Hildebrandt, Y. and Beimborn, D. (2024)
Measuring the Digital Mindset: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Scale
ACM SIGMIS Database Volume 55, Issue 4, 80-116, https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3701613.3701618 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

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IS researchers and practitioners frequently claim that the 'digital mindset' is essential to achieving high employee performance and satisfaction and to leveraging opportunities in the context of pervasive digital innovation. However, extant literature has yet to provide a scale to measure the digital mindset in quantitative research. This study fills this gap by addressing the question of how the digital mindset can be measured. We conduct three studies to answer the research question and develop and validate a measurement model. In Study 1, we take literature-based and Delphi study-based approaches to create two types of scales, which we pre-validate through experts and purify through pilot tests. Study 2 undertakes confirmatory factor analyses (N = 147 and 142) to test the scales and three multidimensional conceptualizations of the digital mindset. Finally, Study 3 validates the criteria by testing the predictive ability of the model of IT mindfulness (N = 147 and 142) and by comparing the scales to the results of an interview-based approach measuring the digital mindset in a panel study (N = 42). Our results provide two newly developed and validated 39-item survey scales to assess the digital mindset that reflect an overall model of digital mindset based on agile, digital, and creative cognition, each of which contains several thinking patterns.

Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Moos, B. (2023)
What Makes a Firm Innovative? An Interorganisational Social Capital Perspective on External Partners’ Influence on a Firm’s Intellectual Capital
International Journal of Innovation Management (27:7), article 2350037 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

Hildebrandt, Y. and Beimborn, D. (2023)
Making the Digital Mindset Measurable: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Scale
Forthcoming in: ACM SIGMIS Database (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

View Abstract

IS researchers and practitioners frequently claim that the ‘digital mindset’ is essential to achieving high employee performance and satisfaction, and to leverage opportunities in the context of pervasive digital innovation. However, extant literature has yet to provide a scale to measure the digital mindset in quantitative research. This study fills this gap by addressing the question how the digital mindset can be measured. We conduct three studies to answer the research question and develop and validate a measurement model. In Study 1, we take literature-based and Delphi study-based approaches to create two types of scales, which we pre-validate through experts and purify through pilot tests. Study 2 undertakes confirmatory factor analyses (N = 147 and 142) to test the scales and three multidimensional conceptualizations of the digital mindset. Finally, Study 3 validates the criteria by testing the predictive ability of the model of IT mindfulness (N = 147 and 142) and by comparing the scales to the results of an interview-based approach measuring the digital mindset in a panel study (N = 42). Our results provide two newly developed and validated 41-item survey scales to assess the digital mindset that reflect an overall model of digital mindset based on agile, digital, and creative cognition, each of which contain several thinking patterns.

Nguyen, T. and Beimborn, D. (2022)
A Stakeholder-Specific View on Impact Sourcing—Systematic Literature Review and Recommendations for Future Research
Sustainability (14:22), , https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15344 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: k.R.)

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Impact Sourcing is the outsourcing of activities to disadvantaged social groups in order to help them become participants of the globalized digital world and thus benefit from higher incomes and wealth creation. Firms started using this approach in the early 2010s to contribute to their Corporate Social Responsibility goals. Empirical, mainly qualitative, research in the form of case studies has documented the achieved advantages and challenges faced. Our paper provides a systematic literature review of these studies. It consolidates the extant research findings along five involved stakeholder groups—impact sourcing providers, involved employees, their social communities, the outsourcing clients, and the government—and identifies avenues for future research.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2021)
Digital innovation: Review and novel perspective
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems (30:4), 101695, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2021.101695 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: A )

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While research has produced valuable insights about digital innovation, we lack a comprehensive understanding about its core nature, and research across disciplinary boundaries lacks integration. To address these issues, we review 227 articles on digital innovation across eight disciplines. Based on our findings, we (1) inductively develop a new definition and propose a new framing of current conceptualizations of digital innovation, (2) organize central concepts of the literature on digital phenomena and show how they intersect with our conceptualization, and (3) develop a framework to organize digital innovation research according to five key themes. We conclude by identifying two particularly promising areas of future research.

Schlosser, F., Beimborn, D., Weitzel, T., and Wagner, H. (2015)
Achieving Social Alignment between Business and IT - An Empirical Evaluation of the Efficacy of IT Governance Mechanisms
Journal of Information Technology 30, 119-135, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jit.2015.2 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: A)

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How can firms improve the degree of social alignment between their business and IT units? Many years of research have shown the importance of business-IT alignment and its various facets, yet research on the efficacy of IT governance mechanisms to improve business-IT alignment is scarce. In this paper, we develop a model of social alignment at an operational level that considers the degree of social capital between an organization's business and IT units, IT personnel's business understanding, and a set of formal and informal IT governance mechanisms that drive the creation of social alignment and business value. Using survey data from 132 U.S. banks, we show that social alignment is driven to varying degrees by a broad variety of IT governance mechanisms ranging from top management support and IT representation on the executive board to joint IT planning and IS trainings, regular meeting cycles and liaison units. Our research contributes substantially to the practical demand on business-IT alignment research for an effective toolkit of IT governance mechanisms.

Moos, B., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2015)
The Contagious Power of Innovativeness: How Different Corporate Partners Contribute to a Firm's Knowledge
International Journal of Innovation Management (19:4), article 1550042, http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S1363919615500425 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

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As innovation is often created in networks, a company's business partners influence its innovative outcome. Although many studies investigate innovation networks as a means to explore and exploit external knowledge, virtually no research has focused on the characteristics of external partners - in particular their innovativeness. This study considers axial and lateral corporate partners and investigates the differential impact of the partners' innovativeness on a company's knowledge stocks (market, technological, organizational, process, and product knowledge). Drawing on the literature on inter-organizational networks and using survey data from the manufacturing industry, the results extend theory by revealing that not only relationships with partners but also their properties - partner innovativeness - are important for a company's knowledge stock. In essence our results suggest that the innovativeness of a firm's axial and lateral partners positively yet diversely influences its various knowledge stocks.

Zolper, K., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2014)
The effect of social network structures at the business/IT interface on IT application change effectiveness
Journal of Information Technology (29:2), p.148-169, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jit.2014.6 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: A)

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The challenge of managing the relationship between a firm's business and IT in order to derive business value from IT is an important topic on researchers' and practitioners' agendas. The focus of most related research and management actions has been on the top management or project management levels. However, conflicts frequently arise within the line organization when applications are extended, enhanced, maintained, or otherwise changed operationally outside software development projects. This study focuses on the impact of relationships at the application-change level and strives to identify and explain favorable social structures for effective business/IT dialog at the operational level. We collected data in seven comprehensive case studies, including 88 interviews and corresponding surveys, and applied social network analysis to show that three social structures at the implementation level influence the degree to which IT applications are maintained and enhanced in line with business requirements: (1) interface actors connecting business and IT, (2) the relationships between interface actors and the corresponding unit, and (3) the relationships between interface actors and other employees in their unit. In three cases, less favorable structures are revealed that correspond to low application change effectiveness and software applications that do not meet business requirements. The other cases benefit from favorable social structures and thus enhance fulfillment of business requirements and result in higher IT business value. This paper contributes to IS research by helping to explain why companies may not provide favorable IT services despite favorable relationships at the top management level and successful application development projects.

Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2014)
How Social Capital among IT and Business Units Drives Operational Alignment and IT Business Value
Journal of Management Information Systems (31:1), p. 241-272, http://www.jmis-web.org/articles/1193 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: A)

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It is widely acknowledged that IT and business resources need to be well aligned to achieve organizational goals. Yet, year after year, chief information officers (CIOs) still name business-IT alignment a key challenge for IT executives. While alignment research has matured, we still lack a sound theoretical foundation for alignment. Transcending the predominantly strategic executive level focus, we develop a model of 'operational alignment' and IT business value that combines a social perspective of IT and business linkage with a view of interaction between business and IT at non-strategic levels, such as in daily business operations involving regular staff. Drawing on social capital theory to explain how alignment affects organizational performance, we examine why common suggestions like "communicate more" are insufficient to strengthen alignment and disclose how social capital between IT and business units drives alignment and ultimately IT business value. Empirical data from 136 firms confirms the profound impact of operational business-IT alignment, composed of social capital and business understanding of IT, on IT flexibility, IT utilization, and organizational performance. The results show that social capital theory is a useful theoretical foundation for understanding how business IT alignment works. The findings suggest that operational alignment is at least as important as strategic alignment for IT service quality, that managers need to focus on operational aspects of alignment beyond communication by fostering knowledge, trust and respect, and that IT utilization and flexibility are appropriate intermediate goals for business-IT alignment governance.

Zolper, K., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
When the river leaves its bed: analyzing deviations between planned and actual interaction structures in IT change processes
Journal of Information Technology (18:4), p. 333-353, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jit.2013.23 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: A)

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There is ample evidence of deviations between the actual and planned interaction structures between a firm's IT department and business units. Such deviations can hinder senior managers from governing their IT organizations effectively because they do not know how work really gets done. This paper develops an explanation for why actual structures differ from planned structures. Understanding this phenomenon is indispensable for managers to govern the real organization, to uphold compliance with important standards (e.g., ITIL, COBIT), to decide whether the formal or the actual organization is more effective, and, finally, to identify management actions that support the optimal structure. To develop this understanding, we analyze the interaction structures at the interface between firms' business units and IT units in four rich cases, using data from 56 interviews and 47 questionnaires, and applying qualitative methods and social network analysis, which give us deep insights into planned and actual interaction among employees. We test two different explanations for deviations of actual from planned interaction structures and find that boundary-spanning theory provides the dominant explanation for such deviations: Inclined to span the business/IT boundary most effectively, the actors involved deviate from planned structures especially when other structures offer better boundary-spanning potential, which is influenced primarily by cross-domain knowledge. In addition, relationships also play an important role. On the positive side, relationships provide opportunities for such deviations, while on the negative side, a conflict-laden relationship might hinder deviations even if they were advantageous.

