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Useful Business Cases: Value Creation in IS Projects
European Journal of Information Systems
Abstract and Figures
Business cases have become popular as part of managing value creation in IS projects. Nevertheless, business cases are often poorly linked to value creation activities and organizations struggle to develop business cases that are useful and express more than simple cost savings. This action research study seeks to improve the usefulness of business cases in IS projects. We used collaborative action research with Danish municipalities to improve their practices when developing and using business cases and to change their perceptions of what constitutes a good business case that is useful during implementation and value creation. This article presents lessons learned from our action research, lessons that we incorporated into a business case method and subsequently evaluated with IS managers. There are three lessons on: (1) improving the content of business cases, (2) how to develop business cases, and (3) the use of business cases in subsequent value creation. These lessons summarize our findings and the contributions are that we in the business case method propose to: (1) include minimal contents, (2) develop social commitment, and (3) structure for dynamic use during value creation. We discuss the lessons and contributions related to research on IS business cases and value creation.
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... A couple of papers (e.g. Nielsen and Persson, 2017;Sarkis and Liles, 1995) were based on design/action research where frameworks were developed together with practitioners. Also, specific calculations were made for real cases (e.g. ...
... Some of the frameworks/models that were used were more generic, such as systems thinking (Jonker et al., 2017), real options analysis (Tahon et al., 2013) and multi-criteria decision making (Riley et al., 2020), while others stemmed from a specific disciplinary field such as the BC process groups from the IT project field (Einhorn et al., 2019, 2020), EcoM2 from the sustainability field (Rodrigues et al., 2018) or the value based care model from healthcare (Bartlett-Ellis et al., 2015). Some papers referred to other developed frameworks specifically for the BC purpose in their fields, for example, a BC for ergonomic interventions (Seeley and Marklin, 2003), or for information systems (Nielsen and Persson, 2017;Ward et al., 2007). ...
... (2) Conduct a needs assessment: identify drivers, needs (Quashie et al., 2017) and motivations (Nielsen and Persson, 2017) for what outcomes are desired (Zaitsev and Dror, 2020). ...
Purpose
Business case (BC) analyses are performed in many different business fields, to create a report on the feasibility and competitive advantage of an intervention within an existing organisation to secure commitment from management to invest. However, most BC research papers on decisions regarding internal funding are either based on anecdotal insights, on analyses of standards from practice, or focused on very specific BC calculations for a certain project, investment or field. A clear BC process method is missing.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper aims to describe the results of a systematic literature review of 52 BC papers that report on further conceptualisation of what a BC process should behold.
Findings
Synthesis of the findings has led to a BC definition and composition of a 20 step BC process method. In addition, 29 relevant theories are identified to tackle the main challenges of BC analyses in future studies to make them more effective. This supports further theoretical development of academic BC research and provides a tool for BC processes in practice.
Originality/value
Although there is substantial scientific research on BCs, there was not much theoretical development nor a general stepwise method to perform the most optimal BC analysis.
... For information technology (IT) projects in general, various BC frameworks are available (Gambles, 2009;Nielsen and Persson, 2017;Berghout and Tan, 2013). Regarding BCs for PCS projects, researchers have addressed topics such as stakeholder analysis (Zhang, 2014) and the evaluation of AS-IS and TO-BE configuration processes Zhang, 2014). ...
... Although a BC for an IT project is presented as a document, its development is a process (Nielsen and Persson, 2017;Remenyi, 2012;Ward et al., 2008) that serves multiple objectives (Ward et al., 2008). It serves not only as a basis for informed decision-making regarding whether to invest in a proposed project but also as a means of eliciting the commitment of stakeholders, the lack of which is "perhaps the single most important reason why IT projects fail" (Remenyi, 2012, p.27). ...
... It serves not only as a basis for informed decision-making regarding whether to invest in a proposed project but also as a means of eliciting the commitment of stakeholders, the lack of which is "perhaps the single most important reason why IT projects fail" (Remenyi, 2012, p.27). The way in which this process is performed affects the achievement of these objectives (Nielsen and Persson, 2017;Remenyi, 2012). This process may take weeks or even months and may cost the organization a nontrivial amount of money (Remenyi and Remenyi, 2009;Ward et al., 2008). ...
Product configuration systems (PCSs) are peculiar IT applications used for efficient product customization. Unfortunately, PCS implementation involves many challenges. A well-defined business case (BC) could increase PCS project success. However, the literature does not provide specific guidance for building BCs for PCS projects. The proposed BC framework for PCS projects was developed based on literature and professional expertise, and tested in three PCS projects at two engineer-to-order (ETO) companies. Figures of benefits, costs, ROIs, scenario examples, sensitivity analyses, risk analyses, and key information about application experiences were reported. The framework test shows that it is viable and helps overcome PCS challenges.
... IT projects also face this challenge (Einhorn et al., 2019;Nielsen and Persson, 2017), not least in the public sector and healthcare (Hellang et al., 2013;Sapountzis et al., 2009;Williams et al., 2020). Studies indicate that the challenges can be met through sound benefits management (BM) practices and disciplined governance applied consistently across the lifetime of projects (Musawir et al., 2017;Svejvig et al., 2019), including robust business case design and use (Einhorn et al., 2019;Nielsen and Persson, 2017). ...
... IT projects also face this challenge (Einhorn et al., 2019;Nielsen and Persson, 2017), not least in the public sector and healthcare (Hellang et al., 2013;Sapountzis et al., 2009;Williams et al., 2020). Studies indicate that the challenges can be met through sound benefits management (BM) practices and disciplined governance applied consistently across the lifetime of projects (Musawir et al., 2017;Svejvig et al., 2019), including robust business case design and use (Einhorn et al., 2019;Nielsen and Persson, 2017). However, despite considerable efforts in BM and business case development (Breese et al., 2015;Nielsen and Persson, 2017), many IT projects are still failing to deliver high customer satisfaction and high return on value to organizations (Johnson, 2018). ...
... Studies indicate that the challenges can be met through sound benefits management (BM) practices and disciplined governance applied consistently across the lifetime of projects (Musawir et al., 2017;Svejvig et al., 2019), including robust business case design and use (Einhorn et al., 2019;Nielsen and Persson, 2017). However, despite considerable efforts in BM and business case development (Breese et al., 2015;Nielsen and Persson, 2017), many IT projects are still failing to deliver high customer satisfaction and high return on value to organizations (Johnson, 2018). These challenges have to be addressed; Breese (2012) suggests the development of theories regarding BM, "which are based on in-depth analysis of practice" and which better capture the complexity and uncertainty in practice for BM and business case design and use. ...
Purpose
This paper reports on an action research study based optimization project related to healthcare IT implemented on the Faroe Islands. The aims were to study what constitutes value in the public healthcare setting by applying and activating existing resources in the organization, hence answering the overall research question: How can a resource-based view (RBV) improve benefits management (BM) practices?
Design/methodology/approach
By applying a RBV to findings from an action research study of an optimization project of an integrated health information system (HIS), a framework of capabilities needed in a public HIS setting to create value was developed.
Findings
The theoretical contribution is a framework explaining how BM practices and, hence, value can be interrelated in a public healthcare IT system.
Research limitations/implications
The study shows the need for academic IT professionals to structure and facilitate value generation, especially in the form of creating an innovative and learning environment in the form of an action research based project.
Practical implications
This study suggests which actors should be motivated and developed in order to ensure value in healthcare IT projects. Having value creation in mind, the model could have potentially broad applicability in a variety of healthcare IT settings.
Social implications
The findings leads to better usage of public healthcare resources.
Originality/value
The present research studies real problems in a real setting, thus providing distinct ideas on how to improve public value creation by direct engagement of researchers.
... However, successful communication is a complex undertaking that does not become less complex when adding more voices and viewpoints to the conversation. The business case document is widely used as a sign of IS value (Nielsen & Persson, 2017). The quality and usefulness of business cases is a key problem for IS management in public organizations (Nielsen & Persson, 2016 and they have been shown to misinform IS investment decisions (Berghout & Tan, 2013). ...
... Ward et al. (2008) finally emphasize linking benefits to the business changes that are required to deliver them, which align their view on IS business cases with the research on benefits realization management (Doherty et al, 2012;Einhorn et al, 2019;. Nielsen & Persson (2017) elaborated on the approach in (Ward et al 2008) in collaboration with Danish municipalities on making business cases more usefulness for IS value creation. Their results point to importance choosing content for the IS business case. ...
... Several sources, e.g. Maes et al. (2014) and Nielsen & Persson (2017), point to the importance of the business case being the medium of communication. One way of studying communication is to use semiotics, which Lorino (2018) argues that from a pragmatist perspective is at the heart of organizing. ...
A business case is a formal investment document with a structured overview of relevant information that provides a rationale and justification of an investment. Business cases have become popular as part of managing value creation in information systems (IS) projects. Nevertheless, business cases are often poorly communicating the rationale and justification of the value to be gained from IS investments. Against this backdrop, we investigate how an IS business case can communicate well when seen through the lens of semiotics. Semiotics is the study of how meaning is generated and interpreted through signs. In this paper, we use semiotics to analyze an IS business case on the digitization of diplomas at a Danish University. Our analysis shows that its (1) addresser and addressee should be explicitly and implicitly identifiable; (2) self-referential-ity helps set the context and allow uncertainties in the message; (3) a template instigates the medium and codes for value. We discuss the contribution of our findings to research on IS business cases.
