexibility and in turn process performance. Furthermore it is shown that the effect of IT business alignment strongly depends on the type of business strategy a bank follows.

Beimborn, D., Martin, S., and Blumenberg, S. (2006)
Exploring Potential IOS-supported Partnerships between Banks and SMEs
Proceedings of the 12th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Acapulco, Mexico

View Abstract

The partnership between banks and non-banks is one of the oldest and most common lateral business partnerships. While banks are looking for new markets and for cost efficient ways to implement new business models, SMEs presumably have considerable efficiency potentials within their financial processes. Some of these potentials could be realized by integrating functionality provided by banks within the financial processes of SMEs. What factors drive the attitude of SMEs toward adopting of new, integrated financial services provided by banks? Through a case study-based, exploratory research ap-proach, we identify four major factors that influence the attitude of SMEs toward adopting new integrated business functions offered by banks.

Keim, T., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
Strategies for Hiring IT Professionals: An Empirical Analysis of Employer and Job Seeker Behavior on the IT Labor market
Proceedings of the 12th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Acapulco, Mexico

Son, S., Gladyszewski, T., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
The Value of Management Control in IT Organizations
Proceedings of the 14th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Göteborg, Sweden

Son, S., Weitzel, T., and König, W. (2006)
Examining the Value of Management Control in IT Organizations
Proceedings of the 17th Information Resources Management Association International Conference (IRMA), Washington, D.C.

Weitzel, T. (2006)
Process governance and optimization for IT Reliant Business Processes: an empirical analysis of financial processes in Germany's Fortune 1,000 non-banks
Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

View Abstract

What is the impact of process orientation, analysis and documentation on process quality? In this paper, using financial processes in non-banks ("financial chain") as application domain an optimization framework for IT reliant business process is proposed and empirically evaluated. It is shown that a proper process orientation, documentation and process analysis is a necessary yet often neglected prerequisite for efficiency improvements. The framework can be used for preparing the business case for integration and outsourcing projects. Overall, the results empirically confirm the often neglected claim that you need to explicitly know and measure what you want to optimize.

Malinowski, J., Keim, T., Wendt, O., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
Matching People and Jobs: A Bilateral Recommendation Approach
Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

View Abstract

Recommendation systems are widely used on the Internet to assist customers in finding the products or services that best fit with their individual preferences. While current implementations successfully reduce information overload by generating personalized suggestions when searching for objects such as books or movies, recommendation systems so far cannot be found in another potential field of application: the personalized search for subjects such as applicants in a recruitment scenario. Theory shows that a good match between persons and jobs needs to consider both, the preferences of the recruiter and the preferences of the candidate. Based on this requirement for modeling bilateral selection decisions, we present an approach applying two distinct recommendation systems to the field in order to improve the match between people and jobs. Finally, we present first validation test runs from a student experiment showing promising results.

Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
Game Theoretical Analysis of Cooperative Sourcing Scenarios
Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

View Abstract

A possible trend in outsourcing, cooperative sourcing is the merging of similar processes by several firms. For example, several banks could merge their payments processes and the underlying IT to jointly realize economies of scale. But what are conditions of stable outsourcing coalitions? And how to allocate costs within the outsourcing value web? In this paper we present a micro economic model for analyzing cooperative sourcing decisions. Using a game-theoretical equilibrium analysis, distribution rules of cooperative sourcing benefits are evaluated and necessary condition for stable sourcing cooperations are identified. We formally prove that only a proportional allocation of costs will regularly lead to stable coalitions. Still, a game theoretic experiment indicates that deciders not knowing about the results are more likely to choose inefficient allocations leading to instable sourcing networks.

Beimborn, D. (2006)
A Model for Simulation Analyses of Cooperative Business Sourcing in the Banking Industry
Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai

View Abstract

What will be efficient sourcing constellations in the competitive banking market which force banks to optimize their processes and to change organizational structures? This paper presents a model for investigating causes and effects of Cooperative Sourcing in the banking industry. Cooperative Sourcing means merging of similar processes by several firms, such as several banks merge their credit handling as well as the underlying IT, to achieve economies of scale. The model is able to capture these IS-based factors and to analyze the efficiency of sourcing decisions and rsulting market constellations.Due to the complexity of the involved factors, a simulation approach is used for applying the model. Fed with appropriate data the model could support BPO decisions based on analytical analyses as well as on simulation-based compound investigations.

Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., Franke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
IT Business Alignment and IT Usage in Operational Processes: A Retail Banking Case
Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

View Abstract

What is the impact of operational (i.e. non-strategic) IT business alignment on IT usage? Using case studies in three branches of a retail bank employing identical information systems, many findings of the alignment literature can be supported. The cases also add new insights by showing that alignment is important in operations as well, and that alignment positively impacts IT usage. Especially mutual understanding between the business units and the IT unit turned out to be the single most important factor of IT usage that resulted from frequent interaction and, as far as the IT unit is concerned, from the business orientation of the IT personnel.

Beimborn, D. (2005)
A simulative analysis of causes and effects of cooperative business process outsourcing in the banking industry
Proceedings of the IRMA International Conference, Doctoral Symposium, San Diego (CA)

Beimborn, D., Martin, S., and Homann, U. (2005)
Value Chain Crossing Between SMEs and the Banking Industry
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Electronic Business (ICEB), Hong Kong

View Abstract

What are future requirements for ERP solutions for SMEs? The following research paper focuses on identifying possible new interfacial areas between banks and SMEs. New banking services could be embedded into SMEs' information systems to support their financial processes such as cash management, reconciliation, customer management and asset management. We develop a framework and a methodology for our empirical explorative research. They are intended to be the foundation for investigating both, financial processes within SMEs, as well as firms' willingness to adopt new services offered by financial service providers. Furthermore, first results from four case studies indicate some promising results. They also show particular problems from granting a bank access to SME-internal systems.

Son, S., Weitzel, T., and Laurent, F. (2005)
IT Performance Management - Methodology, Metrics and Application
Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Performance Measurement and Management Control (EIASM), Nice, France

View Abstract

As many organizations search for ways to compete more effectively in today's ever-growing markets, managers are increasingly focusing on internal services. One internal service function that has especially gained a lot of attention is Information Technology (IT) due to the enormous size of its expenditure. Increasingly, decision authorities within private and public sector companies are insisting that IS executives provide hard facts on IT mission and performance. Key performance indicators, governance structures, and new reference models (e.g. CobiT) are aimed at demonstrating how well the IT department and relating processes perform and improve over time. In this context, IT governance has evolved as a challenge to provide a management control system that aims to annul various frequently found disadvantages of uncoordinated decisions, lack of transparency and insufficient alignment between business and IT goals. Based on a comprehensive analysis of current performance management frameworks, we have designed and deployed an IT management scorecard within a Major European Financial Institution. The paper provides valuable insigths concerning the different implementation steps of IT scorecards and related problems.

Son, S., Weitzel, T., and Laurent, F. (2005)
Designing a process-oriented framework for IT performance management systems
Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Information Technology Evaluation (ECITE), Turku, Finnland

Franke, J., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
The Role of IT Business Alignment for Value Creation: A Multiple Case Study among German Banks
Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Las Vegas (NV)

View Abstract

The ways in which IT creates business value is a key question in IS research and practice. In this paper, we aim to help reveal the role of alignment between IT and business resources in business value creation. In particular, we propose that the contribution of IT to business process performance should be investigated in the context of actual IT usage, with IT business alignment as a moderating variable. Also, IT flexibility should be explicitly considered. Using five case studies from the German financial services industry based on a causal model of IT business value creation reveals that the process of IT business value creation indeed strongly depends on the alignment between business and IT. But it also turns out that actual presence of business competencies is crucial and that even superior IT cannot compensate for business competency deficiencies.

Malinowski, J., Keim, T., Weitzel, T., and Wendt, O. (2005)
Decision Support for Team Building: Incorporating Trust into a Recommender-Based Approach
Proceedings of the 9th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Bangkok, Thailand

View Abstract

In this paper we present a novel automated recommendation approach to support the selection of individuals to teams. Recent organizational trends show an increasing importance of team-based work structures and more and more companies use this team-focused structure with the hope to increase organizational effectiveness. Whereas traditional selection systems are focused on finding a match between job requirements and individuals' abilities, these systems need to be changed in order to reflect the enhanced requirements when selecting individuals to work in teams. This is important as teamwork requires interaction among its members and not just co-action. Our approach is therefore based on two dimensions. First, people need to be matched to jobs for which they possess the right knowledge, skills and abilities to fulfill all tasks. Second, people need to fit with the other people they are supposed to work with in terms of interpersonal compatibility. Based on an adapted probabilistic latent aspect model and a trust computational model we present a first prototype aiming to support the systematic selection of individuals to form effective teams.