Laumer, S., Beimborn, D., Maier, C., and Weinert, C. (2013)
Enterprise Content Management
Business & Information Systems Engineering (BISE) (5:6), p. 449-452, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12599-013-0291-3 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

Laumer, S., Beimborn, D., Maier, C., and Weinert, C. (2013)
Enterprise-Content-Management
WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK (55:6), p. 453-456, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11576-013-0384-0 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
The Influence of SOA Governance Mechanisms on IT Flexibility and Service Reuse
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems (22:1), p. 86-101, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2012.10.003 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: A )

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While many firms have introduced SOA, only one in five have achieved anticipated benefits such as increased IT flexibility or reuse. Industry analysts assume that a lack of SOA governance is the main reason why SOA projects fail. Addressing the substantial research gap on SOA governance this paper theoretically and empirically investigates which SOA governance mechanisms are needed to achieve the benefits of SOA, such as increasing IT flexibility and reusing services. The proposed theoretical SOA governance model is evaluated using data from 81 SOA-using organizations. Overall, the results confirm the relevance of a variety of SOA governance mechanisms (structures, processes, and employees/relations), but at the same time, that IT infrastructure flexibility and service reuse are influenced by different mechanisms. Key governance mechanisms that show a strong effect on infrastructure flexibility are using standards, service management processes, educating employees, and IT/business communication while reuse can only be increased through service management, standards and qualification. Contrary to expectations, implementing new, dedicated decision-making bodies for SOA hampers organizations in achieving higher degrees of IT flexibility and reuse, and a firm is better off using existing IT decision-making bodies.

Moos, B., Beimborn, D., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
The Role of Knowledge Management Systems for Innovation: An Absorptive Capacity Perspective
International Journal of Innovation Management (17:5), article 1359919, http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S1363919613500199 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

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What is the role of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) for a firm's innovativeness and absorptive capacity (ACAP)? Research shows that a firm's capacity to acquire and utilize relevant knowledge, i.e., its absorptive capacity, is decisive for innovation success. We develop a theoretical model that links the availability and usage of KMS with a firm's ACAP and its organizational knowledge to explain its contribution for a firm's innovation success. Using data from 222 manufacturing firms we can show that the availability of a KMS in a firm affects its innovation success by contributing to its ACAP. Looking at the impact of different knowledge types on innovativeness, the results show that only technological knowledge is a substantial determinant of innovation success but not market knowledge.

von Stetten, A., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
Analyzing and managing the impact of cultural behaviour patterns on social capital in multinational IT project teams - A case study approach
Business & Information Systems Engineering (BISE) (4:3), p.137-151 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

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This paper contributes to a better understanding and to mitigate negative consequences of cultural diversity in multinational IT project teams. Our research explores how culture-specific behaviours impact social capital among team members and how firms can manage the strains. In the existing IS culture literature, culture-specific behaviours are - if at all - traced back to single culture dimensions. In contrast, the approach proposed in this article goes one step further suggesting that it is necessary to combine several culture dimensions to better understand a certain culture-specific behaviour and consequently be able to better manage resulting relationship problems in multinational settings. Conducting exploratory case studies in six multinational IT projects, two exemplary cultural behaviour patterns (face maintenance in India and post-communism in the Czech Republic) are identified, and management actions to avoid project performance problems are derived. The results contribute to a better understanding and management of the negative impact of culturespecific behaviours in IT project teams and corroborate that research based on culture dimensions, such as those conceptualized by Hofstede or House et al., is valuable for understanding multi-country IS projects. The findings in particular suggest that aggregating these dimensions to cultural behaviour patterns improves their explanatory power and consequently the management's capability to mitigate the negative consequences of cultural diversity.

von Stetten, A., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
Auswirkungen kulturspezifischer Verhaltensmuster auf das Sozialkapital in multinationalen IT-Projektteams - Ein Fallstudienansatz
WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK (54:3), p.135-151 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

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Die vorliegende Forschungsarbeit hilft, negative Auswirkungen kultureller Unterschiede in multikulturellen IT-Projektteams besser verstehen und mittels geeigneter Managementmaßnahmen adressieren zu können. Es wird untersucht, wie sich kulturspezifische Verhaltensweisen auf das Sozialkapital multikultureller Teams auswirken und wie ein Unternehmen dadurch entstehende Spannungen besser bewältigen kann. Die bestehende Literatur, die sich mit den kulturellen Auswirkungen im Kontext von Informationssystemen beschäftigt, führt kulturspezifische Verhaltensweisen - wenn überhaupt - nur auf einzelne Kulturdimensionen zurück. Der in dieser Arbeit vorgeschlagene Ansatz geht dagegen einen Schritt weiter. Wir argumentieren, dass eine Kombination und Aggregation mehrerer Kulturdimensionen zu so genannten kulturellen Verhaltensmustern notwendig ist, um ein bestimmtes kulturspezifisches Verhalten besser verstehen und die sich daraus ergebenden Beziehungsprobleme in multikulturellen Szenarien in der Folge besser nachvollziehen und bewältigen zu können. Auf Basis von Fallstudien in sechs länderübergreifenden IT-Projekten werden zwei beispielhafte kulturspezifische Verhaltensmuster betrachtet (Gesichtswahrung in Indien und Post-Kommunismus in Tschechien). Zudem werden geeignete Managementmaßnahmen abgeleitet, die zur Vermeidung der sich in den Projekten ergebenden Probleme beitragen. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse fördern ein besseres Verständnis sowie das Management negativer Auswirkungen kulturspezifischen Verhaltens in IT-Projektteams und bestätigen, dass Forschung auf Basis bewährter Kulturdimensionen hierfür einen wichtigen Beitrag liefern kann.

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
Do Service-Oriented IT Architectures facilitate Business Process Outsourcing? A Study in the German Service Industry
Journal of Business Economics (JBE) (82:4), p. 77-108 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

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How does a firm's IT architecture affect its potential to outsource business processes? As Information Technology (IT) has become many firms' essential operational infrastructure or "backbone", we are interested in scrutinizing to what extent the kind of IT architecture affects a firm's boundaries or the plasticity of its boundaries. Focusing on the particular concept of service-oriented architectures (SOA), we concretely ask: How does SOA affect business process outsourcing potentials? Since SOA is widely expected to modularize the IT implementation of business processes, it should increase business process outsourcing (BPO) in terms of buying in the provision of single business functionalities. We develop and empirically evaluate a theoretical model that conceptualizes the relationship between SOA and BPO. Questionnaire data from 115 firms give first evidence that SOA facilitates BPO. By increasing IT modularity, SOA supports BPO by increasing sourcing flexibility and, in particular, operational benefits, while at the same time lowering financial risks and strategic risks, such as lock-in. Overall, however, firms see SOA-based BPO mainly in an operational context with low hidden costs and little strategic benefits.

Beimborn, D., Miletzki, T., and Wenzel, S. (2011)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK (53:6), p. 371-375 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

Beimborn, D., Miletzki, T., and Wenzel, S. (2011)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Business & Information Systems Engineering (BISE) (3:6), p. 381-384 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

Walentowitz, K. and Beimborn, D. (2011)
The Social Antecedents of Business/IT Alignment - Reviewing the Role of Social Network Structure in Alignment Research
International Journal on IT/Business Alignment and Governance (IJITBAG) (2:2), p. 15-32 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: k.R.)

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Business/IT alignment is a major source of business value generated from IT and social structures at the interface between a firm's business and IT units are of vital importance to business/IT alignment. Yet, there is a substantial gap in understanding the nature of these social structures. Based on a literature review comprising all related articles published in the AIS Senior Scholars' Basket journals between January 2000 and August 2011, this paper identifies antecedents of alignment related to social network structure. These are translated into formal SNA concepts. The identification and formalization of social network structures allow IT governance to implement social engineering mechanisms influencing the social network structure, thus improve business/IT alignment and IT value. Examples for such translated arguments are high degree centrality of CIOs vis-à-vis other executives and strong ties in terms of cross-domain knowledge between CIOs and other executives. Finally, important avenues for future research are highlighted.

Beimborn, D. and Joachim, N. (2011)
The Joint Impact of Service-Oriented Architectures and Business Process Management on Business Process Quality: An Empirical Evaluation and Comparison
Information Systems and e-Business Management (9:3), p. 333-362, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10257-010-0129-1 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: C)

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What is the interplay between Business Process Management (BPM) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) in achieving high business process quality? In this paper, we empirically investigate the impact of both SOA and BPM on business process quality in terms of straight-through processing (STP), business-to-business integration, quality control, as well as standardization and consolidation of business processes. For the empirical evaluation of our model, we use the data of 157 German service firms. The results show that the SOA paradigm has still received rather low adoption rates in the industry. However, SOA, BPM, and related information technologies have a direct positive impact on business process quality and the analysis provides evidence for the complementarities of BPM and SOA since interaction effects between them have an additional significant impact on business process quality. Consequently, firms having adopted SOA can more effectively apply BPM.