... Organization-level adoption theories have emerged from the strategy and innovation literature. Competitive advantage, transaction functionality, speed (Yu & Tao, 2009), IS value creation, social commitment (Nielsen & Persson, 2017), and quests for control and organisational effectiveness (Malaurant & Karanasios, 2020) have been shown to be influential factors shaping organisation-level adoption (Oliveira & Martins, 2011). A limitation of these theories is their assumption that organisations are monoliths managed from the top. ...
... However, in the hospital studied, the EHR's basic model was largely implemented top-down through a "big bang" approach, implying that management expected full adoption. This approach reflects the unilateral assumptions of the organisation-level adoption models (Malaurant & Karanasios, 2020;Nielsen & Persson, 2017). This did not work out as hoped, and our cases demonstrated how negotiating additional compromise and design costs (Gattiker & Goodhue, 2004) would better fit such a setting. ...
... Moreover, empirical studies consistently report statistically significant associations between efficient project-portfolio management and strategy realisation (Martinsuo and Lehtonen, 2007), between effective project governance, benefits management and project success (Musawir et al., 2017), between project-management performance and business success (Mir and Pinnington, 2014), and between successful benefits-realisation management, project success and the creation of strategic value for the organisation (Serra and Kunc, 2015), thus providing quantitative evidence for these relationships. In a qualitative enquiry, Nielsen and Persson (2017) found that an appropriate business case was a prerequisite for effective benefits management. In summary, however, due to the inherent conceptual and methodological challenges involved, researchers should assess project-output utilisation in the focal unit as the standard measure of success. ...
... Applying analogous logic, Zwikael and Smyrk (2012) conclude that the project funder is best positioned to determine project-owner success, a construct largely synonymous to output utilisation at the level of the focal unit. Complementarily, a baseline study can be carried out before the project and the effects measured afterwards (Nielsen and Persson, 2017). Nonetheless, these comparative approaches require careful attention to construct validity and to the risk of cross-levelinduced biases such as misspecification and aggregation (Rousseau, 1985). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this conceptual paper is to describe and explain how organisations use internal projects to implement organisation-level strategy objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
Theory development with an emphasis on explaining key constructs and their mutual relationships. The theoretical contribution is represented in a diagram along with a detailed verbal account.
Findings
The paper develops a dynamic, cross-level framework to illustrate the organisational processes and outcomes that determine project-based strategy implementation within a single organisation. The interplay between the base organisation and the project, and benefits realisation were singled out as key future research areas. The proposed framework engages with central discourses in the fields of project management, strategic management, innovation studies, knowledge management and organisation studies.
Research limitations/implications
Only the contours of an organisation-level theory of strategically motivated internal projects are outlined. Future research must elaborate on the complexities, the non-linear relationships and the boundary conditions that follow from the proposed framework.
Practical implications
Managers are alerted to the strategic role of internal projects, how these projects help connect strategy and performance and what the accompanying organisational processes and outcomes look like.
Originality/value
The paper constitutes an early conceptual treatment of strategy-driven internal projects as a distinct project category, thus addressing a major knowledge gap in project studies. Organisational project-management theory is extended with suggestions for future research.
... The journey from identification of how IT can enable relevant initiatives (IT strategic planning) to effective business benefits realization is often long and complex. To help in this challenge organizations perceive the Business Case (BC) as a critical instrument in order to realize the potential value from IT investments (Swanton & Draper, 2010;Nielsen & Persson, 2017). ISACA 1 , reinforces its importance, considering that, a well-developed and intelligently used BC for a business transformation program, is one of the most valuable tools available to management. ...
... ISACA 1 , reinforces its importance, considering that, a well-developed and intelligently used BC for a business transformation program, is one of the most valuable tools available to management. Actually, researchers tend to shift studies of BC from just a document to a process thinking as it may contribute to the IT enabled investment success ) (Nielsen & Persson, 2017). They urge to enrich the content of a BC with qualitative information in addition to the more financially arguments that are mainly included nowadays, and focus on how a BC can be used throughout the entire investment life cycle (a process approach). ...
The growth in IT investments increases the concern of organizations and their leaders to ensure the expected business value from these investments. Business value derived only emerges through business changes and innovations, i.e., organizational transformation. Organizational change through digital transformation is a fundamental component for business value resulting from IT investments and a driver of further change. Organizations perceive the Business Case as a critical instrument to realize the potential value from IT. A well-developed and intelligently used business case is one of the most valuable tools available to management. This paper embraces an oriented practical perspective to existing Enterprise Governance of IT and IT Value Management professional frameworks. A literature review methodology is performed in academic and practitioner literature. Based on literature findings, we propose a based model that supports organizations in development a maintenance of a Business Case Process grounded on COBIT 5.
... Indeed, prior industrial (marketing) management research indicates that companies innovate their BMs incrementally and through trial and error (Paiola et al., 2022). We see this situation as a BM design challenge that gives salience to the issue of value creation and value capture in IIoT contexts (Åström, Reim, & Parida, 2022;Kim, Cho, & Ramesh, 2019;Li, Van Heck, & Vervest, 2009;Nielsen & Persson, 2017;Reuschl, Tiberius, Filser, & Qiu, 2022;Sjödin, Parida, Jovanovic, & Visnjic, 2020). Thus, to provide specific guidance on how to unlock the value of IIoT technologies, in this paper we seek to answer the following research question: what types of business models are used in practice to successfully unlock the potential of IIoT? ...
While the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) holds much promise, there is a mismatch between its potential and companies capturing value from investments in IIoT. Indeed, even when companies recognize the value of IIoT, they do not necessarily know how to grasp related opportunities and are challenged in developing a suitable business model. Accordingly, to alleviate roadblocks to capturing value from IIoT, in this paper we address the challenge of identifying suitable business models in the age of the industrial metaverse. We do so through an extensive review and classification of main IIoT business model archetypes that are successful in practice. In particular, we conduct a content analysis of IIoT projects based on over 2000 articles in industry trade magazines and newspapers. Our analysis identifies four distinct business model archetypes in the context of IIoT, viz. IIoT digical, IIoT service-centered, IIoT data-driven, and IIoT platform, and further explores the challenges that need to be addressed to ensure that companies can capture value from their IIoT initiatives. We explore appropriate
contexts for these business model archetypes, and, in doing so, we provide actionable guidance for industrial (marketing) managers seeking to position their IIoT offerings and maximize their value.
... Indeed, prior industrial (marketing) management research indicates that companies innovate their BMs incrementally and through trial and error (Paiola et al., 2022). We see this situation as a BM design challenge that gives salience to the issue of value creation and value capture in IIoT contexts (Åström, Reim, & Parida, 2022;Kim, Cho, & Ramesh, 2019;Li, Van Heck, & Vervest, 2009;Nielsen & Persson, 2017;Reuschl, Tiberius, Filser, & Qiu, 2022;Sjödin, Parida, Jovanovic, & Visnjic, 2020). Thus, to provide specific guidance on how to unlock the value of IIoT technologies, in this paper we seek to answer the following research question: what types of business models are used in practice to successfully unlock the potential of IIoT? ...
... Investments in digital transformation increasingly demand effective realization of benefits (Zwikael et al., 2018), but projects successful in these terms can still fail to realize benefits (Chih and Zwikael, 2015;Zwikael and Smyrk, 2012). This gap has led to new models incorporating cultural and social factors (Nielsen and Persson, 2017). Despite efforts and focus on benefits management over the last decade (Breese et al., 2015), many digital transformation projects still fail to achieve expected benefits. ...
Purpose
While digital transformation holds immense promise, organizations often fail to realize its benefits. This study aims to address how policies for digital transformation benefits realization are translated into practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply a qualitative, comparative case study of two large, public-sector health care organizations in Sweden. Through document and interview data, the authors analyze the process of translation.
Findings
The study finds that practice variation is primarily caused by two types of decoupling: policy-practice and means-ends. Contrary to previous studies, coercion in policy compliance is not found to decrease practice variation.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations primarily stem from the empirical selection of two large public health-care organizations in Sweden, affecting the study’s generalizability. Reducing practice variation is more effectively achieved through goal alignment than coercion, leading to implications for the design of governance and control.
Practical implications
Policymakers should, instead of focusing on control-related compliance, work to align organizational objectives and policies to decrease practice variation for successful benefits realization.
Social implications
The study contributes to better benefits realization of digital transformation initiatives in health care. As such, the authors contribute to a better functioning and more transformative health care in times of increased demand and decreased supply of health-care services.
Originality/value
The study challenges conventional wisdom by identifying that coercion is less effective than goal alignment in reducing practice variation, thereby enhancing the understanding of policy implementation dynamics in health-care settings.
... Digitization enables streamlined firm activities, electronic transactions, and information exchanges. Through digitization, firms can transition from manual to automated invoicing systems, reducing processing time and human error (Nielsen & Persson, 2017). Digitization includes adopting broadband internet access, using email for communications, maintaining a website, and leveraging the Internet for procurement and in support of research and development (Cassiman & Veugelers, 2006). ...