Malinowski, J., Keim, T., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
Analyzing the Impact of IS Support on Recruitment Processes: An E-Recruitment Phase Model
Proceedings of the 9th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Bangkok, Thailand

View Abstract

The skills and abilities of a company's employees are a prerequisite for the enterprise to be innovative. In case the know-how needed to accomplish certain tasks is not available internally or cannot be developed within reasonable time, the company needs to address to the external labor market, e.g. by recruiting experts possessing the skill sets required. However, for rare candidate profiles there exists intense competition on the labor market. Thus, the ability to act within short periods of time when interacting with candidates becomes crucial. In the past, multiple elements of IS support provided many different benefits to improve the recruitment process. However, little research to date exists on what forms of IS support are adapted for what application scenarios within the recruitment arena. Therefore, this paper analyzes how the recruitment process can be optimized and what different levels of E-Recruitment adoption can be identified. We present results from quantitative and qualitative research showing that E-Recruitment functionality can be found in most companies nowadays ranging from isolated solutions for singular activities to integrated end-to-end solutions. Based on these findings we derive managerial guidelines for the management of projects in the E-Recruitment field.

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
Drivers and Inhibitors for Outsourcing Financial Processes - A Comparative Survey of Economies of Scale, Scope, and Skill
Proceedings of the 11th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Omaha (NE)

View Abstract

Economies of scale, scope, and skill are known to be major drivers or inhibitors for outsourcing business processes. This paper presents a comparative analysis of economies of scale, scope, and skill achievable by outsourcing financial processes in non-banks and banks based on two empirical studies conducted with Fortune 1,000 non-banks and Fortune 500 banks in Germany. It can be shown that industrialization tendencies within the credit business in banks are in parts broader sophisticated than within financial processes of other industries. Credit process managers estimate economies of scale and skill achievable by outsourcing to be higher than chief financial officers do. Furthermore, economies of scope, which inhibit selective sourcing, are evaluated as being less problematic. As a result, the credit process managers' disposition to outsource (parts of) primary financial processes in banks is higher compared to the CFOs' attendance to outsource parts of their secondary financial processes in non-banks. In accordance with common knowledge, economies of scale and skill are identified as drivers for outsourcing business processes while economies of scope represent an inhibitor. In contrast to common knowledge, our studies suggest German banks being on the way to industrialization and modularization.

Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
The role of alignment for strategic information systems: extending the resource-based perspective of IT
Proceedings of the 11th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Omaha (NE)

View Abstract

The importance of strategic information systems in the financial industry is documented in many studies. But still there is a virulent lack of frameworks to explain the profit impact of IT in general and to guide firms in exploiting the IT resource as a source of competitive advantage. By incorporating findings from different research strands on the resource based view (RBV) and the strategic alignment literature we elaborate key concepts potentially leading to a sustained competitive advantage. These concepts are explicitly modeled and integrated into a financial services production function using the well-developed instruments of microeconomic theory. Especially interactions between the IT and business domain are found to be a key success driver. Supported by four case studies from the financial services industry it is shown how IT business alignment positively impacts process quality and in turn establishes a competitive advantage. Our findings suggest that the exploitation of strategic information systems in the sense of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage requires establishing an organizational routine of cross-departmental interaction.

Keim, T., Malinowski, J., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
Bridging the Assimilation Gap: A User-Centered Approach to IT-Adoption in Corporate HR Processes
Proceedings of the 11th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Omaha (NE)

Beimborn, D., Martin, S., and Homann, U. (2005)
Capability-oriented Modeling of the Firm
Proceedings of the 2005 IPSI Conference, Amalfi/Italy

König, W., Beimborn, D., Franke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
Sourcing von Finanzprozessen - Ein Modell zur simultanen Bewertung von Economies of Scale und Scope
Proceedings of the 7. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Bamberg

View Abstract

Während viele Unternehmen Fortschritte in der IuK-Technologie zur Automatisierung ihrer primären Prozesse, zu einer internen und externen Vernetzung und letztlich zur Neuaufteilung und Optimierung der gesamten Wertschöpfungskette genutzt haben, wurden Sekundärprozesse selten als eigener Optimierungsgegenstand betrachtet. In einer empirischen Studie zu sekundären Finanzprozessen in den 1.000 größten deutschen Unternehmen (ohne Banken und Versicherungen) wird gezeigt, dass vor einer Outsourcing-Entscheidung kulturelle Hürden der Entscheider zu überwinden sind. Es zeigt sich insbesondere, dass die individuelle Outsourcing-Erfahrung der entscheidenden Manager von Bedeutung ist und dass Economies of Scale und Scope getrennt betrachtet und damit mögliche Trade-offs häufig ignoriert werden. Zur Erweiterung der reinen Outsourcing-Entscheidung im Hinblick auf viel versprechende Modelle des kooperativen Outsourcing wird untersucht, wer geeignete Partner für eine selektive Auslagerung von Teilprozessen durch eine Kreuzung der eigenen Wertschöpfungskette mit derjenigen des Partners (Value Chain Crossing) sein können. Aufbauend auf diesen empirischen Ergebnissen wird ein Simulationsmodell vorgestellt, welches insbesondere die simultane Betrachtung verschiedener Einflussfaktoren der Outsourcing-Entscheidung erlaubt.

Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
The Impact of IT On Competitive Advantage: A microeconomic approach to making the resource-based view explicit
Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Regensburg

View Abstract

How can an organization establish an efficient IS resource? Over the years, the resource-based view (RBV) has provided important insights into the value creation by IT. Unfortunately, large parts of the literature suffer from broad and ambiguous constructs that are problematic to validate and difficult to concretely apply. Furthermore, the transmission from IT resources on one side to competitive advan-tage on the other is not yet sufficiently understood. Goal of this paper is to clarify some of the often used constructs and build a framework for the transmission from the endowment with resources to the achievement of competitive advantage. In this paper, we aim to contribute to this research strand in two ways. First, a model incorporating many isolated findings from the RBV is developed. Reflecting the need for a process view as proposed by large parts of the alignment and strategic management literature, this is integrated into a single process framework of analysis. Second, by developing a microeconomic IT service production function incorporating organizational routines the transmission from IT resource to better business process performance is explicated, allowing simultaneous parameter sensitivity analysis and contributing to making the RBV applicable and open for empirical research.

Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
Modeling the Impact of Alignment Routines on IT Performance: An Approach to Making the Resource based View Explicit
Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

This paper investigates the link between IT and firm performance by combining different theoretical perspectives and emphasizing the role of routines in IT-Business alignment. The basic concept of routines is operationalized and presented in an algebraic form allowing for explicit modeling and using of findings from the literature on the resource based view (RBV) and IT-Business alignment. How to use IT to gain a sustainable competitive advantage and in turn a plus in firm performance is a key question in IS research. This paper examines the RBV and alignment literature and elaborates the importance of routines in both perspectives. The results show routines are a basic underlying concept to understand the linkage between IT resources and firm performance. This basic concept is operationalized showing the functional relationships known from literature. The paper therefore advances theory and informs practice by combining different theoretical perspectives and making them explicit.

Keim, T., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
An Integrated Framework for Online Partnership-Building
Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

Research in information sciences in recent years has dealt with how to support collaborative work across time, space and organizational boundaries. However, this research neglected the question of how information systems can contribute right at the beginning of virtual work in the design phase of the team. Team configuration can be modeled as a two-dimensional matching problem: individuals need to be brought together (1) with tasks for which they posses the competencies to carry them out and (2) with other individuals with whom they are able to collaborate successfully. It is understood that multiple dimensions of human as well as social capital and here especially of trust play an important role in the underlying decision process. Based on existing research in multiple fields we develop a framework permitting to establish successful virtual partnership. We present an implementation of this framework together with first promising validation results of the approach chosen.

Beimborn, D., Fladung, R., and König, W. (2004)
An Optimization Framework for Efficient Information Supply in the Academic Sector
Proceedings of the 8th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Shanghai

View Abstract

In recent years, increasing monopolization tendencies in the market for electronic information resources in the academic sector have led to the formation of consortia by university libraries and other academic institutions, which are intended to act as an antipole to increase their bargaining power against the monopolistic structures of the publisher market. The aim of this research paper is the development of a model that determines minimal-cost structures for buying consortia in the context of academic libraries. Two different points of view are discussed: on the one hand the optimal choice of the pricing model for purchasing electronic journals and on the other hand the optimization of consortia structures for bundling bargaining power. For the first part of the framework a break-even based approach is developed and applied to empirical data. It can be shown, that German academic libraries can cut their procurement costs by canceling subscriptions and switching to pay per view by about 30%. The second topic - the consortia structure problem - is solved by a binary non-linear optimization model, which also is applied to a real situation. In future it is able to determine, for example, the optimality of a Germany-wide library consortium and to show efficient alternatives.

Weitzel, T., Beimborn, D., and Franke, J. (2004)
Outsourcing the Financial Chain: an Empirical Analysis of Sourcing and Partnering Potentials
Proceedings of the 10th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), New York (NY)
Best Paper Award/Best Outsourcing Paper

View Abstract

While many firms have used advancement in information and communication technology to optimize their supply chain and primary processes, there is still a substantial efficiency potential associated with financial processes. In this paper, a conceptual framework for a systematic financial chain management is developed. Based on this, an empirical survey with the Fortune 1,000 enterprises of Germany shows that while outsourcing of the financial chain is still quite rare it can be successfully used to focus on core competencies. A main finding is that CFOs tend to systematically overestimate the quality of their financial processes and especially the firm's competencies compared to external experts. This is an important cultural barrier to a value redesign that could offer substantial efficiency improvements.