Wagner, H., Blumenberg, S., and Beimborn, D. (2009)
Knowledge Transfer Processes in IT Outsourcing Relationships and their Impact on Shared Knowledge and Outsourcing Performance
International Journal of Information Management (29:5), p. 342-352 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: C)

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What is the impact of specific knowledge-transfer processes on the level of shared knowledge and, in turn, on outsourcing performance in outsourcing relationships? Drawing on a series of case studies covering IT providers and banks, we investigate several applied knowledge-transfer processes dedicated to the transfer of explicit or tacit knowledge between outsourcing banks and their providers. We examine the differential influence of various types of knowledge transfer on shared knowledge between the parties and on the resulting outsourcing performance. Results depict the differential impact of various knowledge-transfer processes dedicated to the transfer of explicit, or tacit knowledge, respectively, on the development of shared knowledge. Interestingly, the combination of both knowledge-transfer processes dedicated to the transfer of explicit knowledge and those dedicated to the transfer of tacit knowledge proves to be most effective. Furthermore the results indicate that high levels of shared knowledge positively influence outsourcing performance. In addition to previous literature, we found transfer processes for explicit knowledge in an outsourcing context to consist of two dimensions: The content dimension, primarily focused on in literature, and the sender-receiver dimension of transfer processes which are rarely addressed in outsourcing literature. The content dimension embraces mechanisms such as trainings, SLAs and standards that define how content has to be interpreted, whereas the sender-receiver dimension of transfer processes of explicit knowledge defines explicit, documented interaction structures between parties.

Beck, R., Beimborn, D., Weitzel, T., and König, W. (2008)
Network effects as drivers of individual technology adoption: Analyzing adoption and diffusion of mobile communication services
Information Systems Frontiers (10:4), p. 415-429 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

Wüllenweber, K., Beimborn, D., Weitzel, T., and König, W. (2008)
The impact of process standardization on business process outsourcing success
Information Systems Frontiers (10:2), p. 211-224 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

Beimborn, D., Martin, S., and Franke, J. (2008)
Value Chain Crossing: Insights and Opportunities for Future Research
International Journal of Electronic Business (6:1), p. 93-109 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: C)

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In this article, we present a research framework that tackles a promising area of e-Business largely neglected before, namely the lateral cooperation of firms from two different industries that interconnect their business processes by means of electronic integration. We refer to this kind of e-Business cooperation as "value chain crossing" and explore, as an exemplary application domain, the integration of financial processes in non-banks and financial service providers. To support our research proposal, we provide exploratory findings from an empirical survey accompanied by a series of case studies which indicate that research in this area of e-Business is worthwhile to be conducted. We identified empirical evidence for a large potential of value chain crossing but also found substantial inhibitors for the adoption of this idea.

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., Gomber, P., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
Die Bedeutung des Alignments von IT und Fachressourcen in Finanzprozessen: Eine empirische Untersuchung
WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK (48:5), p. 331-339 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

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Wie kann die Ressource IT wertschaffend eingesetzt werden? Auf der theoretischen Grundlage des Resource-based View of IT sowie der Alignment-Literatur argumentieren wir, dass die tatsächliche Nutzung der IT sowie das Zusammenspiel zwischen IT und Fachabteilungen grundlegend für die Leistung von IT-intensiven Geschäftsprozessen sind. Das entwickelte Wirkmodell wird in einer Studie unter den 1.000 größten Banken Deutschlands empirisch untersucht. Es zeigt sich, dass die Leistung des untersuchten Geschäftsprozesses, wie hypothetisiert, stark von einem Alignment zwischen der IT- und der Geschäftsdomäne abhängt. Ebenso wird deutlich, dass ein bestimmtes Ausmaß fachlicher Ressourcen entscheidend ist und auch eine herausragende IT-Ausstattung und -Unterstützung keine Mängel hinsichtlich dieser fachlichen Ressourcen ausgleichen kann. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen damit wichtige Einsichten der Literatur zu Alignment auch auf Prozessebene und zeigen im Gegensatz zu bestehender Literatur theoretisch wie empirisch, dass der Wertbeitrag der IT nicht ohne Berücksichtigung der Nicht-IT-Fachkompetenz untersucht werden kann.

Weitzel, T., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2006)
A Unified Economic Model of Standard Diffusion: The Impact of Standardization Cost, Network Effects and Network Topology
Management Information Systems Quarterly (MISQ) Volume 30, p. 489-514 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: A+)

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This paper is motivated by the following question: What drives the diffusion of a communication standard and what diffusion results can we expect? Past literature provides many instructive but mostly unrelated answers. Frequent findings are startup problems, penguin effects, and tendencies towards monopoly. But substantial problems in applying the models to concrete standardization problems reveal that the dynamics are probably more complex. Not all networks are ultimately conquered by a single standard once it has attracted a certain number of users. And not all diffusion results are either complete or no standardization. We address the question of the conditions of particular diffusion behaviors by developing a formal standardization model that captures all fragmented phenomena in a unified approach. Drawing from findings of other research we incorporate the structure of the underlying user network as an important determinant for diffusion behaviors. The approach allows us to disclose varying conditions that generate frequently observed standardization behaviors as special parameter constellations of the model. Using equilibrium analysis and computer simulations we identify a standardization gap that reveals the magnitude of available standardization gains for individuals and the network as a whole. The analysis shows that network topology and density have a strong impact on standard diffusion and that the renowned tendency towards monopoly is far less common. We also report how the model can be used to decide on corporate standardization problems.

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
The Role of Experience for Outsourcing Evaluation
WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK (47:6), p. 431-440 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

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How can outsourcing be used to improve financial processes and what role does managers' experience with outsourcing play for outsourcing decisions? An empirical survey with CFOs of Germany's Fortune 1,000 firms (non-banks) reveals that (1) there are substantial efficiency potentials in the financial chain of many firms, (2) outsourcing these secondary processes is still quite rare, and (3) prior outsourcing experience of managers has a strong impact on the evaluation of the competencies of external service providers: an experienced manager is more likely to appreciate the provider's skills, someone without outsourcing experience presumes the higher competencies inhouse.

Beimborn, D. and Hoppen, N. (2004)
A Simulative Approach to Determining the Economic Efficiency of Software Patents
WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK (46:1), p. 50-60 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

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Abstract: Traditionally, only technical inventions such as light bulbs or pharmaceuticals were protected by patents. Nowadays software patents are a widly discussed topic in the U.S. and in Europe because of their supposed impact on national innovation rates. Based on an analysis of the determinants of successful software development, we use a bipartite probability model to compare a deregulated market without patents to a market using a patent system. Applying computer-based simulations, we analyze different scenarios to test the impact of different patent duration and width on the innovation behavior of the software market. We show that strong patent protection is globally efficient only in markets with a relatively low profit potential.

Weitzel, T., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2003)
Coordination In Networks: An Economic Equilibrium Analysis
Information Systems and e-Business Management (1:2), p. 189-211 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: C)

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Networks utilizing modern communication technologies can offer competitive advantages to those using them wisely. But due to the existence of network effects, planning and operating cooperation networks is difficult. In this paper, the strategic situation of individual agents deciding on network participation is analysed. A systematic equilibrium analysis using computer-based simulations reveals principal solution scenarios for network agents and shows that network cooperation problems might frequently be not as difficult to resolve as often feared. In particular, strategic situations are identified showing that a majority of individuals might be better off getting the optimal solution from a central principal and that in many cases simple information intermediation can solve the start-up problem notorious in network economics.

Beimborn, D., Mintert, S., and Weitzel, T. (2002)
Web Services und ebXML
WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK (44:3), p. 277-280 (VHB-JOURQUAL 3 Rating: B)

Conference Articles (Peer Reviewed)

Mittermeier, F., Schwalb, D., and Beimborn, D. (2024)
Entrepreneurial Micro-Ecosystems and Their Role for the Success of Digital Start-ups
Proceedings of the 45th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Bangkok, Thailand

View Abstract

While digital start-ups act more globally, they continue to be born locally. Consequently, the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) remains highly relevant to their success and survival. Although several calls exist to incorporate the micro-level when studying EEs, the current literature has mainly adopted a macro or meso-level perspective. However, analyzing micro-ecosystems seems promising in gathering more profound insight into the process of new venture creation, the success factors for early-stage digital start-ups, and the value of support organizations. This study sheds light on the factors that drive the success of digital start-ups within a very recent and promising type of micro-ecosystem called digital venture builder (DVB). By outlining several success factors throughout the entrepreneurial process and four managerial strategies for micro-ecosystems, we add to the emerging literature stream on digital entrepreneurship anchored in the research fields of information systems, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Beimborn, D. and Hohenreuther, O. (2024)
Measuring the Organizational Agility Level of IT Organizations — A Scale DevelopmentScale Development
Proceedings of the 32th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Paphos, Cyprus

View Abstract

In today’s IT organizations, agile concepts are widespread, and the benefits are well recognized. However, currently, no general and widely accepted model for measuring agility in IT organizations exists. As organization design is one of the main enablers of agility, we develop a multi-item scale to measure the agility level of the organization design in today’s IT organizations. After conducting an expert review and running a pilot test with subsequent statistical analyses, we create a final scale that allows measuring the organizational agility level of IT organizations. The scale consists of 45 items across 12 factors and 4 higher-order constructs. The scale can be generally applied – for example, across industries or for companies of different sizes.

Finze, N., Frey, J., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2024)
We Are the Change: How Work-related Identities Influence Inertia during Digital Transformation
Proceedings of the 45th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Bangkok, Thailand

View Abstract

To maintain a competitive edge in the context of an ever-increasing range of digital ap-plications and services, incumbent firms initiate a process of digital transformation. Nev-ertheless, the tendency to adhere to established organizational forms and processes, even in the face of superior alternatives, has been observed to impede the pace of digital trans-formation. We thus answer the following question: How do work-related identities affect different inertia dimensions in digital transformation? By answering this research ques-tion, this study demonstrates the influence of different work-related identities, namely organizational identity, team identity, professional identity, and job identity. It contrib-utes to the theoretical understanding of the influence of work-related identities on differ-ent dimensions of inertia and provides practical insights toward a deeper understanding of the differential impact of digital transformation and to anticipate the potential for identity to arise inertia in the transformation process.

