Peter Marshall

University of Tasmania · School of Computing & Information Systems

The concept of what constitutes design is in flux, and constantly expanding (Stewart, 2011: 515). The industrial revolution is argued to have given rise to design-based disciplines, such as engineering and architecture, and during the 19th and 20th centuries, design emerged as being concerned with the conceptualization and actualization of material...

Social customer relationship management (social CRM) is an emerging practice that utilises social media to engage with customers. In its most complete form, social CRM is a concept and a practice that integrates social media and social networking with traditional CRM technologies, processes and practices in order to bring about a superior engagemen...

Social customer relationship management social CRM is an emerging practice that utilises social media to engage with customers. In its most complete form, social CRM is a concept and a practice that integrates social media and social networking with traditional CRM technologies, processes and practices in order to bring about a superior engagement...

This chapter critically reviews the literature on power relations in information systems (IS) implementation projects, important because IS projects redistribute information and power in organizations and are thus implicated in both project progress and ultimately project success. The review firstly considers the ideas of Foucault, Giddens, Clegg,...

The business analyst role was established in response to concerns about a ‘gap’ between technical IT staff and users. Such a ‘gap’ has been implicated in the failure of information systems to consistently deliver business value. However research suggests that while business analysts may facilitate the relationship between technical staff and busine...

This paper is a response to the call in the Rethinking Project Management (RPM) study for new ways of thinking regarding project management. In particular, this paper presents a critique of existing thinking on communication in project management, and then presents a new model for conceptualizing communication in IT project management. Specifically...

This paper recommends a number of research directions and themes to IS researchers concerning the planning, implementation, operations, and delivery of business value from IT Project Management Offices (PMOs). The recommendations are based on a review and analysis of academic literature on IT PMOs in which the authors noted that there were many cha...

Social customer relationship management (CRM) is an emerging concept that includes strategies, processes and technologies to link social networking with CRM processes. It is a means of incorporating the ‘customer’ strategy as part of the corporate strategy in order to engage customers, create meaningful of conversations and thereby maximise superio...

Resistance is normally characterized as a set of behaviours located in and belonging to change recipients. Such behaviours are seen to thwart the legitimate aims of both change strategists and the change agents who implement systems and the associated organisational change on the strategists' behalf. However, results from our case study research in...

Food security – the ready access to adequate quantities of safe, nutritious food – is a major concern of governments and industry around the world and has led to an increasing focus on the agri-food supply chain. Yet despite sophisticated (often global) connections between retailers and processors, little attention has been paid to linking primary...

This paper arose from concerns regarding the current conceptualizations of ‘design’ in the emerging literature on design science (DS) in information systems (IS). In this paper, we argue that current conceptualizations of design in IS are overly narrow, which necessarily limits what is viewed as acceptable DS research. In response we advance a more...

This paper reports on research into the practices of business analysts (BAs). The research was motivated by lingering concerns that information systems failure is often related to the challenges in identifying business and user requirements and bridging the requirements-design gap. These concerns were addressed by undertaking research into the prac...

This paper seeks to review and examine the major theoretical underpinnings of research into power relations in IS projects. In order to keep the review manageable and to furnish a reasonable explanation of the ideas and papers referenced, the review is restricted to the ideas of Foucault, Giddens and Clegg. Partly, this restriction was due to the w...

In recent years, Practice Theory has been used as a theoretical lens to examine a number of phenomena in organisation and management studies. In this arena, Practice Theory has been used to increase our understanding of strategy formulation, the effective use of information technology in organisations, boundary spanning, innovation, learning and kn...

The concerns that the identity of the IS discipline is unstable and there is a crisis in the discipline are viewed by some scholars to be a consequence of IS researchers’ tendency to under-investigate the subject matter that is at the core of the IS discipline and over-investigate phenomena that are argued not to be the central concern of the IS di...

The research study described in this paper utilises the theoretical lens of background conversations to examine the phenomenon of resistance to change in a longitudinal case study of an enterprise system (ES) implementation. In order to reveal the complex nature of resistance, the research study adopts a social constructionist perspective, leading...

This research paper uses system justification theory (SJT) as a lens to understand stakeholder resistance during an Enterprise System (ES) implementation project. A case study is presented involving a problematic ES implementation illustrates the efficacy of SJT in this respect. The findings show that SJT explains a number of features of stakeholde...