Lammers, M., L, N., and Weitzel, T. (2004)
Strategic Sourcing in Banking - A Framework
Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Turku, Finnland

View Abstract

The banking landscape in Europe and Germany has a polypolistic market structure with an average vertical range of integration of 80%, implying high process redundancies. Accumulating processes for standardized products is one way to achieve efficiency improvements. "Smart sourcing" can change the production mix of banks lead to a concentration of processes. A challenge is the lack of consistent frameworks for the banking industry to systematically support the sourcing decision process. In this paper, drawing on the resource based view and transaction cost economics it is shown that, in addition to a make or buy decision, co-operation between competitors should be included into a sourcing analysis as the third alternative. To support the decision on making, buying or sharing an activity, a quantitative analysis of each activity of the banking value chain is necessary. We propose an analysis framework based on a generic banking value chain. Since the recent literature mostly focuses only on the outsourcers' case, a formalized model is developed to consider both the objective function of the out- and the insourcer. Since the market might restrict sourcing options, as there may be no providers of relevant activities, it can be shown that ”sharing“ as part of a co-opetition concept instead of buy or make can be a way to break up the value chain. The framework thus supports decision makers to approach an optimal degree of vertical integration for both market sides.

Färber, F., Keim, T., and Weitzel, T. (2003)
An Automated Recommendation Approach to Personnel Selection
Proceedings of the 9th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Tampa (FL)

Weitzel, T. (2003)
A Network ROI
Proceedings of the 2003 MISQ Academic Workshop on ICT Standardization (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Seattle (WA)

View Abstract

In this paper, a method for determining the equilibrium under which firms will cooperate concerning their standardization decisions is developed. From a theoretical perspective, the network ROI concept is aimed at synchronizing local and global efficiency disturbed by network effects by explicitly determining the value impact of standardization and using it for optimizing enterprise internal decisions concerning standards (i.e. internalizing network effects). From a managerial perspective, ROI based methods are reasonably simple and especially widely accepted. Since the costs of solution determination are considered (by a ”virtual instance“), the concept might be applied by a cost center unit responsible for standardization. Methodologically, the solution is developed using basic game theory to understand the discrepancy between local and global efficiency in standardization decisions and later applied to a network of six enterprises as part of an extensive case study.

Beck, R., Weitzel, T., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2003)
The Network Effect Helix
Proceedings of the 2003 MISQ Academic Workshop on ICT Standardization (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Seattle (WA)

Pfaff, D., Skiera, B., and Weitzel, T.

(2003)
Datenintegration in Finanzprozessen
Bonner Köllen Verlag (ISBN 3-88579-363-6)

View Abstract

Die Philosophie des Supply-Chain-Management (SCM) hat durch eine Orchestrierung der Güter-, Finanz- und Informationsflüsse Effizienzpotenziale erschließen können. Während traditionelles SCM erfolgreich vor allem auf die Güter- und Informationslogistik fokussiert, finden sich bei Finanzprozessen noch ungenutzte Potenziale. Dieser Beitrag zeigt auf Grundlage einer empirischen Untersuchung die Integrationsproblematik in der Financial-Chain (FC) bei deutschen Top-1.000-Unternehmen auf. Nicht ausreichend integrierte Systeme sind der Hauptgrund für Rechnungsreklamationen und damit ein vermeidbarer Hauptkostentreiber. Hierauf aufbauend wird skizziert, wie eine skalierbare bedarfsgerechte Integration im Rahmen eines XML-Warehouse realisiert werden kann.

Beimborn, D., and Hoppen, N. (2003)
Optimal Scope and Length of Software Patents - A Simulative Approach
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Electronic Business (ICEB), Singapore

View Abstract

Usually, patent protection is awarded only to technical inventions such as light bulbs, shavers and pharmaceuticals. After computer programming became viable, and protection of computer programs became desirable, most countries decided that software was too abstract or intangible to be patentable, and copyright be-came the dominant form of protection. Nowadays software patents are a widely discussed topic in the U.S. and in Europe because of their proposed impact on na-tional innovation rates. Based on an analysis of the determinants of successfully developing software, we developed a bipartite probability model for comparing a deregulated market without patents to a market using a patent system. Using computer-based simula-tions, we compare different scenarios to test the impact of different patent dura-tion and width on the innovation behaviour of the software market. We can show that that strong patent protection is globally efficient only in markets with a rela-tively low profit potential.