Frey, J., Finze, N., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2024)
From Communication to Motivation: Leveraging Scaling Agility for IT-Business Alignment
Proceedings of the Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

View Abstract

IT-business alignment is a crucial objective for organizations and is influenced by the structural changes brought about by digital transformation. One such structural change, Scaling Agility, has been identified as influential on IT-business alignment at the strategic level. However, its precise roles and concrete activities in this context, which contribute to a better alignment, have yet to be studied. We therefore seek to answer the question: What is the role of Scaling Agility in IT-business alignment? A qualitative case study series with four organizations over two years surfaces a total of twelve activities within the four activity categories: (1) Understanding and Appreciation, (2) Fostering Trust and Openness, (3) Propelling Togetherness, and (4) Achieving Self-Determination. These activities can be aggregated into three levels: communicator, mediator, and motivator. The study extends the literature on the beneficial role of Scaling Agility and concrete activities in IT-business alignment in the context of digital transformation.

Hildebrandt, Y., Zaza, S., Beimborn, D., and Armstrong, D. (2024)
IT Reinvention: A Configurational Perspective of IT Specific Traits
Proceedings of the ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Murfreesboro, TN, USA

Müller, L., Wagner, H., and Beimborn, D. (2024)
The Influence of Digitization on Technological Convergence
Proceedings of the 30th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

View Abstract

Convergence is a frequently discussed phenomenon of digital innovation and is reflected in the merging of previously separate areas. Convergence takes place on various levels, one of them being technological convergence which serves as a main factor for the other levels of convergence, e.g. product or industry convergence. The phenomenon of technological convergence has already been theoretically studied. However, in an increasingly digitized world, we do not understand how and to what extent technological convergence is driven by digitization and how this effect becomes empirically manifest. In our analysis of a longitudinal patent data set consisting of over four million patents, we compare digital vs. non-digital patents and thus are able to show and quantify the impact of digitization on technological convergence. We show that (1) technological convergence is not solely a fundamentally digital phenomenon and (2) boundaries between digital and non-digital patents become blurrier over time. We conclude by indicating future avenues for research on the impact of digitization.

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., Beimborn, D., Frey, J., and Hildebrandt, Y. (2024)
Externalizing Digital Options Thinking: How Corporate Venture Builders Generate Opportunities to Invest in Digital Innovation
Proceedings of the 32nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Paphos, Cyprus

View Abstract

To avoid conflicts with the core business and the existing organizational identity, incumbents increasingly externalize their digital innovation activities by handing them over to separate innovation units. While IS research provides knowledge on how internally driven innovations are initiated and developed in such units, we do not yet understand how they capitalize on internal resources, combine them with external ones, and pursue competitive actions with digital technologies. To address this issue, we apply a digital options thinking lens to investigate how corporate venture builders (CVBs) generate digital options for incumbent firms, ie, opportunities to invest in digital innovations. Based on a case study with six CVBs, we find that such units bundle incumbents’ resources and digital innovation trends (novel technologies and digital business models) into digital options through four roles. Furthermore, we demonstrate the importance of adding a detailed preparation process to the digital options framework.

Thaler, J., Müller, E., and Beimborn, D. (2024)
Investigating Public Sector Employees’ Digital Mindsets for Digital and Agile Transformation
Proceedings of the IRSPM Conference, Tampere (Finnland)

Hildebrandt, Y. and Beimborn, D. (2023)
Affordance Perception Through a Digital Mindset: A Dual Process Theory Perspective
Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS)
Best Paper Nominee

View Abstract

As digital technologies offer increasingly open and flexible affordances, organizations must understand how employees discover and utilize them to maximize their potential. While prior research has shown that technology-specific traits can impact affordance perception, we propose that affordance perception is affected by an individual’s general digital mindset, which in turn determines how individuals make sense of pervasive digital technologies. Drawing on the dual process theory of human cognition and established affordance categories (canonical and non-canonical), we conducted a four-phase online experiment involving 189 users of Microsoft PowerPoint. Our study, which used an implicit association tests, a sorting approach, and a survey, revealed that an individual’s digital mindset significantly influences unconscious and conscious perceptions of non-canonical affordances but not canonical ones. We contribute by extending the affordance theory in IS, indicating that affordance perception can be seen as dual processes dependent on individual traits.

Finze, N., Frey, J., Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2023)
“Who Am I When Everything has Changed?” The Impact of Scaled-agile Organizations on Professional Role Identity
Proceedings of the 44th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Hyderabad, India

View Abstract

As digital technology continues to advance, organizations require more flexibility to meet the needs of their customers and remain competitive. To do so, many incumbent organizations fundamentally change their established structures and processes to implement scaled-agile organizations (SAO), emulating digital organizations and leveraging development speed and customer focus. However, when everything changes, there are significant effects on the employees’ identities. Thus, we explore how implementing an SAO affects employees’ professional role identities (PRI). The paper follows a case study approach analyzing two cases with 21 interviews, observational, and secondary data collected over a period of 18 months. We contribute to the literature by identifying three effects of an SAO implementation on PRI (threat, empowerment, and extension) and describing how individuals react based on the effect on their PRI. We inform practitioners on the overall SAO implementation process and consequences for professionals, offering a new perspective on organizational transformation challenges.

Schwaiger, A., Bogodistov, Y., and Beimborn, D. (2023)
Seeing the Forest for the Trees: How Abstract Thinking Fosters Digitalization
Proceedings of the Academy of Management Conference, Boston, 2023

View Abstract

A digital transformation is always a process that also causes indirect, social costs, such as additional learning costs or internal discussions by business partners. These costs are a matter of perception, though. In our study, we run a combination of a randomized two-group experiment and a discrete choice experiment to investigate whether an individual’s social distance and the related level of mental construal have an impact on her perception of digitalization. Analyzing 1,940 decisions, we, first, replicate results from previous studies and, second, add new psychological aspects shaping digitalization. We show that the “framing” of a digitalization project has an impact on the perception of the social costs associated. Despite the established link between the level of mental construal and willingness to pay, we show that when seeing the “forest behind the trees”, i.e. when being in a high construal way of thinking, developers are more willing to trade efficiency gains against other social costs of digitalization and, thus, make it succeed.

Beimborn, D. and Mildenberger, A. (2023)
Innovation on the Vendor Side - Analyzing the Effects of Innovation Initiatives on Outsourcing Providers' Performance
Proceedings of the 31st European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Kristiansand, Norway

View Abstract

‘Innovation through outsourcing’ describes a firm’s strategy to receive innovation by outsourcing IT or IT-intensive processes to more competent and innovative service providers who, in turn, do not only operate their activities but also improve and innovate for or on behalf of their clients. This strategy has gathered some attention by recent research, though it has almost only examined the client perspective, yet. We contribute to this sub-field of IT outsourcing/BPO research by analyzing vendors’ strategies to improve their innovation capability and thus to be more innovative for their clients. Based on a longitudinal global dataset of 136 outsourcing vendors, we analyze which innovation-enabling initiatives are related to superior firm performance (in terms of revenue growth). We find that particularly employee-involving initiatives are promising: outsourcing vendors that have implemented, e.g., idea/innovation platforms that support employee-driven innovation, receive above-average revenue growth.

Bogodistov, Y., Schwaiger, A., and Beimborn, D. (2023)
Perception of Social Costs of Digitalization: Profiling Top Managers, Middle Managers, and Front-line Employees
Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Software Product Management, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

View Abstract

Although information technology has become advanced in profiling users, we often offer this knowledge to marketing and forget that profiling is needed for information technology implementation itself. If digitalization is introduced in a firm, it may encounter internal resistance. Top managers, middle managers, and front-line employees may have different expectations with regard to digitalization initiatives in their firms. Having different visions of what digitalization is about may result in conflicts with regard to digital solutions selection and implementation and, consequently, lead to digitalization failure. In this paper, we look at differences in digitalization cost perception using a Discrete Choice Experiment. Based on our findings, we propose to approach firms by profiling top managers, middle managers, and front-line employees.

Frey, J. and Beimborn, D. (2023)
Coordination and identity in digital transformation organizing
Proceedings of the 39th EGOS Colloquium, Cagliari, Italy

Frey, J., Mittermeier, F., and Beimborn, D. (2023)
Digital Transformation: How Scaling Agility Affects Value Creation Paths
Proceedings of the 2023 Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Panama City, Panama

View Abstract

Structural changes are a key element of digital transformation and affect value creation paths such as digital agility. Scaling agility constitutes such a structural change. Research has highlighted the need to increase our understanding of the underlying changes to understand the microfoundations that undergird digital transformation. Thus, we look at how scaling agility affects value creation paths by answering the question, “How does the structural change of scaling agility affect changes in value creation paths in digital transformation?” We conduct a multiple case study with four organizations. The study surfaces three observations of this structural change that enable digital agility: Cross-functionality to allow for the emergence of creative ideas, fostering self-organizing to seize digital opportunities, and higher value chain interconnectedness for improved delivery. Furthermore, we identify two barriers as inhibitors of such transformations: complexity trap and resource foundation. We contribute to understanding digital transformation and provide valuable insights for practitioners.

