[AISWorld] 24(1)st issue of Journal of IT Case and Application Research

[Bansal, Gaurav]

Dear AIS community,


I am pleased to present the 24(1)st issue of the Journal of IT Case and Application Research (JITCAR). The contents of this issue are an editorial preface article by Dr. Joey George; two teaching cases - one authored by Dr. Mayuree Sengupta; and the other one authored by Drs. Ravi Sharma, Kevin Jones, Warwick Anderson, Anushia Inthiran, and Maryam Tabatabaee. Dr. Mahesh Raisinghani writes an expert opinion report, and Dr. Don Heath presents the book review. Summary information on these items is as follows.

In the editorial preface article, Another essay about the future of work, Joey George reviews past thinking about the future of work and current thought about the impacts of robotics and AI. He suggests that while we can be sure that work will change, we are limited in our ability to say what form those changes will take. He suggests that any predictions we make about the future of work as a result of technological change will likely be based on incomplete and even misleading information. His advice about predicting the future of the work: tread carefully.

The first teaching case article is MintM: the start-up transforming businesses in real-time. The teaching case allows instructors and students to engage in strategic decision-making and product/service positioning of information tech-based engagements. It also offers an opportunity to discuss innovation in business models, especially in IT-based start-ups. The case also advocates exploring the choices of persevering with existing business plans or pivoting to new plans for new ventures or projects from a software and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) perspective.

The second teaching case article is titled The digital transformation of higher education - "uni for nothin', MOOCs for free"?. This case examines the role of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as surrogates for "fees-free" higher education and whether the design of such a Higher Education 4.0 platform is even a credible proposition. The case is centered around the research question of whether higher education can be made universal in terms of access and costs through MOOCs' intermediation of MOOCs? The case attempts to provide a socio-technical view of such a "value proposition" and concludes that the charter of higher education extends beyond the distribution of knowledge and skills that may perhaps be better delivered with blended learning models than MOOC platforms.

The Expert Opinion report by Mahesh Raisinghani narrates an interview with Jon Clay. Jon is the vice president for Threat Intelligence at Trend Micro, Inc. Jon discusses key technical and management challenges in the implementation of cybersecurity and also offers recommendations for making organizations more secure based on his company's experience. He also provides his insights about international/ transborder cybercrime and the cultural issues resulting from cybercrime practices in foreign markets.
The book review report by Don Heath provides a critical analysis of the book titled Storytelling with data: a data visualization guide for business professionals. The book was written by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic and was published in 2015 by John Wiley & Sons. Don notes that the book provides a useful overview of the best ways to communicate information supporting one's presentation goals. Visualization strategies and techniques comprise the core of the book. These are couched in a larger discussion on storytelling as an effective communicative strategy to create compelling and memorable narratives. The text offers useful prescriptive advice that will appeal to novice and skilled presenters alike. Don appreciates the author and suggests that the book does a nice job reminding those designing presentations to keep their eye on the communicative goals that motivate their work and not lose themselves in the data.
I hope you will enjoy reading all the items in this issue.

With best regards,

Sincerely
Gaurav Bansal

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Gaurav Bansal, Ph.D.
Editor-in-chief, Journal of IT Case and Application Research
Association for Information Systems (AIS) Distinguished Member (cum laude)
Frederick E. Baer Professor of Business & Professor of MIS/Statistics
UW-Green Bay | www.uwgb.edu/bansalg