While there is a growing literature in boundary spanning, there is very little research that (a) examines boundary practices (b) empirically locates boundaries in experiences and expectations of actors involved in boundary interactions and (c) provides actionable advice to practitioners in boundary roles. This paper attempts to address such concern...

While practice theories have been adopted in many disciplines and concerns have been raised about the challenges associated with their adoption, exemplars that reveal how work-practice researchers have used practice theories and dealt with challenges associated with the use of practice theories are rare. The lack of such exemplars discourages adopt...

The focus of this paper is a social web site, Udderly Fantastic, that has been developed and implemented for the Australian dairy farming industry with the overarching goal of providing ‘a place for dairy-minded people to creatively celebrate the business'. The aim of the study is to examine how an industry-wide social web site contributes to the c...

This paper presents an approach to business process outsourcing (BPO) based on the development of a business architecture. The paper argues that business architecture can form the basis for the effective planning, design and negotiation of a BPO initiative. The approach comprises the following steps: business problem analysis; determination of the...

Abstract Recently, Marshall (2006) pointed out that the project management literature was largely silent on issues of organisational power, and further, indicated that where it did appear, power was treated as an aberration or as a negative and damaging phenomenon that needed to be eliminated so that the rational progress of the project could be re...

This paper is a conceptual, research-in-progress study of the nature and role of communication in IT implementation projects. The paper considers different approaches to the implementation of change and to communication, and argues that scant attention is given to the design of communication approaches and strategies suitable for IT projects and ot...

In this paper we give a direct and personal account of the issues and challenges that occurred in an action research study. The research team consisted of five researchers from two Australian universities. The action research case was carried out in a small financial services company and concerned the development of an information systems strategy....

This paper describes the development and testing of a method for information systems (IS) strategy formulation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A case study describing a practical experience with the method is presented. Essentially the method is comprised of two complementary analyses: an externally focused strategic analysis and an interna...

To develop a better understanding of the practice of business and systems analysis, we adopted the boundary practice lens to view business analysis as a boundary practice between users and IT staff. This paper presents findings from an interpretive case study of a group of business analysts working within a large public sector university. We find t...

The advice found in practical guides like PMBOK regarding designing and managing communication in IT projects, is worryingly superficial and gives little guidance or insights of substance to IS academics and practitioners. Thus, the objective of this paper is to help academics and practitioners better appreciate the complexity involved in IT projec...

In the adoption and acceptance of technology, the technology acceptance model (TAM) has been a dominant influence. TAM, however, simplifies and trivialises the concept of motivation, (a concept not well developed and used in the IS field) by failing to recognise the fundamental needs influencing behaviour. This, in turn, restricts its use to design...

Relevance of IS research to practitioners has been one of the most fervently debated meta discussions in the IS discipline. To address the concern of lack of relevance, an IS relevance index was suggested in 2005 and used in an exploratory study using two years of conference review data. This paper reports on a 2007 panel presented at the Australas...

Business architecture, one of the components of enterprise architecture frameworks, is an underutilised but potentially powerful and useful notion for Information Systems (IS) business analysts and solution architects. The development of a future-oriented or target state business architecture representing an achievable operational framework for a b...

Governments the world over are developing policy and implementing broadband infrastructure for the purpose of improving access to and availability of broadband for businesses and citizenry based on assumptions that broadband infrastructure will return economic and social benefits. However, little research has been done that evaluates the impact of...

Some years ago Lyytinen and Hirschheim (1987) explored information systems (IS) failure, characterising four different types or modes of failure. This paper re-examines these types of failures in the context of an enterprise system (ES) implementation in an Asia Pacific business that was newly acquired by a global manufacturing company. Following m...

Abstract The research reported in this paper uses system justification theory (SJT) as a lens to understand stakeholder resistance to ES implementation. A case study involving a problematic enterprise systems implementation is presented and illustrates the efficacy of SJT in this respect. The findings of the research show that SJT explains a numbe...

This paper explores the concepts of design and design science in a number of disciplines, including information systems (IS). The authors identify and explore various viewpoints or perspectives on design in a number of disciplines including management, engineering, architecture, product development and so on. These perspectives include design as pr...