Hildebrandt, Y. and Beimborn, D. (2023)
Digital Mindset Profiles for Innovating: The Relationship Between Digital Mindset and IT Reinvention
Proceedings of the 83rd Academy of Management Conference, Boston, Massachusets, US

View Abstract

Employees’ reinventive usage of IT is crucial for companies to leverage IT investments and gain competitive advantages, making it necessary to understand what drives such behavior. We hypothesize that IT reinvention is affected by the digital mindset, as this dynamic IT-specific trait unconsciously alters how individuals act in the context of digitalization through malleable thinking patterns. Building on the dual processing theory of human cognition, we investigated the relationship by conducting an online survey with 154 full-time employees that use Microsoft Powerpoint for work purposes. Our analysis using a structual equation model (SEM) and fuzzy-set comparative analysis (fsQCA) revealed that the digital mindset substantially affects IT reinvention, and three combinations of thinking patterns, respectively digital mindset profiles, exist that lead to IT reinvention. We contribute to the theory of post-adoption innovative IT use behaviors and the digital mindset by proving the effects of un-conscious dynamic IT-specific traits on rather conscious system usages. For practitioners, we provide digital mindset profiles that can be used when composing teams to increase the alignment to project goals and team effectiveness.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2023)
Scaling Agility for Digital Transformation: How Organizations Manage Arising Tensions
Proceedings of the 83rd Academy of Management Conference, Boston, US

View Abstract

Scaling agility has emerged as a response by incumbent organizations to take on digital transformation efforts. However, scaling agility comes with organizational challenges, especially tensions that need to be addressed. Therefore, we employ an exploratory common process case study series design to answer the following research questions: Which tensions underlie scaling agility efforts, and how can they be resolved? We identify four tensions and demonstrate resolution strategies to manage these tensions. With this, we seek to uncover how scaling agility can be designed to minimize tensions and maximize the effectiveness of scaling agility. In doing so, we provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners.

Mittermeier, F., Pöppinghaus, C.Fa, and Beimborn, D. (2023)
Digital Start-up Success: How Formal Education and Academic Diversity Impact New Digital Ventures’ Performance
Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui, Hawaii, US

View Abstract

Factors affecting the creation, growth, and survival of new businesses are of great interest to entrepreneurs, policymakers, and academics and have been studied for a long time. While the importance of work experience is constantly emphasized, the benefits of formal education are often questioned in practice. This study discusses the impact of founders' academic background and diversity on the success of digital startups. By analyzing 519 digital start-ups and 1,038 founders, we show that the ranking of the universities the founders graduated from and the quantitativeness of the founders’ majors both contribute to the funding success of digital start-ups. In contrast to previous literature, we were not able to confirm that diversity, measured in the distance between the rankings of two majors, has a significant impact on the success of digital start-ups. The findings enhance our understanding regarding the importance of general human capital in the digital age.

Finze, N., Frey, J., Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Gewald, H. (2022)
Cross-functional Identity? The Impact of Scaled-agile Organizations’ Transformation Processes on Professional Role Identity.
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Copenhagen, Denmark

View Abstract

Within the ever-faster changing digitalized world, organizational work models constantly evolve towards increased agility to ensure innovation and competitive performance. Initially, agile methods were designed for small teams to develop software products. However, the focus has shifted towards combining and strategically expanding agile teams into scaled-agile organizations (SAOs). Traditionally, individuals’ role perception was highly dependent on hierarchical structures. However, when a new organizational model is implemented, hierarchical roles and structures change. To understand how the transformation into SAOs affects individuals’ professional role identity (PRI) and how they reconstruct their PRI in SAOs, we conduct a qualitative case study with employees holding various positions in SAOs. Our work contributes to the literature by providing insights into individuals’ opportunities and challenges within SAO transformation processes. Our preliminary findings indicate PRI changes from team-based to product-based PRIs as a reaction to the (novel) cross-functional SAO structure. However, if the transformation is involuntary we see inherent role conflicts, identity losses, and the occurrence of agile silos as employees try to retain their previous PRIs.

Fischer, V. and Beimborn, D. (2022)
How Should Organizations Manage Artificial Intelligence? A Strategic Literature Review
Proceedings of the 66th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Taipei-Sydney

View Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has reached many organizations. First engagement and im-plementation with its technologies have started. While some organizations demonstrate its value-adding utilization, others are still in early stages and face challenges. The management of AI goes beyond the technology itself and forces changes in the organiza-tions. This paper conducts a strategic literature review to answer the research question ‘How should organizations manage AI?’. 38 reviewed papers report about different, yet fragmented, research activities and findings related to the management of AI. To draw a holistic picture about the state of research, we organize the results along the manage-ment activities of planning and decision-making, organizing, guiding, and controlling AI systems in managerial practice. Thus, the paper contributes to both, research and practice, and outlines future research directions which are not covered, yet.

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Entrepreneurial Support Systems in the Digital Era: A Taxonomy of Digital Company Builders
Proceedings of the 28th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Minneapolis, US
Kauffman Best Paper Award

View Abstract

New venture creation is at the core of entrepreneurship and regarded as the source of innovations and new employment. However, despite the potential, that digitization bears for innovation and entrepreneurship, the failure rate of start-ups is still very high. In this context, digital company builders (DCBs) are becoming increasingly important as a new form of entrepreneurial support. Based on a multiple case study with ten DCBs we iteratively developed a taxonomy consisting of 13 dimensions, which describe how such organizations provide what kind of support to whom. Based on this taxonomy, we further grouped the cases into four main types of digital company building. These results may provide researchers a tool to systematically compare different entrepreneurial support systems, help both entrepreneurs and incumbents decide which support system is best suited to their individual needs, and furthermore be useful to the owners of DCBs themselves in their strategic positioning.

Bogodistov, Y. and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Flying with Clipped Wings: Dynamic Capabilities of Publicly Owned Health Care Providers
Proceedings of the 82nd Academy of Management Conference, Seattle

View Abstract

To implement change effectively and efficiently, private firms require strong dynamic capabilities, consisting of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguration capacities. In the public sector, however, the concept of dynamic capability might be of less use because opportunity recognition (sensing) and strategic decision making (seizing) are taken over by the government. In this work, we discuss the only part of the dynamic capability left to highly regulated non-profit organizations: the reconfiguration of the resource base in order to meet the expectations of the regulator. Using a sample of general practitioners from public hospitals in Ukraine (n = 237; 81 per cent of the entire population of general practitioners from two Ukrainian cities), we apply structural equation modelling to legitimize the construct of reconfiguration-centred dynamic capability (reconfiguration capability) and test its impact on hospitals’ performance. First, we show that reconfiguration capability explains the effects of the lack of resources even at the local level. Second, we show that reconfiguration capability is a strong predictor of performance.

Bogodistov, Y. and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Specificity of Dynamic Capabilities of Health Care Providers
Proceedings of the International Academic-practical Conference, Dnipro, Ukraine

View Abstract

This short conceptual paper focuses on the form of dynamic capabilities and their role for non-profit organizations, for health care providers, in particular. In some countries, e.g., in the Ukraine (which served as our empirical basis), the health care system is organized in a very centralized way, which leaves little managerial freedom to individual organizations, such as local hospitals. While the government or any other public authority is the entity responsible for evaluating opportunities and threats and seizing the most appropriate opportunities, they will pose health care reforms on the local providers, such as the recent change through the introduction of primary health care providers in the Ukraine for reducing cost and fostering health equity. At the same time, local providers, e.g., hospitals might not want the health care system to be reformed. Recent research shows that health care providers see a threat of reforming due to increased job stress, motivation and performance. A misalignment between the government’s decision and the hospitals may result in burnout, the dissatisfaction of balance of treatment, and administrative work. We argue that this function transfer has a drastic impact on the dynamic capability of health care providers. In for-profit markets, selection mechanisms allow only the best players to survive; variation mechanisms allow the firms to adopt their market position and find a niche. Dynamic capabilities are aimed to help the latter firms maintain evolutionary fitness, become and remain successful, as well as quit path dependencies. By contrast, in the non-profit health care market, competition is different. For instance, most primary health care providers are distributed evenly and offer the same services to people in their neighborhood. Nevertheless, the industry is dynamic: on the one hand, technological change allows hospitals to innovate and thus provide relatively better services; on the other hand, patients are free to move and change between hospitals selecting those with a higher quality of services. Consequently, health care providers need to adapt to changes by reconfiguring their resource base as firms do in the for-profit domain. Thus, they need to have an equivalent of a dynamic capability with a focus on the implementation of change conferred upon hospitals by the government. We propose the notion of a “reconfiguration capability” to capture this organizational phenomenon. Most decisions of the government initiate a realignment of hospitals’ tangible and intangible assets. In contrast to the reconfiguration capacity as proposed by Teece (2007), the reconfiguration capability of a health care provider has several specific aspects important for the non-profit domain. This reconfiguration capability may become the key tool on the way to transform and implement strategic change in an non-profit public organization.

Hildebrandt, Y., Valta, M., and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Quantifying the Digital Mindset: Development of a Measurement Instrument
Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Atlanta, Georgia USA

View Abstract

The ‘digital mindset’ is frequently raised by both researchers and practitioners to be an essential factor of the human side of digitalization to successfully cope with the arising challenges of digitalization. Despite existing conceptualizations of the construct, the literature provides no operationalization for quantitative research, so far. Our research pursues the goal to address the question of how the digital mindset can be measured. Literature- and Delphi study-based approaches were used to develop various types of scales which were pre-validated by experts and statistically validated. For contentual validation, 35 participants were interviewed and subsequently completed the developed scales in a panel study. The resulting interview statements were rated by two independent raters and the results compared with the scale results. The correlations of the answers from using the different measures indicate that the developed survey scales can serve as proxies for the qualitative approach, which is assumed to measure the ‘true’ level of the digital mindset. In the future, researchers can choose from different scales based on their requirements for precision and efficiency (i.e., time needed to complete the survey items).

