[AISWorld] 2nd CfP: ECIS 2019 - Track "Rethinking IS Strategy and Governance in the Digital Age"

Fri Nov 2 06:11:27 EDT 2018

(Apologies for cross-postings of this announcement.)

****************************************************************************

CALL FOR PAPERS

27th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2019)

Track: Rethinking IS Strategy and Governance in the Digital Age

June 8-14, 2019, Stockholm-Uppsala, Sweden (http://ecis2019.eu/)

****************************************************************************

TRACK CHAIRS

Nils Urbach, University of Bayreuth & Fraunhofer FIT, Germany,
nils.urbach at uni-bayreuth.de <mailto:nils.urbach at uni-bayreuth.de>
(corresponding track chair)

Martin Wiener, Bentley University, USA, mwiener at bentley.edu
<mailto:mwiener at bentley.edu>  

Monideepa Tarafdar, Lancaster University, UK, m.tarafdar at lancaster.ac.uk
<mailto:m.tarafdar at lancaster.ac.uk>  

DESCRIPTION

In the digital age, innovative technologies significantly influence work
processes, products, services, and business models, e.g., by connecting
individuals, organizations, machines, and other ‘things’ in new ways, as
well as by enabling novel working, collaboration, and automation models
(Fitzgerald et al., 2013). For companies, this development often poses a
significant challenge. To succeed in this changing competitive environment,
companies must unfold the potential of digital technologies in their
business strategies, transform their work routines, processes and
structures, rethink their business models, as well as manage and govern IT
infrastructures that are the central to their value propositions (Legner et
al., 2017). In short, pervasive digitalization has increased the importance
of information technology (IT) and transformed the demands placed on
organizations’ IT functions. Besides ensuring regular IT operations, IT
functions are increasingly required to proactively identify technological
innovations and to rapidly transfer them into marketable solutions – and
with that to directly contribute to the company’s central value propositions
(Urbach et al., 2017).

In this context, IS strategizing and governance represent key activities for
the effective deployment of IT resources and ultimately for value creation
through IT. The emergence of new digital technologies (e.g., artificial
intelligence [AI], big-data analytics, blockchain, cloud computing) and
infrastructures (e.g., digital platforms and ecosystems), novel
value-creation processes and work practices (e.g., human-robot
collaboration, resource sharing) along with the availability of
unprecedented data volumes challenge existing conceptualizations and
theories related to IS strategy and governance (Markus, 2017; Newell &
Marabelli, 2015). For instance, while cloud services may make the IT
artefact seemingly disappear, the challenge of governing the design and use
of such services and associated IT resources has become even more acute
(Schneider & Sunyaev, 2016). Digital business models that revolve around
resource sharing and/or complex product-service offerings not only challenge
organizational boundaries, but also established ideas about ownership of
resources, tasks, and outputs (Schor, 2014). Similarly, while AI-based
algorithms can automate business processes, they highlight even more
urgently, the need for data fidelity and process management (Tarafdar et
al., 2017). At the same time, in organizations where more ‘traditional’
technologies and work practices are still dominant, IS strategy and
governance challenges remain highly important and complex (Wiener et al.,
2016).

The objectives of the proposed track are two-fold. One, from the point of
view of scholarly research, the objective is to foster and promote novel
theories and concepts on IS strategy and governance, with a particular focus
on the manifold opportunities and challenges associated with the pervasive
digitalization of business and society. Two, the track aims at offering
insights that enable IS practitioners to leverage emerging digital
technologies, respond to digitalization challenges, and ultimately, to make
effective use of available IT resources. The track is open to all types of
contributions—including research in progress—studying IS strategy and
governance topics from different stakeholder perspectives, in different
contexts and settings (e.g., for-profits and non-profits), at different
levels of analysis (e.g., individual, project, program, corporate, network,
and societal level), and with different theoretical perspectives and
methodological approaches (e.g., conceptual and empirical studies).

We particularly welcome studies that address the conference theme
“Information Systems for a Sharing Society” by focusing on IS strategy and
governance issues related to the sharing of IT and other resources.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

> Digital strategizing and strategy implementation (e.g., link to overall
business strategy, development of digital capabilities, sustainability of
digital strategies, translation of strategic objectives into governance
practices and structures)

> Strategic impact of emerging digital technologies (e.g., artificial
intelligence, blockchain, big-data analytics, cloud computing) on business
models, governance structures, and processes, etc.