In this study, we examine the effects of bribery on the digitization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within Latin America. We apply neo‐institutional theory as the overarching theoretical framework to establish that bribery negatively influences digitization. We propose that firm characteristics (i.e., managerial experience and firm size) affect the firm‐level relationship between bribery and digitization. We also examine how the perceived tax burden mediates the effect of bribery on digitization. Our study is both theoretically and practically relevant. Theoretically, we are among the first to explicate the direct relationship between bribery and digitization. This novel perspective extends the information systems literature to explain digitization challenges in Latin America. For managers and policymakers, we present a path towards essential digitization for Latin American SMEs. Our empirical analysis uses secondary data from a World Bank survey of 1549 Latin American SMEs conducted over three years in six countries. Our findings show that bribery negatively influences digitization while SME characteristics positively moderate this relationship. In addition, we show that the perceived tax burden mediates the effects of bribery on digitization.
... The initiatives are assessed through often standardized "business cases" [11]. As templates, these documents include assessments of the cost, benefit and risk of each initiative. ...
Digital transformation is increasingly prioritized within the public sector to assure sustained relevance. At the same time, sustainable development goals (SDGs) are increasingly addressed in the strategies and missions of public sector actors. Previous research highlights that sustainability requires integration into internal procedures and governance structures (e.g., accounting) to avoid running the risk of merely being ceremonial and green washing. With digital transformation deemed critical for the public sector, we would hence expect to see an integration of SDGs in digital initiatives. This study answers the research question of how SDGs are integrated into digital transformation initiatives. We answer the question through purposive sampling of digital initiatives within a large, Swedish municipality, where each initiative is categorized on the notion of which SDGs they are related to. The findings show that there is a decoupling of sustainability in digital transformation initiatives, that risks leading to directly detrimental effects for both the digital transformation of the public sector as well as for sustainability. This is discussed through integration with previous literature with the intent of identifying future avenues for research and recommendations for practice.KeywordsDigital transformationSustainable development goalsSDGResponsible information systemsDigital government
... The success of many digital technologies for private value creation has been proven across different sectors (Bauer et al., 2019;Gregory et al., 2020;Nielsen & Persson, 2017;Thompson et al., 2005). Typically, the private sector is more proactive in adopting new digital technologies because of competition in the market and the pressure to survive, which is greater than in the public sector, targeting public value creation. ...
Governments across the globe are facing pressure to increase the speed of their digital transformation to meet the needs of the digital society while fulfilling their primary task of delivering public value. While researchers agree on the importance of the public sector for public value creation, recently, more and more studies have recognized the criticality of collaboration between the public and private sectors for successful public value creation. In our research, we conduct a qualitative survey. We examine the idea of collaboration between the public and the private sectors in more detail and add the citizens' perspective. We highlight the need for joint forces for optimal public value creation, identify ways to achieve this, and determine what digital technologies can support this process.
... Because EA influences users' continuance intention of IPA technology, overlooking user EA with previous and new technologies may instigate productivity decline through increased cognitive and emotional user exhaustion. Following IT initial adoption, extended utilization prolongs user benefits, while suspended utilization negates potential user benefits and squanders invested time and financial resources (Nielsen and Persson, 2017). Thus, understanding the user's EA with IPA technologies ensures its long-term usage, eventually saves time and financial resources. ...
Purpose
This study aims to examine the relationship between emotional attachment (EA) and intelligent personal assistant (IPA) continuance intention. While existing theories emphasize purely rational and goal-oriented factors in terms of information technology (IT) continuance intention, this research examines how users' EA toward technology impacts their continuance intention in the absence of cognitive and habitual factors.
Design/methodology/approach
This study contextualizes attachment theory from the social psychology/consumer psychology literature to an IT application and formulates and tests a new model that is proposed in the context of IPA continuance. Five research hypotheses developed from contextualization and application of the theory were posited in a structural model and empirically validated using survey results from IPA users.
Findings
The results show that users' EA to IPA use significantly influences their IPA continuance intention, along with emotional trust and interaction quality with the IPA.
Originality/value
This study contextualizes attachment theory developed in the social psychology/consumer psychology literature to formulate and test a new model in the context of IPA continuance. This work contributes to the theoretical understanding by investigating IPA continuance intention in the absence of cognitive or habitual factors and fills a critical research gap in IT post-adoption literature. IPA is just one example of technologies to which individuals can form attachments and this research provides an important foundation for future research by positing and testing the value of EA in IT post-adoption behavior. This research also contributes to practical knowledge by inferring that IPA manufacturers, managers and vendors could extend their revenue streams by integrating product features that capture emotion.
... Taxonomies help to spot knowledge gaps in a domain of interest, such as indicated by Labazova [27] who argued that previous research on Blockchain falls short in considering the systems mutual impact. Comparable to gaps, on the other hand, the focus of available research in a field can be disclosed by stressing frequently addressed characteristics [28]. Description of a phenomenon (7). ...
Taxonomies are artifacts that can be used for numerous purposes, including gap spotting, decision-making, and theory building. Despite the variety of usage purposes, we can observe that designers state that their taxonomies help to ‘classify something’; leaving the full potential of taxonomies rather untapped. In order to lay attention on questions of for what taxonomies can be used, this short paper (1) raises awareness of the actual problem space and motivate the relevance of an overview of taxonomy use purposes, (2) outlines the overall project’s research design to identify and structure the set of use purposes, and (3) proposes preliminary purposes extracted from analyzing a corpus of articles that built upon—and use—previously published taxonomies. In doing this, we seek to complement available methodological guidance to make more informed decisions in terms of a taxonomy’s usage potential.
... The role of consultants in public sector IS-related projects is often acknowledged but rarely analyzed in detail (cf. Arnott 2004;Axelsson et al. 2010;Heeks and Stanforth 2007;Koumaditis and Themistocleous 2015;Moe et al. 2017;Nielsen and Persson 2017;Teo et al. 2011). As consultants have become commonplace in different public sector transformation projects and can provide necessary assets to public sector organizations to help them digitally transform, it can be assumed that they also have a role to play in public sector digital transformation (Ylönen and Kuusela 2019). ...
The world is digitalizing at an ever-increasing pace. To benefit from the potential of new digital technologies, both private and public sector organizations have begun to digitally transform. Digital transformation is a fundamental and continuous transformation whereby organizations change their business operations, products, and processes to become better equipped to benefit from digital technologies.
Research on digital transformation has largely focused on strategic perspectives, necessary activities, and new technologies. The insights of these studies provide a good overview of the different aspects of digital transformation at the organizational level, although mainly in the private sector context. What is still not properly understood is the way the transformation evolves at lower levels of the organization. The grassroots perspective of digital transformation is missing.
To provide a better understanding of digital transformation at these lower levels, this dissertation reports an interpretive single case study conducted in the IT department of a large municipality in Finland. The study focuses on this IT department’s efforts to digitally transform to improve its ability to provide better services to the municipal business units and support the municipal digital transformation.
The findings show that the IT department’s efforts to digitally transform improved its ability to provide IT-related services to municipal business units, revealing that many suggested approaches for supporting digital transformation in the private sector also apply in the public sector context. The findings also show that the activities with which the IT department began to advance its digital transformation were guided by an attempt to solve one tension after another instead of relying on a predefined transformation plan. While the initial transformation activities were designed to resolve tensions hindering the IT department’s service provision, the following transformation efforts were targeted to resolve tensions revealed and created by the previous transformations, resulting in a continuous tension-driven transformation process.
This rich and in-depth case study of a grassroots-level digital transformation provides new insights related to the evolution of digital transformation and the role of tensions in this evolution. Consequently, the key contribution of this dissertation is the discovery that while digital transformation is often depicted as a transformation process guided by strategy, in the lower levels of the organization, digital transformation appears as an organic transformation driven by tensions. The identified tensions, while case-specific, explain how tensions inherent in organizational operations drive change initiatives, which, in turn, reveal new tensions demanding attention, thus resulting in a continuous transformation.
Management research has long acknowledged that change creates tensions when new and old collide, and these tensions often need to be addressed again with change. The perspectives of this literature stream often see tensions as by-products of change processes, whereas the findings of this dissertation show that in continuous and iterative transformations, tensions can become the driving force behind the transformation. Consequently, this dissertation expands our understanding of digital transformation by revealing that such transformation cannot be viewed only as a strategic initiative but also as an organic, tension-driven continuum. Therefore, more attention in digital transformation research and management should be placed on managing the tensions of this transformation.
... Fifth, regarding benefits management frameworks, the benefits case is used extensively; but this has not shown itself to be of any importance to the success of digital transformations. This does not support the findings of Nielsen and Persson (2017), which advocated the use of it in IT government projects. They used action research methodology, adopting best practice in developing such business cases as a tool for planning and reviewing. ...
This research examines the role of institutional frameworks in the successful delivery of transformation projects. Based on a survey of 130 firms that adopted ERP, this research found that transformation projects were delivered more successfully when organizations institutionalized their project management and benefits management framework at a higher level, because these frameworks enhanced the power of the role of project manager (PM) and benefits manager (BM) (i.e., business change managers and benefits auditors). Although organizations are investing more in practicing project management frameworks to strengthen the role of PMs more than that of BMs, benefits management frameworks and their missioned power to their agents are significantly more important than project management frameworks with their originating power. The benefits management framework affects the success of digital transformation because the power of the BM's role partially mediates them. Project management frameworks affect success, but the power of PMs does not mediate this relationship. The main implication of this research is that giving the offices of project management and transformation management prominent roles could help organizations improve their readiness for transformation projects.