Hildebrandt, Y. and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Assessing the Digital Mindset - Using Explicit Scales to Measure an Implicit Phenomenon
Proceedings of the 82. Academy of Management Conference, Seattle, US

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Digital Innovation Entrepreneurship: A Review and Research Agenda
Proceedings of the 82nd Academy of Management Conference, Seattle, US

View Abstract

Digital innovation and digital entrepreneurship are two research streams that focus on the intersection of digital technologies with traditional entrepreneurship or innovation processes, respectively. In this sense, both streams can cross-fertilize each other when it comes to theorizing about digital technologies and their distinct characteristics in the context of entrepreneurship. However, recent studies show that there seems to be a large gap between these two fields of research. By analyzing 86 articles from four different disciplines, this review synthesizes the current knowledge on the intersection of digital entrepreneurship and digital innovation through a digital technology-perspective. The contribution of this paper is three-fold: (1) Providing an overview of current knowledge about the relationship between digital entrepreneurship, digital innovation and digital technology, (2) Building a framework of digital innovation entrepreneurship, which describes how digital entrepreneurs engage in continuous digital innovation through the use of digital technology, and (3) identifying avenues that guide future research.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2022)
Designing Scaled-agile Organizations: A Taxonomy of Design Criteria
Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Nuernberg, Germany

View Abstract

Scaled-agile organizations (SAOs) have emerged as a popular response to the rapid digital transformation of entire industries. However, we currently lack a conceptual understanding of potential design choices of SAOs and calls for effective organizational structures remain only partially answered. Hence, we seek to answer the question of how different designs affect the implementation of SAOs in incumbent organizations. We do this by developing a taxonomy following the approach by Nickerson et al. and based on data from six cases studies. Our findings provide a taxonomy that identifies a set of eight design criteria across two levels. The taxonomy advances our understanding of the different SAO designs and helps to increase the conceptual clarity of SAOs. We provide a valuable basis for further research and supply practical insights.

Hildebrandt, Y. and Beimborn, D. (2022)
A Cognitive Conveyor for Digital Innovation - Definition and Conceptualization of the Digital Mindset
Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Nürnberg, Germany

View Abstract

Notwithstanding the ubiquitous notion of the ‘digital mindset’ as a central way of thinking in digitalization, the literature lacks an unambiguous and integrative definition that allows further conceptualization of the phenomenon in a detailed manner. This paper defines and conceptualizes the digital mindset in a digital innovation context by an integration of different psychological perspectives and systematic analysis of digital innovation literature, cross-validated through an inductive expert survey (n=50). As a result, a coherent definition and conceptualization with 11 thinking patterns contribute to the research of the human side of digitalization and pave the way for future research avenues. Concluding our work, we highlight overlaps and draw parallels to related theoretical IS concepts and link our results to extant findings of IS research.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2022)
Organizational Identity in the Digital Era
Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Hawaii

View Abstract

The perception of an organization is largely based on its identity, which determines how it is expected to act. Yet, digital technology often creates situations where organizations experience conflicting demands from different stakeholders. Over time, organizations are there-fore forced to take actions that may not be consistent with their identity and mission, and must find ways to pursue multiple - sometimes conflicting - goals simulta-neously. Our study examines how organizations frame their identity and discusses how different framings may help addressing different needs while remaining con-sistent with the initial identity. Our findings allow us to contribute to extant literature by: (1) Identifying differences in the framing of organizational identities with re-gard to focus on Purpose, Strategic Boundaries, Value Propositions, and Value Statements. (2) Discussing the implications of our findings for the current literature dealing with the "identity-challenging" nature of digital technology. (3) Outlining promising research questions for future research.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2021)
Scaling Agility: How Organizations Balance Tensions in Scaled-agile Organizations
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Austin, Texas, USA
(Research in Progress)

View Abstract

Scaled-agile organizations (SAOs) have emerged as a response by incumbent organizations to take on digital transformation efforts. However, these structures come with challenges, especially paradoxical tensions that need to be addressed. Therefore, we employ an exploratory common process case study series design to answer the following research questions: Which tensions underlie SAOs and how can these tensions best be balanced? We identify eight tensions on three levels and along two dimensions and show preliminary resolution strategies to manage these tensions. With this, we seek to shed light on how SAOs can be designed to minimize tensions and maximize their impact on strategic agility. In doing so, we provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners.

Hund, A., Graser, H., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2021)
Balancing Organizational Identity through Mission Statements: A Topic Modeling Analysis
Proceedings of the 81st Academy of Management Conference, A Virtual Experience

View Abstract

Organizational identities define how organizations are perceived inside and outside the organ-izational boundaries. Because organizational identity is deeply embedded in an organization's routines and processes, a continuous identity provides stability, whereas changes in organiza-tional identity are risky and difficult to manage. Yet, digital innovation leads to frequent changes in the external environment, resulting in conflicting requirements and the need to manage changes in the organizational identity. To do so, organizations therefore rely on narra-tives such as mission statements to communicate and balance their identity in the face of fre-quent change and often conflicting demands. We examine the mission statements of the top 1000 R&D spenders and uncover 18 topics that are part of such narratives. We discuss our findings in the context of research on digital innovation and conclude by identifying promising avenues for future research.

Hund, A., Beimborn, D., Wagner, H., Legl, S., and Holotiuk, F. (2021)
How Digital Innovation Labs Use Knowledge: Access Strategies and Recombination Paths
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Austin, Texas, USA
(Research in Progress)

View Abstract

Current research on digital innovation mainly focuses on the recombination of digital and physical components, yet little attention is given to the recombination of knowledge. Since digital technology enables access to virtually unlimited amounts of knowledge, we explore the strategies used by Digital Innovation Labs to access different types of knowledge and uncover five distinct knowledge recombination paths. Based on our results we develop seven propositions that address the role of different types of knowledge involved in recombination. In doing so, we take a first step toward unraveling the pathways of knowledge recombination and highlight the importance of knowledge recombination for future research on digital innovation.

Grewe, E. and Beimborn, D. (2021)
The Strategic Impact of IT: An Update on the Relationship between IT Investments and Competitive Dynamics
Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)

View Abstract

McAfee and Brynjolfsson (2008) provided evidence that the steep rise of information technology investments in the 1990s did not only yield higher overall productivity but also accelerated the competitive nature of U.S. industries. These changes have, among others, been attributed to a more eﬃcient and quick propagation of innovative business processes due to information technology. Our paper sets out (a) to replicate their findings and (b) to extend their study by analyzing more recent trends. We compare over 60 U.S. industries between 1987 and 2018 by regressing IT intensity on three different measures of industry competition: sales turbulence, industry concentration, and performance spread of gross profit margin. The regression models indicate that industries that spend more on IT still display relatively higher competitive dynamics, but that, after a strong uprise between 1995 to 2005, there has been a substantial slowdown and trend reversal after 2005. Together, this indicates both a shift from information technology being a strategic diﬀerentiator to a strategic "must-have" commodity in firms and an indication that the majority of digital innovations are rather of a combinatorial than of a disruptive nature as they help top performers to continuously build out their superior market position.

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2021)
Towards a Conceptual Model of Digital Innovation Success
Proceedings of the 21st ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Virtual Event, Germany

View Abstract

Although digital innovation (‘DI’) is a popular research field in these days, when it comes to innovation success, it has not yet been properly grounded in theory. Accordingly, there are problems in identifying both generic and context-specific critical success factors (CSF) within the innovation process. Existing literature has focused mainly on the development of dynamic capabilities. We argue that to build digital innovation capabilities, an organization must first understand and support the actions of those who are actively developing DI. To uncover specific actions that constitute CSFs within every dimension of the digital innovation process, we follow a multiple case study design with seven companies from different industries. Here, we build upon the ‘digital innovation framework’ which defines the process of creating DI across four dimensions (initiate, develop, implement, exploit). Based on these case studies, we build a conceptual model consisting of digital innovation actions, critical success factors and contingency factors. The proposed model serves as a starting point for future research, which should focus on a detailed quantitative investigation of the cause-effect relationships and the contingency factors to validate our propositions.

Hildebrandt, Y. and Beimborn, D. (2021)
Ambiguous, Misinterpreted, But Essential: Conceptualization of the "Digital Mindset"
Proceedings of the 81 Academy of Management Conference, Virtual Event

Hildebrandt, Y. and Beimborn, D. (2021)
The Intangible Key for Digitalization: Conceptualizing and Measuring the "Digital Mindset"
Proceedings of the 2021 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Virtual Event, Germany

Frey, J., Holotiuk, F., and Beimborn, D. (2020)
Debating Digital Innovation: A Literature Review on Realizing Value from Digital Innovation
Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Potsdam, Germany

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Digital innovation has developed into an intensely discussed area of research in the information systems field. While there is much research that focuses on the description of the phenomenon, the evidence for value creation that digital innovation can enable for organizations is less synthesized and visible. With this in mind, we conduct a literature review to identify innovations based on information technology and to answer the research question of where digital innovation can create economic value for organizations. Our synthesis depicts existing value dimensions of digital innovation with the help of five value loci. Moreover, we derive a set of white spots and research directions that surface three potential avenues for future research. We contribute to digital innovation research in that we (1) analyze and synthesize the existing digital innovation value literature and (2) propose avenues for future digital innovation value research.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2020)
Governing the Competing Concerns of Digital Innovation
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Hyderabad, India

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Digital innovation creates four competing concerns in which the changes necessary to pursue digital innovation are opposed to existing logics and routines within a firm. Re-viewing extant research that highlights IT governance mechanisms as powerful tool to manage such tensions, we identify 41 governance mechanisms related to innovation. This allows us to discuss in detail which governance mechanisms help managing specific com-peting concerns of digital innovation. We close by developing six research questions that highlight promising avenues for future research on digital innovation governance.