Schrott, G., and Beimborn, D. (2003)
Informal Knowledge Networks: Towards a Community-Engineering Framework
Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Seattle WA, USA

View Abstract

The problems which knowledge workers face these days are very dynamic, unstructured, highly complex, and often cannot be fully explicated. Such problems of 'moving targets' require different problem solving capabilities by the actors. Because abstract information is less valuable in these environments, knowledge workers have to utilize other channels than 'hand-books'. Hence, corporate knowledge networks again are on top of the research-agenda. For the knowledge worker not the access to large databases but the access to knowledgeable colleagues becomes the important factor. In such networks the question arises, which managerial actions are appropriate for successful community-development, i.e. supporting the actors. Unfortunately, today's practices of commu-nity-engineering are often characterized by gross simplifications and strong technological focus rather than modeling the impact of managerial actions before taking them. As part of a larger research-project, this paper addresses topological structures as action vari-able of community-engineering. A computer-based simulation model is introduced and applied to real-life data from over 800 students and staff of the Economics and Business Administration Department at Frankfurt University, Germany.

Schrott, G., and Beimborn, D. (2003)
Managing Virtual Knowledge Networks: Topology and Performance
Proceedings of the 2003 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work (ACM GROUP03), Sanibel Island FL, USA

View Abstract

Virtual informal communication networks are widely recognized as an important part of corporate knowledge management (KM). Unfortunately, most practices of community-engineering are characterized by intuitive actions from KM managers rather than systematic network development based on detailed analysis. Therefore, as part of a larger research framework, this paper addresses topological structures as action variable of community-engineering. A dynamic computer-based simulation model is introduced and applied to real-life data from over 800 students and staff of the Economics and Business Administration Department at Frankfurt University, Germany. Several metrics of networks performance are developed and illustrated using different exemplary actions of community-engineering.

König, W., and Weitzel, T. (2003)
Netzeffekte im E-Business
Proceedings of the 6. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Dresden

Weitzel, T., Tesch, T., and Fankhauser, P. (2003)
A scalable approach to processing large XML data volumes
Proceedings of the 9th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Tampa (FL)

Weitzel, T., Gellings, C., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2003)
IS Valuation Methods - Insights from Capital Markets Theory and Practice
Proceedings of the 7th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Adelaide, Australia

View Abstract

In this paper, an analogy between IT firm valuation and IS valuation is used to learn from how investment banking professionals cope with the renowned valuation problem. It becomes clear that theoretically sound approaches like the discounted cash flow might be inappropriate to determine the true value of a software company. Especially for IT valuation, real options approaches are a promising way of capturing the ”true“ underlying value to new technologies. Unfortunately, as expert interviews reveal, the importance of this approach in investment banking practice is negligible.

Färber, F., Keim, T., Wendt, O., and Weitzel, T. (2003)
A Model-based Approach to Recommending Partners
Proceedings of the 6. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Dresden

View Abstract

Searching for and selecting qualified partners is a core task in many business contexts. Empirical research among Germany's top 1,000 firms discloses that internet-based platforms are effectively used as a personnel marketing channel but cannot increase the matching quality between jobs and candidates. Using erecruitment as an example, we show how the matching quality can be substantially improved by means of a probabilistic latent aspect model developed in this paper. The underlying method incorporates findings from collaborative filtering and hybrid approaches to automated recommendation and is based on a model of personal attributes derived from research on team building and work psychology.

Hoppen, N., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2003)
Patente auf Software - gibt es eine optimale Schutzweite?
Proceedings of the Business Informatics International Congress, Dresden, Germany

Hoppen, N., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2003)
The Impact of Software Patents on the Structure of the Software Market - A Simulation Model
Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Naples, Italy

View Abstract

The issue of software patents is widely discussed in Europe today. The standard economic rationale for patents is to protect potential innovators from imitation, which ultimately provides the incentive to incur the costs of innovation. This incentive topic is strongly discussed in network effect markets such as the software market. We identified five characteristics of software which are crucial for the question of patenting and its consequences: Sequentiality, complementarity, the utilization and availability of open code and the necessity to ensure interoperability as well as the digital character of the goods. Based on seven assumptions affiliated from the literature, we developed a bipartite central probability model comparing a deregulated market without patents to a market using the patent system. The main objectives were to evaluate the frequency of innovations in the software market and on the other hand to investigate monopolistic tendencies. We simulated our model under two different parameter constellations (optimistic and pessimistic environment from a patent owner's view). Selected snapshots of exemplary simulations showed that strong patent protection circumvented technical progress from a macroeconomic perspective. Moreover, in the long run only one actor (monopolist) dominated the market. Reducing the protection strength (pessimistic environment) resulted in partially contrary effects.