... For practitioners, this study also provides useful insights into different situations in which CAs can be applied and the benefits organisations may expect to realise. The previous literature suggests the benefits of building a business case to gain organisational support (Jang et al., 2021;Nielsen & Persson, 2017). Organisations planning to adopt CAs, can identify what routine capabilities they aim to digitise and transform, consider the needs and challenges of their existing environment, and then evaluate what gain can be achieved using CAs. ...
Conversational agents (CAs) promise to create significant organisational value, by transforming how organisations operate and serve customers. Yet, the malleability of this technology poses challenges to both researchers and practitioners because of the wide range of strategic applications they can enable. Drawing on the lens of routine capability, this study investigates strategic applications of CAs, and their associated implementation enablers and challenges. Via an exploratory case study of eight organisations that have successfully implemented CAs, this paper contributes to the literature on the value and implementation of conversational agents in particular and cognitive technologies in general by developing a typology of CA strategic applications and their implementation considerations. For practitioners, the findings highlight the interplay between technology, user, and project management factors that need to be addressed to ensure the successful delivery of the value of CAs.
... According to Shareef et al. (2011, p. 17) e-government is broadly defined as the study of government systems using ICT to serve citizens. With respect to the digitalization of public services, e-government studies tend to focus on design-and technology-based aspects (e.g., Grimsley & Meehan 2007;Nielsen & Persson 2017). This study, however, is interested in the consequences of digital interface for state-citizen interaction (Lindgren et al. 2019, p. 427). ...
Although digital interfaces are increasingly pervading public administration, little is known about how replacing face‐to‐face interaction with digital interfaces affects citizens’ satisfaction with public service encounters. This study presents evidence from a vignette experiment conducted on a sample of German citizens (N=1.234) whereby we randomly varied the type of public‐service request with regard to its psychological costs, service quality, and the type of interaction (face‐to‐face, self‐service terminal, or app). We found that replacing face‐to‐face communication with a digital interface has no effect on citizens’ satisfaction, nor does it mitigate the effect of psychological costs, service failure, and recovery. Corroborating previous research on service recovery, we find that explaining and apologizing partially compensates for failure. Based on these results, we conclude that using digital interfaces does not undermine the goal to enhance citizen satisfaction with public services.
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... There are however, arguably, traits and logics that-from the vantage point of liberal democratic welfare states-are recurrent in most cultures. One such central theme is goal of value-creation for the citizens, a topic that in a digital framing has been covered extensively (Grimsley and Meehan 2007;Ebbers 2016;Nielsen and Persson 2017;Lindgren et al. 2019). In order to create value for its citizens, the democratic government enacts certain arrangements and ideals, such as digital participation, transparency and accountability, improving e-services and using technology to reduce public spending (Jaeger 2005). ...
An increased use of data has swept through many policy areas and shaped procedural and substantive policy instruments. Hence, citizens and governments, as both producers and consumers of data, become intertwined in even more complex ways. But the inherent logic of data-driven services and systems sometimes challenges the prerequisites and ideals of liberal democracy. Though a democratically sound data-practice and data-culture is crucial for ensuring a democratic usage of citizens data, discourse tends to overlook these aspects. Drawing on insights from the project Democracy Data, this chapter explores the opportunities and obstacles for establishing democratically oriented public sector data cultures.
... The preconditions were that the project had to start from a greenfield situation, as no business cases were formulated, contrary to normal practices (Aubry et al., 2017;Nielsen & Persson, 2017). The challenge was that management had a superficial understanding of the potential benefits of the HIS system, while this was a completely new topic for most healthcare professionals, and the benefits management process had to take this into account. ...
This article reports on a four-year action research study, where the aims were to study benefits management at a detailed, practical level and to evaluate the benefits management practices applied. Synthesizing the insights from the study shows that the approach is dependent on the context and that the action research process was a challenging endeavor, but also that the project was successful with respect to improving performance. We provide a structured evaluation of the practiced process to uncover weaknesses and improve future interventions by suggesting an integrative management model with three layers: instrumental, practical, and reflective.
... This insight adds value to research on network-level innovations spanning diverse entities and/ or multiple industries, especially as the roles of hub firms in creating and extracting value from their complex innovation networks become more and more relevant, but little explored (Dhanaraj & Parkhe, 2006;Levén, Holmström, & Mathiassen, 2014). Our study can help hub organisations develop appropriate use cases to justify and explain their IT investments and their potential impacts on value cocreation with their stakeholders (Nielsen & Persson, 2017). The role of the hub organisation, as reported in detail in the analysis, also extends the findings regarding the orchestration of value cocreation enabled by dominant players in the industry (Eaton, Elaluf-Calderwood, Sorensen, & Yoo, 2015). ...
Organisations operate in increasingly dynamic environments, internetworked in cooperative arrangements that cocreate value. They pursue the cocreation of value through collaborative networks, rather than in isolation. However, there is insufficient understanding of how networked organisations cocreate value in the network through the innovative use of information systems (IS): existing multi-firm studies are largely concerned with dyadic relationships. In terms of capturing value from the cocreation process, many studies have reported either enhanced organisational efficiencies (exploitative capability) or resulting innovations (explorative capability), but rarely both aspects simultaneously. This study attempts to draw a comprehensive picture of IS-based value leverage by reporting both the value cocreation process (network level) and value capture (organisational level) through a case study of innovative IS use in a large business network. This network links a public hub organisation with a large number of firms in the South Korean broadcast advertising industry. Drawing on Grover and Kohli’s framework for value cocreation, the case study investigates the detailed process by which network-level value cocreation occurs in the four layers of relational arrangements. It also highlights, from an organisational ambidexterity perspective, how the cocreated value is appropriated through ambidextrous activities by the networked organisations.
... Within e-government, the digitalization of public services has been studied in areas such as design (Grimsley & Meehan, 2007), channel choice (Ebbers, Pieterson, & Noordman, 2008), the digital divide (Ebbers, Janssen, & Van Deursen, 2016;Helbig, Gil-García, & Ferro, 2009), and value creation (Nielsen & Persson, 2017). However, few researchers have addressed the consequences of digitalization for one of the core activities at hand-the interaction between citizens and public officials. ...
This paper contributes to e-government research by presenting a review and discussion on how digitalization of public services has affected the interaction between citizens and government. We argue for a conceptualization and critical reflection on the nature of the underlying interaction between citizens and public officials - the public encounter - that digital public services are developed to support. We apply a qualitative and hermeneutic approach and illustrate that digital public services change public encounters concerning when, where, and how interactions occur, what each actor does, and the skills required of them. By relating these changes to emerging digital technologies (e.g. data mining, machine learning, sensor technology, and service automation), we illustrate that while these new technologies carry the potential to further digitalize service provision and fulfill the democratic goals of digital government, authorities can apply the same technology to restrict, control, and surveil citizens. Based on a critical discussion on what digitalization might entail for society, we identify problem areas arising from this development and propose a research agenda for understanding this phenomenon further. We raise questions and ethical concerns regarding accountability and reskilling of citizens and public officials as public service provision becomes citizen self-service.
... Effective use of new information technology (IT), including IT systems that support a specific kind of work process, has become critically important for modern companies. Although companies invest heavily in new IT systems, frequent decisions about acquiring or using new IT are based on executives' speculation rather than on consistent knowledge about IT impacts (Tallon, 2014;Nielsen and Persson, 2017). Current literature demonstrates that in order to obtain a productivity increase from IT use, it is necessary to focus on a set of complementary factors that have to be synchronized with new IT systems (Brynjolfsson and Milgrom, 2013;Jain and Kanungo, 2016). ...
Numerous studies have attempted to determine factors that condition the IT-enabled productivity of information workers but have not yet arrived at a comprehensive conclusion. A so-called complementarity systems approach has been proposed recently, holding that a number of factors need to be managed in a deliberately synchronized manner in order to generate productivity gains from such workers. However, this proposal does not provide specifications for how such synchronization must be conducted and researched. To remedy this gap, this research conducts two parallel and differently designed studies: a longitudinal quasi-randomized field experiment and a well-controlled online experiment. Regarded jointly, each study offers insights into the investigated phenomenon that the other does not, indicating that both studies complement each other. In particular, these two different research approaches to study the complementarities of productive IT use help us to establish how further research design should be developed to investigate individual productivity when a new, more aligned IT system in a company is used together with complementary factors. Moreover, the results from both studies jointly demonstrate that a mandatory context of IT use might provide better access to individuals with both adaptive and innovative cognitive styles than a voluntary working environment. Finally, both studies demonstrate that more detailed research is needed to understand how the productivity of individuals differs when inappropriate cognitive styles are included in complementarity setups. Therefore, the two studies offer new insights into the interplay between the studied factors that condition the productivity of information workers and show the importance of analysing a complex phenomenon with multiple, different, and complementary research designs, as each design has inherent conditions with opportunities and limitations, in order to reveal characteristics about the phenomenon being investigated.