Abstract This paper examines the fundamental nature of science, design, hence design science and design research, with a view to determining a conceptualisation of design science that is useful in the discipline of information systems (IS). After reviewing several notions of design, the paper recommends a conceptualisation that involves a broad pr...

This paper presents a method for information systems (IS) strategy formulation that is suitable for SMEs. The method involves the merging of insights and determinations from two complementary perspectives on the future IS needs of an SME, and hence the name "Dual Lens Approach". One of the perspectives is strategic and top-down, while the other per...

In this paper, the authors focus on the degree review process for Information Systems (IS) degrees, arguing that a more demand-centric approach is needed that explicitly incorporates direct input from business stakeholders. Such an approach is developed together with a framework for conceptualising the discipline of IS. A framework depicts the way...

The history of Information Systems (IS) as a discipline has been accompanied by vigorous debate on how, and indeed whether, IT investments contribute to improving organisational performance and hence in delivering value to the organisation. A number of models have been put forward to describe the relationship between IT expenditure and business val...

One of the challenges of action research is the need simultaneously to serve two ‘masters’: as researchers, we need to produce rigorous, relevant research to advance our understanding and knowledge of our discipline. However, there is also a responsibility to intervene in organisational contexts and improve or ameliorate situations or issues percei...

This paper provides a description of and reflections on an action research project. The project is described from its initialisation and conceptualisation through to the completion of the engagement with the clients of the problem-solving exercise. It is hoped that the reflections on the key issues of the action research project will provide opport...

Abstract This paper gives an appraisal of recent writings on design science in the information systems discipline. The authors believe that the new emphasis on design could be an insightful way to look at the discipline as long as the focus and emphasis of design science is broadened from a technical software engineering perspective to include and...

The Information Systems discipline is concerned with the identification, planning, development, implementation and management of information systems in organisations. Thus, it is in organisations that the events, happenings and stories of information systems are played out. Given this, the perspective that Information Systems researchers have of or...

Abstract This study examines the progression of e-business in eight small and medium enterprises (SMEs) using a stage model as a framework to explain the evolution of their e-business initiatives. In particular, the paper reports on the issues, barriers, and challenges that influence the progress of an e-business initiative. Most prominent are the...

This paper reports on the results of an empirical study into the integration of strategic information systems planning and business-IT alignment, IT evaluation, and the proactive management of business benefits in large organisations, and to consider the linkages evident between these processes. An argument is developed which suggests that at the h...

It is imperative for an organisation to identify potential drivers and inhibitors of e-business in order to minimise the risk and maximise the benefits derived from its e-business initiative. Although the issues of drivers and inhibitors of e-business/e-commerce have been the subject of intensive discussions elsewhere, the literature bears no indic...

The research reported in this paper examines how business value is being created and delivered by IT in large private organisations in Australia. The critical organisational governance and management activities and practices that contribute significantly to business value were identified and described, using a process model of Soh and Markus (1995)...

This research grew out of concerns that information systems projects (defined here to include both in-house development, and the acquisition, modification and implementation of externally-produced package software) often result in less than satisfactory outcomes, with stories of failure and disappointments with respect to information systems (IS) b...

This paper reports on the results of an empirical study into the integration of strategic information systems planning and business-IT alignment, IT evaluation, and the proactive management of business benefits in large organisations, and to consider the linkages achieved between these processes. An argument is developed which suggests that at the...

This paper reports on the results of an empirical study into the integration of strategic information systems planning and business-IT alignment, IT evaluation, and the proactive management of business benefits in large organisations, and to consider the linkages achieved between these processes. An argument is developed which suggests that at the...

Abstract As a part of ongoing research to look at the pragmatic value of the stages of growth concept tomap the progression of e-business maturity, this paper describes some of the empirical findings of a,qualitative study into the progression and maturity of e-business in small and medium enterprises in Australia. In particular, the paper discusse...

The strengths and limitations of action research as a candidate approach to research in information systems (IS) are considered. The authors conclude that indeed action research has many features that would render it ideal for application in some IS research. However the authors argue that a deeper and more reflective analysis of the meaning of act...

ABSTRACT This paper grows out of concerns about the conduct of action research in the field of Information Systems (IS). While action research has many attributes that would suggest it was ideally suited to an applied discipline such as IS, there are no well articulated processes or procedures to guide the action researcher. By virtue their rejecti...