Seeher, V., Beimborn, D., and Holotiuk, F. (2020)
How to Evaluate the Performance of the Chief Digital Officer - A Delphi Study on KPIs for CDOs
Proceedings of the Twenty-Eigth European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), A Virtual AIS Conference

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More and more companies are appointing Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) to assume responsibility for digital innovation in and digital transformation of their business activities. However, as this role is relatively new, understanding their precise role and responsibilities varies widely and the assessment of their performance does not follow any standards yet. This study aims to identify which Key Perfor- mance Indicators (KPIs) are relevant for measuring the performance of CDOs and how these KPIs differ for different types of CDOs, which we derived from the literature. To identify the KPIs and their relevance, we performed a Delphi study with a panel consisting of 38 experts. As a result, different sets of KPIs were developed for each CDO type. Whereas the KPIs for the ‘Evangelist’ emphasize at- tention to internal aspects, the ‘Marketer’s’ KPIs have a clear customer focus. For the ‘Innovator’, KPIs regarding new digital ideas and developments are most relevant while the ‘Orchestrator’s’ KPIs reflect overarching digital responsibility. As a conclusion, the identification of these KPI sets might be of great interest to CDOs and their superiors, as an inspiration on how to guide and govern their work, prove their performance, and justify their often scrutinised position.

Frey, J., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2020)
Achieving Digital-enabled Strategic Agility Through Resolving Tensions in Scaled-Agile Organizations
Proceedings of the EJIS Special Issue Workshop (Pre-AMCIS Workshop), Salt Lake City, USA
(Research in Progress)

Mittermeier, F., Hund, A., and Beimborn, D. (2020)
Digital Company Builders - Exploring a new Phenomenon of Start-up Incubation
Proceedings of the Special Interest Group on Digital Innovation, Transformation and Entrepreneurship (DITE), Cologne, Germany
(Research in Progress)

von Preußen, P. and Beimborn, D. (2019)
Turning Mentoring Around – A Case-based Analysis of the Outcomes of Digital Reverse Mentoring
Proceedings of the 25th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Cancún, Mexico

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Firms have recently employed digital reverse mentoring programs in which young and digitally affine employees are paired as mentors with mentees from senior management to foster their digital mindset. This paper sheds light into the outcomes and success factors of such reverse mentoring relationships by conducting a qualitative analysis of nine reverse mentoring pairs in four different organizations. Using an exploratory approach, we identified 31 different outcomes which are clustered along themes (e.g., technologies/trends or corporate culture), behavior (ranging from just creating awareness to sustainably changed behavior), and scope (ranging from personal to organization-wide impact). Moreover, we extracted success factors that showed to be important preconditions for making digital reverse mentoring successful.

Segert, T., Holotiuk, F., and Beimborn, D. (2019)
The Complexity Trap – Limits of IT Flexibility for Supporting Organizational Agility in Decentralized Organizations
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Siegen, Germany

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In times of digitalization, organizations are transforming to become more agile. Decentralizing decision-making to lower levels of the organization allows firms to better detect changes in their environment and to sense new opportunities. Simultaneously, the digital transformation of a firm is increasingly relying on a flexible IT function. This study explores how decentralization of decision-making power increases organizational agility and to what extent this relationship is dependent on IT flexibility. We conducted a quantitative study using two rounds of surveys with 123 respondents from the consulting industry. Based on covariance-based SEM, we find that too much flexibility of the IT function in combination with decentralized decision-rights creates a complexity trap and, thus, decreases organizational agility. These findings carry several theoretical contributions for organizational agility research and shed new light on the role of IT flexibility for digital transformation.

Holotiuk, F. and Beimborn, D. (2019)
Temporal Ambidexterity: How Digital Innovation Labs Connect Exploration and Exploitation for Digital Innovation
Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS)

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Firms apply ambidexterity to balance between exploration and exploitation. Exploration enables (digital) innovation when digital technologies are incorporated. Exploitation leverages innovations and generates long-term business value. However, existing forms of ambidexterity are insufficient for digital innovation and firms are implementing new organizational forms, such as digital innovation labs (DILs), to foster digital innovation. We studied the DILs of nine different firms to analyze their contribution to ambidexterity. Comparing these cases regarding intra-organizational exchange and integration, we find that the implementation of DILs yields a new form of ambidexterity. The empirical evidence shows that ambidexterity is achieved through a dedicated unit for exploration (i.e. the DIL) and the temporary transfer of people between the DIL and the operational parts of the firm. Based on this conceptualization we term this new form ‘temporal ambidexterity’. We uncover that temporal ambidexterity is suited better for digital innovation.

Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2019)
Innovating under Uncertainty: Knowledge Recombination in the Digital Era
Proceedings of the Professional Development Workshop (PDW), Munich, Germany

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The creation of innovation is one of the central reasons why organizations exist. Proponents of the knowledge-based view argue that especially the ability to recombine knowledge is crucial for the creation of innovation. Today, digital technology is deeply embedded in most organizational processes and market offerings, which has enabled new ways for organizations to access knowledge from within and outside the organizational boundaries. Yet, heterogeneous knowledge is more difficult to recombine. To successfully recombine heterogeneous knowledge, organizations create digital innovation labs (DILs) to foster digital innovation. By studying DILs we are able to provide several contributions: (1) a more granular understanding of knowledge recombination in an increasingly digitized environment. We find that knowledge recombination encompasses several phases, in which different types of knowledge are prioritized. (2) Insights into how DILs must be set up in order to enable knowledge recombination. (3) Identification of specific mechanisms, which are used for different purposes during different phases of recombination.

Hund, A., Holotiuk, F., Wagner, H., and Beimborn, D. (2019)
Knowledge Management in the Digital Era: How Digital Innovation Labs Facilitate Knowledge Recombination
Proceedings of the 27th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Stockholm-Uppsala

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Knowledge is widely regarded as a crucial organizational resource. In the pursuit of finding novel solutions to problems, organizations combine and re-combine knowledge and resources in different ways. This ultimately leads to innovation, which often is viewed as the ultimate reason d'être for organizations. While there exists a rich literature strand on knowledge management, the pervasive digitalization of entire industries creates new challenges. Different areas of knowledge are converging and organizations struggle with managing the rapidly increasing amount of heterogeneous knowledge. An increasingly popular approach to master the challenges of knowledge creation and recombination in the arena of digital innovation is the creation of Digital Innovation Labs (DIL). Although DILs provide a promising approach to the current challenges of innovating in a digital environment, we have only limited insights about DILs. To uncover how DILs facilitate knowledge management and recombination we conducted several case studies in different industries. Our results show how knowledge enters the DIL, how knowledge is applied and recombined and how knowledge is exchanged between units. Most importantly, we identify six key mechanisms that DILs use to master the challenge of knowledge management and innovation in a digital era.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2019)
The Creation of Digital Innovation: Internal Reorganization, External Networks and Organizational Knowledge
Proceedings of the 79th Academy of Management Conference, Boston, MA, USA

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Digital innovation already disrupted numerous industries and organizations are challenged to align their innovation efforts with the new reality of a digitized environment. We examine how internal reorganization and the external network of an organization are related to organizational knowledge and the eventual creation of digital innovation. To develop digital innovation, firms tap a variety of heterogeneous backgrounds to exploit the ease with which different knowledge fields can be accessed and recombined in a digitized environment. Therefore, the actors involved in the development process come from different sources from within and without the firm as the inclusion of digital technology challenges previously non-digital organizational innovation logics. We develop a conceptual model, which takes the characteristics of digital innovation into account.

Hund, A., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2018)
Organizational Reconfiguration and Digital Innovation Success: A Review and Novel Perspectives
Proceedings of the JAIS Theory Development Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), San Francisco, CA, USA
(Research in Progress)

Leyer, M., Beimborn, D., and Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J. (2018)
Will Users of Process Management Systems Be More Innovative? A Study on Process Innovation and Process Orientation in the Financial Industry
Proceedings of the ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Buffalo - Niagara Falls, USA

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How can the involvement of employees in process innovation be supported and fostered? In this study, we investigate how the use of business process management systems - tools to design, visualize and document business processes - leads to employees (= users) become more process oriented and thus get engaged in process innovation. Using data from a large-scale survey with 171 participants from the financial industry, we show that BPM system usage mainly drives users' involvement in process innovation implementation and championing but less in the true idea generation. Thus, our study contributes to the IT benefits literature in shifting the focus to individual use and 'softer', but yet highly important outcome dimensions (process innovation).

Hund, A., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2018)
Organizational Reconfiguration and Knowledge Recombination for Digital Innovation
Proceedings of the Academy of Management Specialized Conference on Big Data and Managing in a Digital Economy, Surrey, UK

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We address how organizational reconfiguration and external knowledge leverage is related to a firms' knowledge recombination ability and digital innovation success. To develop digital inno-vation, firms tap a variety of heterogeneous backgrounds to exploit the ease with which different knowledge fields can be represented as digital artifacts. We conceptualize that firms need to be aware of a fluid and dynamic recombination space that faces frequent adaptions and great time pressures incurred by customer demand. Therefore, the actors involved in the development process come from different sources from within and without the firm as the inclusion of digital technology challenges previously non-digital organizational innovation logics. We further theorize that a climate conducive to collaboration within the recombination space motivates all actors to engage in knowledge recombination.

Reitz, A., Jentsch, C., and Beimborn, D. (2018)
How to decompress the Pressure - The moderating Effect of IT Flexibility on the negative Impact of Governmental Pressure on Business Agility
Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island, Hawaii

View Abstract

In times of digital transformation banks need to behave agile and increase their speed in IT. At the same time, they are bound by an increasing number of regulatory rules at an increasing pace that force them to act carefully. Since governments frequently introduce new regulatory terms, especially in the finance sector, regulation is a changing phenomenon itself, which forces banks to adjust and change their systems constantly. To manage these challenges, we argue that successful businesses need to have a flexible IT architecture in place. This should enable them to update and reconfigure their systems in a cost effective and prompt manner. By doing this, they should be able to compensate for the regulatory pressure and remain agile. Based on an analysis of 119 survey results, we find that business agility is indeed lower for higher regulatory pressure and that this effect is mitigated by a flexible IT.