This publication is a collection of papers on the topic of managing in the post pandemic world. This comprises ten articles, versions of which have been published in journals. A broad range of topics have been covered to reflect the diverse nature of management in the current environment. Leadership and skill development are considered, as well as marketing and outsourcing. Risk management is studied along with running global projects. Aspects of the public and third sectors are highlighted, together with environmental ('Green') policy. The objective was to research a broad range of subjects in order to address the complexity of managing in the post pandemic era and, therefore, contribute to theory and practice in this area.
Цель: Формирование активного гражданского общества и неправительственного сектора в цифровом поле в целях повышения транспарентности деятельности государственного аппарата. Гипотеза исследования: для формирования активного гражданского общества в цифровом поле необходимо развивать цифровые механизмы взаимодействия государственных органов и неправительственных организаций. Методы: В исследовании использованы методы силового поля и «цветок лотоса», а также проведен SWOT-анализ и литературный обзор по теме. Результаты: Согласно результатам работы для формирования активного взаимодействия государственного аппарата с обществом и неправительственными организациями необходимо развивать цифровую инфраструктуру, цифровую грамотность и культуру открытости сторон. В статье проанализированы основные проблемы и пути их решения, согласно теоретическим и экспериментальным результатам, которые проведены в ходе исследования. Выводы: В настоящее время в Республике Казахстан идет процесс выстраивания новой модели взаимодействия государственного аппарата и граждан, основанной на принципе «человекоцентричности». Ключевым фактором успешной реализации данной модели является повсеместная цифровизация. Посредством цифровизации правительство планирует быть более транспарентным и вовлечь общество и неправительственные организации в социально-экономическое развитие страны. Для достижения данной цели руководстом Республики Казахстан принимаются меры по развитию цифровой инфраструктуры, повышению уровня цифровой грамотности и стимулированию к транспарентности со стороны государственных органов. Настоящая статья отражает ключевые составляющие цифровой трансформации для взаимодействия государственных структур и гражданского общества в цифровом поле.
The requirement to achieve the successful implementation and
operation of technology is more urgent than ever, given the changes to society imposed by the pandemic and post-pandemic events. The identification of critical factors for the success of technology has become paramount for organisations, irrespective of their sector. This paper accesses a literature review of current and seminal sources together with empirical research to discern a framework for examining the topic. A thematic analysis was performed to identify the key areas for critical project success factors. A summary of these areas for practice was then formulated, in order to assist both practitioners and academics in this sphere.
Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in Technology Management are
defined as the principal areas requiring satisfactory results in order to ensure the successful delivery of systems’ objectives. The use of ‘hard’, namely objective, and ‘soft’, namely subjective, information can be required to measure these factors. CSFs are also dynamic, in that they may change over time and thus require ongoing reflection and revaluation, to potentially redefine them in order to accommodate the organisation’s current environment.
A semi-structured interview was held with an experienced project
manager. The main themes were then discerned, using an inductive, grounded approach. The focus was on determining the critical factors for change management, as applied in this sphere.
L’étude de la valeur que génèrent les technologies et les systèmes d’information pour les individus, les groupes, les organisations et, plus largement, la société, est un enjeu de recherche classique et majeur en management des systèmes d’information (MSI). Contribuant à cet axe de recherche, notre travail doctoral se focalise sur une technologie, l’Internet des objets (IoT), et un type d’utilisateurs, les organisations. Il explore donc la valeur que tirent ou peuvent tirer les organisations de l’usage de cette technologie à vocation ubiquitaire. Il éclaire les mécanismes et les forces causales dont l’action, les interactions, entraînent la matérialisation de la valeur pour les organisations. L’analyse que développe le présent travail de recherche s’appuie sur trois études complémentaires qui constituent autant de parties pour le manuscrit. Elles permettent un examen à la fois étendu et profond de la valeur de la technologie. De manière globale, le travail présenté dans le manuscrit conceptualise la valeur de la technologie comme un construit incluant deux principales dimensions : les reconfigurations de processus d’une part, les changements organisationnels de l’autre. Une méta-analyse et une étude de cas permettent d’investiguer chacune de ces deux dimensions de manière empirique et d’établir ensuite une structure causale sous-jacente à la réalisation de la valeur. Ce faisant, notre travail complète la littérature actuelle en MSI concernant la valeur de la technologie. Plusieurs voies de recherche pour les travaux futurs sont également soulignées.
The public sector has been severely affected by the pandemic, resulting in major changes to operating conditions and expectations. The requirements for public sector projects have similarly changed, with the nature and scope of such enterprises being severely affected. The pandemic has led to excessive public expenditure on health matters and supporting the economy through the restrictions to activities. This paper proposes that there has been a major change to project management in the public sector. Priorities have altered and the available resources have been drastically reduced. Current projects have been cancelled or reduced in scope and new projects have been commissioned for different priorities, shaped by the pandemic. The approach to project management has also been amended, due to the effects of the pandemic. This has led to generally higher levels of urgency, reduced budgets and shorter timescales for implementation. Public sector projects are vital to the global economy, in terms of delivering services and stimulating private sector demand. Public sector projects are, therefore, of vital importance and require further study to help to understand the prevailing operating conditions and demand. Research can also assist in comprehending the actions required of the project manager, in directing such enterprises. This paper examines key literatures, discerning the major themes in this sphere. A model of learning is adapted to categorise these themes. An interview has been held with a senior manager from a UK public sector organisation, with a job remit spanning health, education and social services, and the main themes are also selected from the interview text. This enables the academic and practitioner perspectives to be considered. A summary of implications for practice is presented, comprising a 'rich picture' of key areas to be addressed in respect of public sector projects, utilising the soft systems methodology techniques.
Batch processing reduces processing time in a business process at the expense of increasing waiting time. If this trade-off between processing and waiting time is not analyzed, batch processing can, over time, evolve into a source of waste in a business process. Therefore, it is valuable to analyze batch processing activities to identify waiting time wastes. Identifying and analyzing such wastes present the analyst with improvement opportunities that, if addressed, can improve the cycle time efficiency (CTE) of a business process. In this paper, we propose an approach that, given a process execution event log, (1) identifies batch processing activities, (2) analyzes their inefficiencies caused by different types of waiting times to provide analysts with information on how to improve batch processing activities. More specifically, we conceptualize different waiting times caused by batch processing patterns and identify improvement opportunities based on the impact of each waiting time type on the CTE. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of our approach to a real-life event log.
Many organizations have a long history with the use of ERP. However, organizations are increasingly turning to digital capabilities to transform operational processes and business models. Extant literature has increased our understanding of ERP, but we lack comprehensive insights into the evolving nature of ERP in the context of digital transformation. Through a review of articles from the AIS Basket of Eight IT journals, we identified digital capabilities associated with contemporary ERP across five categories. The identified capabilities foreground the evolving nature of ERP, resulting in the introduction of a definition for digital ERP (D-ERP) and a call for research studying the co-evolution of D-ERP and digital transformation.
Considerable resources are wasted on software projects delivering less than the planned benefits. Herein, the objective is to synthesize empirical evidence of the adoption and impact of benefits management (BM) in software development, and to suggest directions for future research. A systematic review of the literature is performed and identified 4836 scientific papers of which the authors found 47 to include relevant research. While most organizations identify and structure benefits at the outset of a project, fewer organizations report implementing BM as a continuous process throughout the project lifecycle.
Empirical evidence gives support for positive impact on project outcome from the following BM practices: identifying and structuring benefits, planning benefits realization, BM during project execution, benefits evaluation and the practice of having people responsible for benefits realization. The authors suggest four research directions to understand
(1) why BM practices sometimes not are adopted,
(2) BM in relation to other management practices,
(3) BM in agile software development and
(4) BM in the context of organizations' value creation logics.
This paper is based on the interest to see how problems are addressed in information systems design research. Problems addressed by design research are often implicit, sometimes open, and sometimes even underdeveloped. Problem-solving processes, action research and in a broader sense, engaged scholarship all encompass the explicit addressing of problems and investigation problem situations. Such a problem-orientation is to a lesser degree part of design research. In this paper, we will investigate how we can provide a better understanding of problematizing in design research; and in particular what we may learn from other approaches with a stronger problem-orientation.
With Decision Support Systems (DSS) being critical in the delivery of value throughout the business, specialized IT practitioners are required to be fully enabled with a business value competency to ensure this value is efficiently harnessed. In this research we seek to map the current state of IT business value research through a scoping review to understand
the state of business value competency of IT practitioners. Although more than 258 articles in leading IT journals have value as the subject matter, the problem is that over the past 20 years only 14 research articles have had the subject of competency in IT with a focus placed on the value of IT. Analysis is mapped to a value co-creation process framework derived from a thematic analysis of the reviewed sources. This research contributes by highlighting current opportunities in IT value competency research and proposes a value co-creation process and the skillful performance that is required of IT practitioners to better meet the value expectations of business stakeholders.