Weitzel, T., Wendt, O., and König, W. (2003)
Towards an Interdisciplinary Theory of Networks
Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Naples, Italy

View Abstract

Research problems in ICT networks often comprise coordination problems of information infrastructures and require state-of-the-art methods of coping with complex system dynamics. Especially, relevant economic network analysis is increasingly challenged to transcend "reductionist economic agendas" and incorporate findings from other disciplines. Recent trends of trying to bridge existing theoretical gaps in disciplinary research approaches by integrating the findings of other scientific disciplines reinforce the role of IS in establishing a sound theory of (social, economic) networks. Based upon efforts towards extending an economic view on networks, in this paper the paradigm of agent-based computational economics is proposed as a possible methodological path towards developing a unified perspective on network research.

Tesch, T., Fankhauser, P., and Weitzel, T. (2003)
Skalierbare Verarbeitung von XML mit Infonyte-DB
Proceedings of the 10. GI-Fachtagung Datenbanksysteme für Business, Technologie und Web (BTW), Leipzig

Keim, T., Färber, F., and Weitzel, T. (2003)
Enhancing Partner Matching with Recommender Systems
Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Naples, Italy
(Research in Progress)

View Abstract

Collaboration is vital for the survival of companies in today's fast moving economy and, therefore, finding and matching partners is an important task. This is true for many different scenarios ranging from companies building consortiums over organizations frequently staffing project teams to the recruitment of new employees. An empirical survey among the Top 1000 companies in Germany on state-of-the-art recruitment practices shows that the Internet is already heavily used to attract and identify large sets of potential partners or applicants. However, the selection of the most suitable candidates from this pool by predicting the quality of the resulting partnership is only merely supported by information technology. Building on existing research in the fields of team building and information systems, we first outline the enhanced information requirements for online partner matching compared to partner information currently available on the Internet. Based on this, we then delineate how recommendation systems can assist in improving matching quality by incorporating relational information when bringing partners together online.

Weitzel, T., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2003)
An Individual View on Cooperation Networks
Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

Networks utilizing modern communication technologies can offer competitive advantages to those using them wisely (e.g. enterprises). Besides technical and organizational issues there are prob-lems concerning planning and operating networks due to an asymmetry of costs and benefits among the network agents making the development of internalization strategies difficult. Goal of this paper is to systematically identify the strategic decision situation of individual agents as a foundation for cooperation strategies aimed at exploiting network benefits. A systematic analysis of decision errors of agents in networks using computer-based simulations reveals principal solution scenarios and shows that network cooperation problems might frequently be not as difficult to resolve as often feared using comparatively simple strategies.

Beck, R., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2003)
The German Mobile Standards Battle
Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

The diffusion of innovations has long been a research domain in IS research. Yet, there is no sound theory nor practice to fully understand the complex mechanisms behind networks of users who are tied together by compatibility requirements as is frequently witnessed in information and communication networks. The goal of this paper is to identify key determinants of the technology battle between WAP and i-mode that is recently raging between German cellular service providers and to propose a possible diffusion path. By adapting an existing network model of technology diffusion, key influences are identified and incorporated into a computer-based simulation model. In doing so, trade-offs like better presentation quality on i-mode cellular clients vs. higher service costs compared to WAP applications can be modeled to propose a systematic sensitivity analysis of factors influencing the success of the respective mobile technologies and associated services. Not at least, the simulation model supports mobile services providers to customize their prices for a faster market penetration through regarding not only indirect (WAP, i-mode) but also direct network effects (SMS, i-mail) as crucial factors for adopters.

Rannenberg, K. (2002)
CamWebSIM and Friends: Steps towards Personal Security
Proceedings of the Information Security Summit, Prag

Fricke, M., Weitzel, T., König, W., and Lampe, R. (2002)
EDI and Business-to-Business Systems: The Status Quo and the Future of Business Relations in the European Automotive Industry
Proceedings of the 6th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Tokio, Japan

Beck, R., Weitzel, T., and König, W. (2002)
The Myth of WebEDI
Proceedings of the IFIP I3E Conference, Lisbon, Portugal

Beck, R., Weitzel, T., and König, W. (2002)
Promises and pitfalls of SME integration
Proceedings of the 15th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference, e-Reality: Constructing the e-Economy, Bled, Slovenia

Beck, R., König, W., and Weitzel, T. (2001)
IT Standards and Network Effects
Proceedings of the Academic Network in the Field of Standardisation, Brussels

Weitzel, T., Buxmann, P., and von Westarp, F. (2000)
A communication architecture for the digital economy - 21st century EDI
Proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui (HI)

View Abstract

Together with our partner Lufthansa AirPlus, we have developed an XML-based architecture for B2B communication that offers flexible, inexpensive, and secure integration of heterogeneous partners into "supply webs". Using our prototype, formerly expensive and inflexible EDI-processes can become manageable for SMEs, too, enabling the next step towards open communication and cooperation networks and supporting the flow of information throughout entire purchasing and supply chains. The use of XML also enables the efficient support of various data formats, including EDI or EDIFACT standards, and different business documents such as orders, invoices or catalogs opening EDI networks to SMEs and enabling more dynamic business partnerships.