> Governance of digital transformation and innovation processes (e.g., new
governance models for complex organizations, such as companies operating
with dual/coexisting traditional and digital business models)

> Changing role of CIO function & New role of CDO function (e.g., ‘digital
race’ between CIO and CDO, structure and nature of business-IT
relationships)

> Data-driven leadership and control approaches (e.g., algorithmic
performance management, IT-mediated control of work processes)

> Governance of digital value-creation processes and networks (e.g.,
Industry 4.0 and cyber-physical systems, IT-enabled product-service systems,
digital platforms and ecosystems, resource sharing, etc.)

> Governance of novel work practices (e.g., agile software development,
human-robot interaction and collaboration) and sourcing models (e.g.,
crowdsourcing, multi-sourcing, open-sourcing, and back-sourcing)

> Information security governance (e.g., cybersecurity frameworks,
standards, and policies for critical infrastructures)

> Dark side of digital strategies/governance, including ethical issues as
well as undesired ecological, economic, and socio-emotional side-effects
(e.g., technostress)

> Critical reflections on IS strategy and governance in the digital age
(e.g., truly ‘new’ features and challenges of digitalization, links to
traditional research streams)

> Novel theoretical perspectives and research approaches that broaden, or
challenge, our understanding of IS strategy and governance in the digital
age.

REFERENCES

>Fitzgerald, M., Kruschwitz, N., Bonnet, D., and Welch, M. (2013) “Embracing
Digital Technology,” MIT Sloan Management Review.

>Legner, C., Eymann, T., Hess, T., Matt, C., Böhmann, T., Drews, P.,
Maedche, A., Urbach, N., and Ahlemann F. (2017) “Digitalization: Opportunity
and Challenge for the Business and Information Systems Engineering
Community,” Business & Information Systems Engineering, 59(4), 301-308.

>Markus, M. L. (2017) “Datification, Organizational Strategy, and IS
Research: What’s the Score?” Journal of Strategic Information Systems,
26(3), 233-241.

>Newell, S., and Marabelli, M. (2015) "Strategic Opportunities (and
Challenges) of Algorithmic Decision-Making: A Call for Action on the
Long-Term Societal Effects of ‘Datification’,” Journal of Strategic
Information Systems, 24(1), 3-14.

>Schneider, S., and Sunyaev, A. (2016) “Determinant Factors of
Cloud-Sourcing Decisions: Reflecting on the IT Outsourcing Literature in the
Era of Cloud Computing,” Journal of Information Technology, 31(1), 1-31.

>Schor, J. (2014) “Debating the Sharing Economy,” Journal of Self-Governance
and Management Economics, 4(3), 1-13.

>Tarafdar, M., Beath, C., and Ross, J. (2017) “Enterprise Cognitive
Computing Applications: Opportunities and Challenges,” IT Professional,
19(4), 2-8.

>Urbach, N., Drews, P., and Ross, J. (2017) “Digital Business Transformation
and the Changing Role of the IT Function,” MIS Quarterly Executive, 16(2),
ii-iv.

>Wiener, M., Mähring, M., Remus, U., and Saunders, C. (2016) “Control
Configuration and Control Enactment in Information Systems Projects: Review
and Expanded Theoretical Framework,” MIS Quarterly, 40(3), 741-774.

PUBLISHING OPPORTUNITIES

Authors of excellent papers will be invited to submit a revised/extended
version of their paper to the Information Systems Journal (ISJ). For further
information on the ISJ, please go to:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2575. Track chairs
would be happy to work with the authors to guide them for ISJ submission.

IMPORTANT DATES

Opening of Paper Submission System: October 6, 2018

Paper Submission Deadline: November 27, 2018

Notification of acceptance: February 28, 2019

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Frederik Ahlemann, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Daniel Beimborn, University of Bamberg, Germany

Shalini Chandra, SP Jain School of Global Management, Singapore

Crispin Coombs, Loughborough University, UK

Alec W. Cram, Bentley University, USA

Andreas Drechsler, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Thomas Kude, ESSEC Business School, France

Christine Legner, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Magnus Mähring, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

Marco Marabelli, Bentley University, USA

Ulrich Remus, University of Innsbruck, Austria

Carol Saunders, University of South Florida, USA

Till Winkler, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

Ruilin Zhu, Lancaster University, UK

Thank you for your interest in rethinking IS strategy and governance in the
digital age. We are looking forward to your contributions and seeing you in
Stockholm/Uppsala!