“Is this the problem?”: the question that haunts many information systems (IS) researchers when they pursue work relevant to both practice and research. Nevertheless, a deliberate answer to this question requires more than simply asking the involved IS practitioners. Deliberately formulating problems requires a more substantial engagement with the different stakeholders, especially when their problems are ill structured and situated in complex organizational settings. On this basis, we present an engaged approach to formulating IS problems with, not for, IS practitioners. We have come to understand engaged problem formulation as joint researching and as the defining of contemporary and complex problems by researchers and those practitioners who experience and know these problems. We used this approach in investigating IS management in Danish municipalities. In this paper, we present the approach to formulating problems in an engaged way. We discuss it in relation to ideas and assumptions that underpin engaged scholarship, and we discuss the implications for IS action research, design science research, and mixed approaches.
This paper describes the design of an evaluation method for nonprofit organisations. This method is referred to as the nonprofit business case model. The paper describes the special characteristics of (public) nonprofit organisations compared to for-profit organisations. The paper defines the concept of public value and a framework for the creation of public value and a business case model for nonprofit organisations is introduced. This research concerns research in-progress. The framework for the nonprofit business model and the underlying framework for public value creation will be validated and improved in ongoing research.
E-Government strategies, investments, project selection, and implementations are influenced by value positions deeply enshrined in the traditions of public administration, which are in turn reflected in the everyday discourse of public managers. We analyse value traditions in the public administration literature and their adaptation for e-Government and syn-thesise three prominent positions. Administrative efficiency focuses on cost-effectiveness logics highlighted by New Public Management thinking. Service improvement, derived from the tradition of public service, emphasises the provision of better services for citizens. Citizen engagement, with its roots in liberal democracy arguments, promotes responsiveness, consultation, collaboration and participation. A set of foundational values grounded in the deeply rooted bureaucratic tradition is also distinguished. A qualitative survey of Danish local authority managers' value positions shows a heavy bias towards administrative efficiency and an absence of concern for citizen engagement. The implications of this efficiency imperative are discussed.
Since the ongoing proliferation of information technology (IT) in our private and professional lives, researchers have been concerned with the conceptualization and measurement of the “value” that technology brings us. To this end, researchers have based their assumptions and theories on the technological achievements and perceptions of technology at that time. Ever since the introduction of smart phones, broadband Internet, and social networks, much has changed in the way we perceive and appropriate IT value. In order to identify possible white spots for future research, we present a systematic literature review of the past 10 years of research in this area. In doing so, we develop a taxonomy for analyzing the IT value literature. The results of our analysis indicate that the majority of current work focuses on ex post measurement of the monetary value of IT for businesses. Only a few articles were found that employed an alternative lens in defining IT value. With the blurring boundaries between private and professional life, these approaches become increasingly more important. We discuss the general implications of our findings with a view to possible new themes for the next years of research.
Benefits management (BM) and project management (PM) are two interrelated approaches to the success of projects. The literature, however, still lacks empirical evidence of the value of applying BM practices. Hence, it is aimed to test the impact of BM practices on the success of investments in projects, taking into consideration the impact of PM practices on that success. Since the results, based on 200 valid responses, suggest that a significant proportion of organisations adopt PM and BM concurrently, SEM was used. PM practices were not only found to influence project management success but also to affect project investment success. However, BM is found to be less significant and to have less impact on project investment success. Nevertheless, the probability of project success is enhanced significantly when PM and BM practices are combined together. Therefore, a governance based framework is developed to uncover the interweaving relationship between the two practices.
This article reports on strategic change in business and management. Approaches are offered to executives and managers seeking to execute strategies related to corporate culture, communication, benefits, and solutions. The article also discusses obstacles to this execution due to pressure from shareholders, complexity in organizations, balancing demands, low levels of involvement, and resource availability. Information is also provided on resource allocation, conflict resolution, and leadership teams.
IS/IT evaluations reveal that many organizations fail to realize planned benefits from their IS/IT projects. Benefits management researchers argue that organizational change is necessary for the delivery of IS/IT project benefits. However, existing IS/IT evaluation methods adopt a narrow quantitative focus on costs and benefits and fail to consider the organizational dimension. This study brings together the concepts of benefits management and IS/IT evaluation using the Cranfield Benefits Dependency Network (BDN) as a diagnostic tool to examine an underperforming IS/IT project. The analysis revealed that planned benefits had not been realized because of a lack of attention to technical and organizational facilitators and inhibitors associated with IT-enabled organizational change.
Successful realization of project benefits is strongly associated with organizational performance. Formulating project target benefits is regarded as the first and critical step in the benefit management process. In this study, we drew upon relevant theories and conducted in-depth interviews with senior managers in Australia to develop a conceptual framework of project target benefit formulation and corresponding propositions. Our findings highlight the important role of project target benefits in funding decision-making and suggest seven criteria for their appraisal (strategic fit, target value, measurability, realism, target date, accountability and comprehensiveness) and four constructs which improve the formulated target benefits (a formal benefit formulation process, senior executive leadership, senior executive supports, and public service motivation). These findings extend the current literature on project benefit management by providing a holistic view on how project target benefits should be formulated and appraised.
Business strategies, which imply organisational change, usually require the development of projects, e.g. IT projects. However, organisations fail in implementing their strategies even though they employ project, programme and portfolio management techniques. Benefits Realisation Management (BRM) is a set of processes structured to close the gap between strategy planning and execution by ensuring the implementation of the most valuable initiatives. However, there is no empirical evidence of its effectiveness. This paper presents the results of a survey to practitioners in Brazil, United Kingdom and United States evaluating the impact of BRM practices on project success rate. Our results show BRM practices being positive predictors to project success on the creation of strategic value for the business. Therefore, these results suggest that BRM practices can be effective to support the successful execution of business strategies.
In 1996, the Cranfield benefits management (BM) process model was developed as a response to organizations' dissatisfaction with the results of information systems and information technology (IS/IT) projects. In contrast with traditional project management dimensions, such as time, cost, and quality, BM emphasizes the need to identify, plan, realize, and review benefits, particularly by means of business changes. The extant literature presents several BM frameworks and methods, signaling its character as an evolving discipline. Despite this progress in research, most studies still report dissatisfyingly low BM adoption rates in practice. We aim to understand why BM is still rarely used in practice by classifying the literature with a multi-perspective framework. We find the BM literature rather unbalanced, as studies on how to conduct BM are common, but papers that investigate concepts such as the adoption/usage and context of BM in organizations are highly underrepresented. We conclude that the BM discipline still has open fields and white spots, and needs to gradually change direction.
Many adjectives are used in the context of transforming government including making it more open, transparent, participative, agile, responsive and so forth. Most, if not all, of these adjectives are either in themselves public values or reflect one or more underlying public values. This paper examines the relationship between information and communications technology (ICT), transformative government and such public values and proposes a framework for further research. A study of the literature on public values is used to develop a typology of public sector values likely to be affected by ICT. This impact is examined for a number of these values. For others hypotheses about the impact of ICT on other values are then posited. It is argued that ICTs can and do have transformational impacts on public values, though not always for the better, concludes that values are a potential powerful lens for considering such impacts and sets out a programme of research into these relationships.
Information technology (IT) is increasingly presented as a driving force for service and efficiency improvement in local governments. However, achieving these goals in creating value from IT investments is a significant challenge for local government organizations. Practitioners and researchers have proposed numerous approaches to IT benefits management, but our knowledge of current practices and capabilities in local government IT management is still limited. Thus, in this paper we resent an investigation of what characterizes IT benefits management in local government in order to understand and improve current practices. Through a comparative case study of two Danish municipalities, we have analyzed the different characteristics of benefits management. Based on this analysis we propose an initial framework for understanding IT benefits management in local government.
This study synthesizes the extant literature to derive an integrative developmental framework for IT business cases that can be applied to diagnose the feasibility of technological investments. We then construct a theoretical model that postulates the impact of IT business case elements on the initial cost estimates of technological investments. Subsequently, our theoretical model is subjected to empirical validation through content analysis of IT business cases developed for municipal e-government projects. Findings indicate that the richness of the richness of business cases translates to more initial costs being identified in technological investments, thereby conserving resources for the organization through informed investment decisions.
There is growing agreement that the potential benefits of implementing business technologies will not be realised through the relatively simple act of going live with a new software application. Indeed, there is clear evidence that organisations must explicitly plan for, and proactively manage, the realisation of benefits, if a new technology is to deliver real value to its host organisation. In particular, benefits need to be leveraged through carefully planned and co-ordinated programmes of organisational change, and on-going organisational adaptation. Inevitably these insights have encouraged academics, consultants and practitioners to develop tools and techniques to explicitly support the benefits realisation process. In this paper, we argue that the adoption of any such prescription, tools or panacea is unlikely to be sufficient, as benefits typically arise from the complex interplay between systems, people, contexts and processes, often over significant time-frames. We show, through the use of a public sector case study, that a more robust and effective solution to benefits realisation problem is likely to arise from the development of a capability to support the realisation of benefits, composed of practices, and we then question as to whether it’s enacted through craftsmen.
This paper presents an argument for an enrichment of action research methodology. To the current state of action research, we add a constructivist epistemological argument, as well as a crucial inspiration from some futures-oriented planning approaches. Within the domain of social/organizational research, the futures perspective implies that knowledge of the social/organizational world must be based upon images of desirable futures, so-called 'futures theories', not causal descriptions of a problematic present. Futures theories identify ends and means for individual and organizational development. They are generated jointly by the stakeholders of a system and the involved action researchers and are tested every time that the prescriptions for action contained in them are followed by a system's stakeholders.