Weitzel, T., Buxmann, P., and Ladner, F. (2000)
The Extensible Markup Language - New opportunities in the area of EDI
Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Wien, Österreich

Weitzel, T., Wendt, O., and von Westarp, F. (2000)
Reconsidering Network Effect Theory
Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Wien, Österreich (Best Paper Nomination)
Best Paper Nomination

View Abstract

According to the network effect literature, network externalities lead to market failure due to Pareto-inferior coordination results. We show that the assumptions and simplifications implicitly used for modeling standardization processes fail to explain the real-world variety of diffusion courses in today's dynamic IT markets, and we derive requirements for a more general model of network effects. We argue that agent-based computational economics provides a solid basis for meeting these requirements by integrating evolutionary models from game theory and institutional economics. (also: SFB 403 Forschungsbericht (00-10))

Philipp, M. (1999)
Software-Zertifizierung nach IDW PS 880
Proceedings of the Conference on Quality Engineering in Software Technology, Nürnberg

View Abstract

Der Beitrag unterscheidet zunächst zwischen prozeß- und produktorientierten Software-Zertifizierungs- Methoden. Es erfolgt eine Einordnung dieser Methoden in die Revisionstheorie. Es werden kurz die häufig in der Praxis anzutreffenden Ansätze der Software-Zertifizierung nach der Software-Prüfungsrichtlinie RAL-GZ 901 der Gütegemeinschaft Software e.v. (entspricht DIN ) und nach ISO 9000 dargestellt (Kapitel 1). In Kapitel 2 wird der Prüfungsstandard IDW PS 880 Erteilung und Verwendung von Softwarebescheinigungen des Instituts der Wirtschaftsprüfer ausführlich dargestellt. In Kapitel 3 erfolgt eine abschließende Würdigung des IDW PS 880.

von Westarp, F., Weitzel, T., Buxmann, P., and König, W. (1999)
The Status Quo and the Future of EDI
Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Copenhagen, Denmark

View Abstract

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has been used in businesses for about 30 years to reduce the costs of document processing and, in general, to achieve strategic business advantages made possible by shorter business process cycle times. The variety of different industry-specific and national EDI standards makes it difficult for businesses to decide which standard to use. Additionally, many companies do not participate in EDI networks due to the high costs associated with traditional EDI or do so only because of pressure from strong business partners. The Internet and new technologies surrounding it offer new ways to take advantage of the benefits of electronic business to business communication at a fraction of the costs. Especially for SMEs a comparably low-cost WebEDI solution can reduce entry barriers to business networks of larger enterprises or increase the chance to remain in existing relationships. We introduce a prototype that serves as a first effort to demonstrate the potentials and gain practical experience in the field of WebEDI. It becomes clear that running Internet-based EDI solutions based on open Internet standards are technically possible already.

Buxmann, P., Weitzel, T., von Westarp, F., and König, W. (1999)
The Standardization Problem - An Economic Analysis of Standards in Information Systems
Proceedings of the 1st IEEE Conference on Standardisation and Innovation in Information Technology (SIIT), Aachen

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Choosing the right set of communication standardsis fundamental in any kind of interaction, especially in the coordination of economic activities.This decision problem, generally referred to as "the standardization problem", mainly results from interdependencies due to positive network effects. This paper provides an economic analysis of using standards in informationsystems. We introduce adecision model for solving the standardizationproblem, which can calculate the optimal assignment of standards to actors in any given communications network. The relevant model parameters representing the costs and benefits of standardiza-tion are derived. Furthermore, we discuss possi-bilities and limitations of using the decisionmodel.

Buxmann, P., Weitzel, T., Kronenberg, R., and Ladner, F. (1998)
Erfolgsfaktor Standard: Internet-basierte Kooperationen mit WebEDI und XML/EDI
Proceedings of the Kooperationsnetze und Elektonische Koordination, Augsburg

Freytag, T., Oberweis, A., and Zimmer, T. (1997)
A partial-order based simulation and validation approach for high-level Petri nets
Proceedings of the IMACS World Congress on Scientific Computation, Modelling and Apllied Mathematics

Publications by the Department of Information Systems and Services

Conference Articles (Peer Reviewed)