[AISWorld] Extended Deadline: JIT Special Issue on Leveraging the IS organization for Business Value Creation

[Gwanhoo Lee]

Due to numerous requests, we extended the paper submission deadline to
December 31st.
Please find the new time table for this special issue below.


Extended Call for Papers for a Special Issue of

*Journal of Information Technology*

* *

*Leveraging the IS Organization for Business Value Creation*

Special Issue Editors

Gwanhoo Lee, American University

Peter Keen, Keen Innovations and EGADE, Monterrey, Mexico

William DeLone, American University

Martha Corrales, EGADE, Monterrey, Mexico

Mark McDonald, Gartner Research

Margaret Tan, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore



*The only future and sustainable source of competitive advantage through IT
is the Business-IS dialog. Every firm now has the same access to new
technology. Reliance on and gains from in-house proprietary systems are
being replaced by standardization of interfaces and open systems, packages,
variable cost options in sourcing, such as cloud computing and hosting and
accessible service infrastructures including platforms like Facebook,
Amazon and Android. *



*The aim of this Special Issue is to identify effective organizational
strategies, designs, capabilities, and professional and career development
processes that distinguish Information Systems units that are demonstrably
effective as contributors to business value creation.*

The past decade has seen an underinvestment in the IS organization as
source of competitive advantage and there are widespread examples of IS
lagging rather than leading innovation through IT. The obvious example is
in the mobile field, now in its second decade in the consumer field but in
pilot or exploratory stage in many organizations.

The role of IS in business innovation has become blurred. Many areas of
development and operations have been outsourced, an estimated 70% of IS
budgets are for external services, and the main focus of activity has
become highly technical, most obviously virtualization, implementation of
cloud computing, and security. In some organizations, IS is seen as a
bureaucracy, a view that is reinforced when initiatives in the use of
“consumer technology”, especially mobile devices and social networking are
labeled by IS as “Rogue IT”, as if they are violations of orderly
governance rather a positive new source of productivity, collaboration and
knowledge mobilization. A fairly consensual stereotyping of the business-IS
relationship is that IS is viewed as a cost center not a value creator and
that IS professionals lack business focus and skills. The CIO, rather than
the IS organization, is seen as the lever for transforming the
business-technology relationship.

This Special Issue aims at going beyond the stereotypes and broad
statements of needed directions for IS change to highlight what is working,
and why, in making IS a leading contributor in the innovation process. The
focus is on theorizing and institutionalizing principles and practices,
rather than on one-off examples, however striking. The Issue is designed to
encourage research-with-practice. It is research-centered but the test of
value is what the research points to for specific actions in practice. It
is practice-focused but contributions must go beyond situational and
individual descriptive examples to provide the base for formal and general
normative frameworks. Viewed from either perspective, the articles should
be of relevance to three audiences: (1) Organizational decision makers in
IS investment and governance, including but not limited to the CIO
community, (2) The many IS professionals who are actively looking for ways
to develop the skills and build the experience that will enhance their
career opportunities in the business sphere, and (3) educators, HR
specialists and IS planners who play an active role as catalysts in
building an effective IS organizational capability.

* *

*Topics of interest*

* *

The Editors have identified topics of interest but these are suggestions
only and submissions that address other areas of investigation are
encouraged. The overarching measure of relevance is that they provide
interesting, resonant and useful answers to the question *“How does this
help build a more effective IS organization that adds to the enterprise’s
ability to exploit IT for real innovation?”*

*Metrics*: What measures of IS performance encourage the innovation dialog
and business justification and provide convincing indicators of IS value
creation and help guide the social and ethical responsibilities in IT
development and application?

*The financial dialog*: What financial frameworks and models most help IS
get away from the straightjacket of traditional ROI, cost metrics, and
capital budgeting to enable and leverage IT in open innovation initiatives
and new infrastructure development?

*Organizational design*: Are there general principles for organizing and
partitioning IS work, such as centers of process excellence, enterprise
architecture units, etc., that improve the elements of the business-IS
dialog and individual area of responsibilities relevant to innovation?

*Coordinance versus governance*: What approaches to governance and
enterprise architecture get away from the image and often reality of IS as
a blockage looking for control to a partner looking to leverage business
initiatives?**

*Project management*: Given the complexities, uncertainties, the many known
pitfalls and ever-nagging budget/time demands of large-scale development
and rollout, how can project management combine innovation and efficiency?

*Communication skills and processes*:* *How does IS systematically build
the skills to resolve the common criticism of IT professionals as poor in
communication and organizational awareness?

*Succession planning*: How do CIOs ensure they build a new cadre of IS
leadership talent and provide formal help to key personnel in career
development and CIO potential?

*Personal development and education*: What do IS professionals need to know
that they don’t know they do(e.g., corporate finance) and what education
and development vehicles are most effective and efficient?

*Communities of practice*: What is the contribution to individual
professionals and member organizations of such societies as SIM, The
Canadian CIO Peer Forum and others in enabling innovation capabilities in
IS?

*Vendor and partner relationships*: What principles of relationship
building and IS service contracting best create a win-win relationship and
risk-sharing collaboration?

*International differences*: Are there significant international
differences in how organizations structure, fund, and manage the IS
function in ways that affect business innovation? Of particular interest
are countries noted as leaders in either business innovation or technology
innovation. How does the leadership in one feed into the other?

Additional considerations that the editors view as positive additions to
the formal requirements are:

1.       Original work by junior IS researchers that pushes into new
approaches, theoretical grounding and methodology.

2.       Style and attractive presentation: the goal for the Special Issue
is for it to have influence in all the relevant communities; researchers,
IS professionals, CIOs and educators.



*Timetable          *

31 December 2012, Deadline for article submission

31 March, 2013 Reviews returned to author

30 July, 2013 Deadline for final article submission

31 October, 2013 Final articles accepted

31 December, 2013 Online publication of Special Issue

31 March, 2014 Print publication

* *

*Submission information*

Detailed information on JIT and formatting requirements:
www.palgrave-journals.com/jit/index.html

Questions about the Special Issue should be addressed to Special Issue
Editor Gwanhoo Lee (glee at american.edu). Papers for the Special Issue should
be submitted by email to JITedoffice at lse.ac.uk with the title of the
Special Issue in the Subject Line
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