This paper presents the main findings of a 1994 survey of UK industry practices in the evaluation and realisation of IS/IT benefits ('benefits management'). The survey addresses the issues which affect the ability of organizations to realise the full benefits of IS/IT investments, i.e. not only the pre-investment appraisal and post-investment evaluation processes, but also how organizations do or do not ensure that benefits claimed are actively managed through to realisation. To do this a new benefits management process model was used to structure a questionnaire to elicit details of how effective organizations are in addressing benefits management throughout the investment lifecycle. Sixty organizations responded to the survey, thus providing a wealth of data for analysis. This paper presents some of the key results of that analysis. From the survey, it is clear that many organizations believe that current methods are far from satisfactory in ensuring that the benefits are properly identified and realised. Very few have a comprehensive process for managing the delivery of benefits from IS/IT. This paper offers new insight into the reasons for the current unsatisfactory situation and points the way to how the situation could be significantly improved.
In recent years, there has been rapid growth in the volume of research output on the topic of e-government. To understand this research better, we used content analysis of eighty-four papers in e-government-specific research outlets (two journals and one conference series). Our analytical focus took in five main aspects: perspectives on the impacts of e-government, research philosophy, use of theory, methodology and method, and practical recommendations. Normative evaluation identified some positive features, such as recognition of contextual factors beyond technology, and a diversity of referent domains and ideas. Alongside this, though, research draws mainly from a weak or confused positivism and is dominated by over-optimistic, a-theoretical work that has done little to accumulate either knowledge or practical guidance for e-government. Worse, there is a lack of clarity and lack of rigor about research methods alongside poor treatment of generalization. We suggest ways of strengthening e-government research but also draw out some deeper issues, such as the role of research philosophy and theory, and the institutional factors – particularly pressures of competition and time – that may constrain development of e-government as a research field.
From a practical point of view, systems development methods are important sources of inspiration for the planning and establishment projects, but only to a limited extent do they support the reflections and actions of the participants. We propose the use of diaries as a supplement to conventional methods of reflection on what actually happens and what could happen during the course of a project, i.e., we propose diaries as a medium for the management of information systems development projects. This idea is based on an exploratory study carried out in co-operation with a bank and a research department, and the idea is supported by theoretical arguments from different fields. In conclusion, some practical advice on how to use diaries is given together with some questions for further investigation.
In recent years there has been a great deal of academic and practitioner interest in the role of 'benefits realisation management' [BRM] approaches, as a means of proactively leveraging value from IT investments. This growing body of work owes a very considerable, but as yet unacknowledged, debt to the work of Ken Eason, and other early socio-technical theorists. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate, using the literature, how many of the principles, practices and techniques of BRM have evolved either directly or indirectly from socio-technical approaches to systems design. In so doing, this article makes a further important contribution to the literature by explicitly identifying the underlying principles and key practices of benefits realisation management.
Reports from a systems development research tradition in which emphasis is put on relating research activities to practice and on establishing fruitful collaboration between groups of researchers and practitioners. Describes and evaluates a specific research project in which a large group of researchers and practitioners worked together to understand, support, and improve systems development practices in four organisations over a period of three years. Uses the case to reflect on the research goals, approaches, and results involved in this tradition for researching systems development practice. Proposes collaborative practice research as a way to organise and conduct research into systems development practice based on close collaboration between researchers and practitioners. Exemplifies the use of pluralist research methodology by combining action research with experiments and conventional practice studies. Argues that collaborative practice research offers one practical way to strike a useful balance between relevance and rigour. Concludes with a discussion of the implications for the relation between research and practice within the systems development discipline and with lessons on how to design research efforts as collaborations between researchers and practitioners.
This paper reviews the origins, techniques and roles associated with action research into information systems (IS). Many consider the approach to be the paragon of post-positivist research methods, yet it has a cloudy history among the social sciences. The paper summarizes the rigorous approach to action research and suggests certain domains of ideal use (such as systems development methodology). For those faced with conducting, reviewing or examining action research, the paper discusses various problems, opportunities and strategies.
Examining action research publications in leading Information Systems journals as a particular genre of research communication, we develop the notion of style composition to understand how authors structure their arguments for a research contribution. We define style composition as the activity through which authors select, emphasize, and present elements of their research to establish premises, develop inferences, and present contributions in publications. Drawing on this general notion, we identify a set of styles that is characteristic of how IS action researchers compose their argument. Premise styles relate to the dual goals of action research through practical or theoretical positioning of the argument; inference styles combine insights from the problem-solving and the research cycles through inductive or deductive reasoning; and contribution styles focus on different types of contributions--experience report, field study, theoretical development, problemsolving method, and research method. Based on the considered sample, we analyze the styles adopted in selected publications and show that authors have favored certain styles while leaving others underexplored; further, we reveal important strengths and weaknesses in the composition of styles within the IS discipline. Based on these insights, we discuss how action research practices and writing can be improved, as well as how to further develop style compositions to support the publication of engaged scholarship research.
The purpose of this paper is to review critically the origins, techniques and roles associated with a growing information systems (IS) research method known as ‘action research’. This method is widely cited as an exemplar of a post-positivist social scientific research method, ideally suited to the study of technology in its human context. We seek to illuminate both the attractions and the detractions that this method holds for IS researchers.
In this article, we assess the value of information technology related intangible assets and then use data on business practices and management capabilities to understand how this value is distributed across firms. Using a panel of 127 firms over the period 2003-2006, we replicate and extend the finding from Brynjolfsson, Hitt, and Yang (2002) that 10 of market value. We account for the "missing $9" by broadening the definition of IT to include capitalized software, and then include all purchased and internally developed software, other internal IT services, IT consulting, and IT-related training (whether or not it is capitalized by the firm). In addition, we use data on IT-related business practices in order to analyze the distribution of IT-related intangibles within the sample. Our results suggest that the "invisible" IT not accounted for on balance sheets is being priced into the market value of firms. We also estimate that there is a 45% to 76% premium in market value for the firms with the highest organizational IT capabilities (based on separate measures of human resource practices, management practices, internal IT use, external IT use, and Internet capabilities), as compared to those with the lowest organizational IT capabilities. Our results thus suggest that contributions of IT to value depend heavily on other factors, and are not a rising tide that lifts all boats.
As IT becomes more closely tied to business objectives, successful investment must consider two dimensions: technology scope and strategic objectives.
International results emphasise that information systems (IS) projects fail at an alarming rate and do not contribute to the strategy of the organisation. The results also indicate that there is a shift in how IS project success is measured, i.e. towards benefits realisation. This raises the concern whether organisations understand the notion of benefits management. Secondly, does benefits management have an impact on the success rates of IS projects and ultimately the success of the organisation itself? Organisations within the Netherlands and South Africa were targeted to benchmark the benefits management process employed by the organisations against best practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted within 33 organisations and the interviewees expressed their views on the adoption of the benefits management process. The results indicate that although organisations are aware of and are implementing benefits management best practices, there is still a notion not to relate the delivered benefits back to the promised benefits within the business case. Benefits management also plays a role within individual projects and not just within programme management. Organisations can reap more benefits from IS projects when benefits are stipulated up front and are managed throughout the project/programme life cycle. Enhancing benefits realisation implies that the return on investment improves and that organisations ultimately are successful and sustainable.
Public sector managers take much of the responsibility for selecting, commissioning, implementing and realising benefits from information technology (IT) projects. However, e-Government initiatives often suffer from complexity, vision failure, lack of goal clarity and insufficient commitment. These problems may stem from value traditions that are deeply ingrained in managers' cultural environments but not always in harmony with each other. A first step towards working with value complexity is to understand it; we synthesise a model of value positions for e-Government derived from major traditions in the public administration literature. Four value positions relevant to e-Government together with their IT assumptions are identified; they reflect the ideals of professionalism, efficiency, service and engagement. A qualitative investigation of Danish local authority managers displays both value congruence and value divergence. The interpretive study results in a theoretical model that combines value positions and relationships, and the model's implications for researchers and practitioners in focusing successful e-Government initiatives are outlined.
Failed or partially failed information systems (IS) investments continue to be a problem in both public and private sectors. Although there are many causes of such failure, lack of clarity about the goals and benefits expected and how they are to be realized is one of the major contributors. This is particularly so in the public sector where the purpose of IS investment is not to increase profits, but to accomplish social and political goals. One way of reducing failure and wastage rates is to have ex-ante evaluation. Over the past three decades IS research has proposed a plethora of new theoretical approaches to improving ex-ante evaluation, but with a few exceptions, these have had little impact on practice. This paper presents a way to address this gap between theory and practice. It proposes a way in which managers can improve IS investment evaluation by changing perspective from a focus on traditional analytic tools towards a design attitude that seeks to develop multi-criteria IS evaluation approach based on contextual experience and prior knowledge. The proposed approach enables organizations to design and develop a value case using value dials as a common language that defines what constitutes the value of particular IS investments for a specific context. To assess its effectiveness, this approach was applied using a multilevel dialogical action research project within a Swedish public organization. The findings show that managers in this organization significantly improved the effectiveness of their evaluation of IS investments.