The research described in this paper reports on some of the outcomes of qualitative and exploratory studies into the experiences of small & medium enterprises (SMEs) with respect to electronic commerce (EC). A framework is subsequently presented, based on empirical findings, to guide and structure the thinking of businesses approaching the plann...

This paper outlines and analyses the behaviours of small and medium enterprises with respect to the evaluation of electronic commerce investments, and the subsequent realisation of the anticipated benefits from those investments. The responses of executives who participated in the study suggested that on-going involvement in electronic commerce did...

This paper outlines and analyses the behaviours of small and medium enterprises with respect to the evaluation of electronic commerce investments, and the subsequent realisation of the anticipated benefits from those investments. The responses of executives who participated in the study suggested that on-going involvement in electronic commerce did...

It appears that somewhat of a dichotomy exists in many contemporary organisations with respect to the question of investment in information and particularly in information technology (IT). On the one hand, discussions of the new information-based economy and the promise of the new e-business domain leads inevitably to enormous faith being placed in...

Given the pervasiveness and importance of information technology (IT) in modern organisations, it is somewhat surprising that senior management often feel unsure about the business value of their IT investment. It is sometimes suggested that more careful planning of the IT resource and a more deliberate intention to align IT strategies and investme...

Keywords Information systems, Research, Methodology, Action research Abstract Action research (AR) is not without its critics, and those who reject some of the paradigmatic assumptions embodied in AR maintain that AR is little more than consultancy, that it is impossible to establish causal relationships, that it is difficult to generalize from...

It appears that somewhat of a dichotomy exists in many contemporary organisations with respect to the question of investment in information and particularly in information technology (IT). On the one hand, discussions of the new information-based economy and the promise of the new e-business domain leads inevitably to enormous faith being placed in...

ABSTRACT It has been almost three decades since Nolan proposed his stages hypothesis. Since then several studies on the stages of growth theory appeared in the academic literature. Despite the criticism it received, the s-tages theory is acknowledged by both the academic community and the professional as one of the most popular models to chart the...

It appears that somewhat of a dichotomy exists in many contemporary organisations with respect to the question of investment in information and particularly in information technology (IT). On the one hand, discussions of the new information-based economy and the promise of the new e-business domain leads inevitably to enormous faith being placed in...

As business grow more and more interconnected and hence increasingly reliant on information technology (IT), there is the temptation to argue that careful planning of the information systems (IS) and IT resources in an organisation becomes even more imperative. However, an alternative view might suggest that in rapidly changing and turbulent enviro...

The study reported in this paper was undertaken in an attempt to identify and understand the impacts of electronic commerce in the car retail industry in Western Australia. Much of the existing literature in electronic commerce puts forward theoretical models and speculative argumentation in an attempt to describe and understand the electronic comm...

While the hype surrounding the promise of electronic commerce seems all pervasive currently, as academics there is a need to conduct empirical studies to establish balanced and credible reviews of the impacts of the Internet and associated technologies on business practice and performance. Also, while the USA is clearly a leader in the uptake of su...

This paper discusses nature of action research, and its particular strengths in disciplines such as information systems (IS). However concerns are raised about the quality and rigour of the conduct and reporting of action research studies. Criteria for quality and rigour of qualitative research generally, and for action research in particular, are...

This paper reports on qualitative case study research into the effects and impacts, and hence the adoption and diffusion of e-commerce in the car industry in Western Australia. To date, care dealers are typically not particularly internet savvy, and thus the advent of internet-based business is offering opportunities to them, but is also causing so...

Contemporary business environments and trends for the future suggest that successful organizations of the future must not only be efficient, effective, competent, and competitive within any specific domain or marketplace, but that they must most importantly be flexible and adaptable, able to respond appropriately to change and turbulence in their e...

This paper looks at the virtual organisation in an electronic market environment and suggests that the basic concepts of virtual management are so poorly understood that there are likely to be very few such organisations gaining strategic advantage from their virtuality. The authors begin by providing some clear definitions of virtual organisations...

The globalization of markets, increasing competition, the reduction of barriers to entry into new lines of business, mergers and alliances, changing patterns of employment, the increasing sophistication of workers and the opportunities of modern technology are pushing all organizations in the direction of virtuality (Working Group 4, 1998, p.7)