Qualitative research is often associated with interpretivism, but alternatives do exist. Besides critical research and sometimes positivism, qualitative research in information systems can be performed following a paradigm of pragmatism. This paradigm is associated with action, intervention and constructive knowledge. This paper has picked out interpretivism and pragmatism as two possible and important research paradigms for qualitative research in information systems. It clarifies each paradigm in an ideal-typical fashion and then conducts a comparison revealing commonalities and differences. It is stated that a qualitative researcher must either adopt an interpretive stance aiming towards an understanding that is appreciated for being interesting; or a pragmatist stance aiming for constructive knowledge that is appreciated for being useful in action. The possibilities of combining pragmatism and interpretivism in qualitative research in information systems are analysed. A research case (conducted through action research (AR) and design research (DR)) that combines interpretivism and pragmatism is used as an illustration. It is stated in the paper that pragmatism has influenced IS research to a fairly large extent, albeit in a rather implicit way. The paradigmatic foundations are seldom known and explicated. This paper contributes to a further clarification of pragmatism as an explicit research paradigm for qualitative research in information systems. Pragmatism is considered an appropriate paradigm for AR and DR.
Since firms rarely collect data on the precise economic or financial impacts of information technology (IT), perceptions play a key role in assessing IT impacts. To the extent that executives in the same firm evaluate IT impacts similarly, it can be easier to approve future IT investments or to initiate corrective action for failing IT investments. In this study, we use distributed sensemaking theory to investigate the conditions under which executives will reach a consensus as to the extent and locus of firm and process-level IT impacts in their firm. Using data from surveys of 133 top-level business executives in 13 firms, we show that consensus is a function of CIO-led sensegiving in the form of IT promotion, CIO leadership, information systems (IS) engagement with end users, and IS-business communications. The absence of consensus – discord – suggests IS disengagement, a lack of effective CIO leadership, weak IT-business communications, and ineffective promotion of the role of IT. Sensegiving does not mean telling executives what to think about IT but rather how to think about IT and its impacts at various points within the firm. Whether IT impacts are rated high or low, efforts to create increased consensus among executives can greatly enhance value from IT.
According to the e-government maturity literature public organizations will move through different stages of maturity implying that more mature e-government is better. For many public organizations the next stage to enter is the stage of transformational government (Dhillon et al., 2008). This paper contributes to this literature by reporting the findings from a case study in a Danish local government who has reached the stage of transformational government. Using a grounded theory approach, information about the local government was initially collected and further analyzed within a stakeholder perspective. The paper reports how they succeeded in involving the most important stakeholders in the process of reaching transformational government. Finally the paper offers six lessons learned, based on the case study, about how to manage the involved stakeholders to reach transformational government.
This article reviews IT funding and system justification practice and research in two dimensions, previews papers in the special issue on ‘Information technology funding and system justification in the organization’, and identifies opportunities for research in IT funding. IT funding decisions have been hard problems for firms and, because IT investments are so pervasive, they have been very important. Here we review IT funding decisions and research about IT funding historically, using two dimensions, justification dynamism and justification evidence. Over time, the IT funding decisions have changed from static, one time events to iterative and even continuous efforts. Early IT funding decisions were based on finance and accounting models, but changes in the purposes of new systems have necessitated justification based on a variety of qualitative measures. We preview the six papers in the special issue, with an eye to introducing them to readers and also to looking for areas that represent opportunites for future IS research. Finally, we identify eight areas that should represent good opportunities for future research in IT funding and systems justification.
The business value of investments in Information Systems (IS) has been, and is predicted to remain, one of the major research topics for IS researchers. While the vast majority of research papers on IS business value find empirical evidence in favour of both the operational and strategic relevance of IS, the fundamental question of the causal relationship between IS investments and business value remains partly unexplained. Three research tasks are essential requisites on the path towards addressing this epistemological question: the synthesis of existing knowledge, the identification of a lack of knowledge and the proposition of paths for closing the knowledge gaps. This paper considers each of these tasks. Research findings include that correlations between IS investments and productivity vary widely among companies and that the mismeasurement of IS investment impact may be rooted in delayed effects. Key limitations of current research are based on the ambiguity and fuzziness of IS business value, the neglected disaggregation of IS investments, and the unexplained process of creating internal and competitive value. Addressing the limitations we suggest research paths, such as the identification of synergy opportunities of IS assets, and the explanation of relationships between IS innovation and change in IS capabilities.
Canonical action research (CAR) aims to address real-world problems and improve organizational performance by combining scholarly observations with practical interventions. However, efforts to conduct CAR have revealed challenges that reflect a significant research-practice gap. We examine these challenges by revisiting the process, principles, and criteria of CAR developed earlier. The specific roles of two different types of theory in the cyclical action research process are considered. A project undertaken in two public relations firms illustrates how our methodological revision improves the rigor and quality of CAR. This article contributes both a significantly enhanced action research method, with detailed guidelines and suggestions that emphasize the roles of focal and instrumental theories, and an emerging theory of knowledge sharing that incorporates key elements of Chinese management and culture.
Despite significant research progress, alignment-related issues are among the top concerns of executives. Previous studies mostly focus on a company-wide strategic level of alignment; while this 'top-down' view has benefits, it largely ignores the operational practices that help achieve alignment in IT projects as well as the impact that timing and complennentarity of practices have on achieving alignment. In our research we apply four alignment practices communication, shared understanding, management commitment and IT investment evaluation to individual IT projects rather than at a company level; specifically, we look at the role of timing and complementarity for these alignment practices throughout different project phases. A detailed analysis of six IT projects carried out at three companies in the telecommunications industry reveals that IT projects creating higher business value employ all four alignment practices immediately from the start. No project was able to recover from failing to establish these four alignment practices in the first phase. While supporting the importance of complementarity of alignment practices, our findings also add the importance of the earliness of this complennentarity.
In the past few years, anecdotal evidence of mostly positive experiences with the implementation of agile develop- ment methods has emerged from case studies. We used a survey strategy, which enables data gathering from a larger sample of organizations, to learn about the factors driving the adoption and use of agile practices, and their benefits and challenges as percieved by early adopters of this software development methodology. Our survey reveals that personal interest is the driv- ing force behind agile adoption, and conversely, organizational resistance and managerial apathy are key inhibitors. The abil- ity to meet client needs and the delivery of quality software products on time are significant benefits of agile development, while a steep learning curve and its unsuitability for projects characterized by distributed environments and large development teams are identified as minor concerns. This article reports these and other findings accompanied by relevant interpretive analysis.
Using a qualitative research methodology detailed by Lincoln and Guba, peer debriefing sessions were examined by interviewing education graduate students who completed dissertations and who participated in peer debriefing. The following patterns emerged: (a) Trust was the foundation for selection of the debriefer and the debriefing interaction, (b) the focus for the debriefer and researcher was on methodology, and (c) research skills were continuously developed. Analysis of the data also showed that debriefers worked in pairs or in small groups. Some debriefing groups met for the total time from proposal to dissertation defense, and others began at different stages of the research process. As a result, some groups relied on memory or journal notes for the review of collected data. Implications are included.
Proposes a continuous participative evaluation process built on the formative evaluation paradigm. The benefits of this approach are that all the primary or core stakeholders, i.e. the users, top management and the technical specialists involved in the task of delivering information systems benefits, participate in the evaluation and the subsequent decision making associated with the project. These stakeholders are consequently involved in moulding and realising an information system which is targeted to meet real business needs rather than just investment and project management criteria. This approach ensures that high quality information systems that deliver direct business benefits with which the user community can identify are implemented. It implies a new focus that encompasses concentrating on and understanding the business issues and how the information system will deliver real value to the organisation. It is the view of the authors that formative evaluation can help to maximise business value from information systems.
This article describes the deficiencies of positivist science for generating knowledge for use in solving problems that members of organizations face. Action research is introduced as a method for correcting these deficiencies. When action research is tested against the criteria of positivist science, action research is found not to meet its critical tests. The appropriateness of positivist science is questioned as a basis for judging the scientific merits of action research. Action research can base its legitimacy as science in philosophical traditions that are different from those which legitimate positivist science. Criteria and methods of science appropriate to action research are offered.
The literature has traditionally focused on how decision makers choose among alternatives based on rational behaviors, organizational politics, and organized anarchies. However, there is little research on decision making as a creative process where managers discover and evaluate alternatives. We address this gap by proposing a design approach to transform decisions in organizations. The approach views decision making as a creative and adaptive process in which managers recursively collect and interpret heterogeneous evidence, explore and test different ideas, and discover and evaluate alternatives. While the approach is rooted in the know-how of the involved stakeholders, its underpinning design attitude invites managers to better understand possible alternatives based on analyses of structured as well as unstructured data. To assess its utility, we applied the approach to IT investment evaluations through a Collaborative Practice Research project involving Swedish public organizations. Building on the project findings, we discuss the proposed approach and spell out its implications for transforming decision making in organizations.
Discussions of action research in information systems (IS) often proceed as if there were one definitive action research method. This paper describes and analyses the different frameworks, assumptions and goals that characterise the diverse forms of action research. A more inclusive action research paradigm is delineated that offers a basis for validating a wider range of IS research. Acceptance of the full range of the diverse forms of action research may enable the IS field to be more explicit about its research methodology, thereby enabling criteria to be improved and applied to a broader range of IS research.