Holotiuk, F., Beimborn, D., and Jentsch, C. (2018)
The Determinants and Role of Agility in Digital Organizations
Forthcoming in: Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Portsmouth, UK

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The changes in the business environment due to digital technologies and an increasing pace of innovation, have to be reflected in the organizational design of firms. In particular, agility has been put forward as an approach to cope with upcoming changes and to ensure organizational effectiveness in times of digitalization. We conceptualize agility as two types - detecting and reacting agility. In this paper, we analyze the organizational design and identify determinants for these two types of agility within the design. In our empirical study, we identified agility as a determinant of organizational effectiveness and discuss the relevance of agility in new forms of organizing in today's business environment. Our research is based on a quantitative study in the professional services industry where we conducted a survey with 217 respondents. The findings of our study carry theoretical contributions regarding the determinants of agility in the organizational design and the further delineation of detecting and reacting agility. Both of them carry essential importance for the design of digital organizations. Building on that, we derive managerial implications that yield the need to update the organizational design. In addition, we determine new forms of organizing and anchor agility as a management objective for digital organizations.

Jentsch, C., Beimborn, D., and Reitz, A. (2017)
Templates for joined work systems - How business process modularity and IT flexibility enable mutual understanding among business and IT
Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Seoul, South Korea

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To increase the performance of IT-intensive organizations, a mutual understanding between business and IT professionals has proven to be crucially important. In turn, architecture management - leading to modularization and flexibilization of an organization's IT infrastructure - drives the level of mutual understanding. While previous studies agree on this finding, conceptualizations on mutual understanding are quite dispersed. In our study, we focus on the differing effects of business process modularity and IT flexibility on operational and strategic aspects of mutual understanding. We combine two theoretical lenses to describe this linkage: the template theory to explain the sense-making process and the work system theory to consider different perspectives on a business system. Based on 119 survey results, we find that modularity does not enable business/IT mutual understanding per se. It rather depends on a perfect match of functional and technical aspects. Thus, we determined limited effects of architecture management on mutual understanding.

Jentsch, C., Reitz, A., and Beimborn, D. (2017)
The Impact of Process and IT Modularity for Mutual Understanding among Business and IT
Proceedings of the ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Bengaluru, India

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Due to increasing specialization of business models, business systems nowadays can be very complex. To handle the extensive amount of information in a complex business system, the system needs to be supported by an appropriate IT system. However, for the IT unit it can be a challenging task to implement an appropriate IT system in complex business environment. In our research, we argue that mutual understanding among business and IT plays a critical role in the successful management of the business system. To achieve a mutual understanding, the complexity needs to be reduced by a modularization of the system. In our empirical study, based on 119 survey responses, we found that process modularity only in combination with an IT architecture that matches the modular process structure enables a profound mutual understanding. While modular business processes enable mutual understanding of the business strategy, an IT architecture which matches the modular process facilitates mutual understanding of the business process.

Dürr, S., Wagner, H., Weitzel, T., and Beimborn, D. (2017)
Navigating Digital Innovation - The Complementary Effect of Organizational and Knowledge Recombination
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, St. Gallen, CH

Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J., Beimborn, D., and Leyer, M. (2016)
Examining the Impact of Business Process Management System Use on Employees' Process Orientation
Forthcoming in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Dublin, Ireland

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Many companies aim to switch from a function towards a process orientation, as the latter provides many benefits for organizations. However, many of these projects fail because of a missing process-oriented mindset among employees. To create the relevant mindset and foster process-oriented thinking, organizations can apply several learning modes. Another promising approach is the use of a business process management (BPM) system to gain a process orientation among employees. Our study aims to examine the role of a BPM system along with job construals (a high perception of embeddedness of their own tasks in the overall process) as a mediator regarding the process orientation of employees. We use data from a survey of 1,170 employees of a multinational company to show that the use of a BPM system as well as job construals has a significant positive effect on employees' process orientation.

Jentsch, C. and Beimborn, D. (2016)
It is all about the Game - An Exploratory Study on the Impact of Task Characteristics on the Dimensions of Business/IT Shared
Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 24nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)

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While research and practitioners agree that there needs to be shared understanding (SU) between business and IT in any type of collaboration to achieve high performance, empirical studies ex-amining SU have always focused on specific contexts. Thus, the literature has so far remained silent about a more generalized concept of SU that can be applied to different research contexts - like strategic planning, software development projects, or IT operations. Based on a generic multi-dimensional conceptualization of the SU construct, our research objective is to analyze the influence of two contextual characteristics - complexity and relevance - of a collaborative task between business and IT on the importance of these different SU dimensions. In this explorative research we exploit data from 21 case studies, in which we analyze the formation and influence of SU dimensions related to the context of the collaborative task. We find that different aspects in the conceptualization of shared understanding become more (or less) important when changing the task characteristics. Thus, our findings indicate that the importance of SU cannot be discussed separately from the practical context in which SU is created and utilized.

Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J., Kloppenburg, M., and Beimborn, D. (2016)
The Effect of Process Ownership Assignment on Business Process Standardization Success
Proceedings of the 22nd Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Diego (CA)
(Research in Progress)

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Many organizations aim to standardize their processes to increase performance. Organizational governance is an important driver for successful business process standardization. A central role within this governance structure is performed by the process owner who is responsible for the definition of processes. In this paper, the effect of different possible configurations of assigning process ownership in an existing organizational multi-level hierarchical structure is analyzed by conducting an embedded case study. The most important finding was that in most cases process ownership was assigned to a person who was already line manager for a single business unit which was responsible for executing a part of or the whole process. Thus, responsibility for the process itself and for the required resources (e.g., personnel) was combined. Based on these findings, we plan to conduct a study to analyze the impact of the different process ownership assignments on the success of process standardization.

Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J., Beimborn, D., and Eckhardt, A. (2016)
Examining the Influence of Perceived Job Characteristics on Employees' Process Orientation
Proceedings of the 24th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Istanbul, Turkey

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A lot of companies struggle by shifting the focus from function orientation to process orientation, especially due to missing process-oriented thinking and behavior of their employees. While, enhancing employees' knowledge about processes by training and empowerment has been considered as the sole adjusting screw to influence process orientation, the characteristics of the jobs, in which the employees work, were not considered in the same extent. As the daily job and its related characteristics represent the core of individuals' working life, we examine in our paper how these perceived job characteristics influence employees' process orientation. Therefore, we develop a research model on the influence of five job characteristics - autonomy, feedback, skill variety, task identity, task significance - on employees' process orientation and evaluate the model by using data from a field survey with 191 employees of a global service company of the aviation industry. The results depict that autonomy, feedback and task significance are all significant predictors for individuals' process orientation. By considering job characteristics, organizations can successfully shift from function orientation towards process orientation.

Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J. and Beimborn, D. (2015)
Investigating the Role of Inertia in Business Process Standardization Initiatives
Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Fort Worth, USA
(Research in Progress)

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Business process standardization (BPS) is an important instrument for transforming an organization from function orientation to process orientation. But, standardization initiatives' implementation success is highly volatile. One major reason for failure is the behavior and the underlying job-related attitude of the affected employees. Recent research examining BPS implementation success proposes that different factors of employees' current jobs (e.g., job characteristics) influence employees' acceptance of BPS-induced changes. Besides these motivational aspects, IS research has shown that non-adoption of a system is influenced by inertia of the employees. Our research-in-progress paper draws on these findings and aims to analyze the role of inertia in the context of BPS. The contribution of this paper lies in developing a theoretical model for understanding the determinants of individual inertia in the context of BPS. By knowing the influential factors, we will be able to derive adjustable screws for practitioners to successfully implement process standardization initiatives.

Kloppenburg, M., Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J., Beimborn, D., and Bögle, M. (2015)
Leading 20,000+ employees by a process-oriented management system - insights to process management at Lufthansa Technik Group
Proceedings of the 13th Business Process Management Workshops (used to be: Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM)), Innsbruck, Austria
Best Industry Paper

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As technical division of the Lufthansa Group, Lufthansa Technik and its 30 subsidiaries have to fulfill a wide variety of legislative and normative requirements. To demonstrate and ensure compliance with these requirements, Lufthansa Technik introduced the process-oriented integrated management system IQ MOVE and modeled a wide range of its processes in a plain and simple to understand methodology. Primary target group of the system are the employees who shall find all relevant procedures quickly and easily. To achieve this vision, the system is designed to increase involvement of all relevant roles (i.e., process owners, process architects, process managers, employees, and process modelers) into the creation of the content. A complementary governance model, the Framework for Assignment of Responsibilities (FAR+), enables a clear assignment of process management tasks and thus helps trengthen process management abilities and sustainability of their implementation. Based on IQ MOVE, Lufthansa Technik is able to facilitate process standardization and to lead 20,000+ employees around the world in a process-oriented way.

Lüders, P., Jentsch, C., and Beimborn, D. (2015)
Measuring Outsourcing Relationship Quality: Towards a Social Network Analysis Approach
Proceedings of the 21th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Puerto Rico, USA

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Outsourcing initiatives are complex undertakings requiring careful management of the client/vendor relationship. While monitoring the vendor's performance is a common practice, insight into the status of the 'soft' aspects of the relationship, such as trust, is often not available, although research highlights the social aspects as a critical success factor. However, monitoring the softer facets' quality is difficult: Vendor managers track the status of the soft aspects, if at all, using survey tools among involved staff. This has shortcomings because it does not only capture subjective perceptions, but also interrupts the daily business of the participants. To develop a more objective instrument that collects data without interfering daily business, we draw on social network analysis. We suggest an approach that will eventually allow managers to monitor relationship quality in an efficient and objective way. The results suggest metrics to measure the soft factors of a relationship, such as trust and commitment.

Lajtkep, F., Beimborn, D., Jentsch, C., and Stimmer, J. (2015)
I choose you - Developing a rating system for software outsourcing arrangements of SMEs
Proceedings of the 21th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Puerto Rico, USA

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The market for outsourcing of IT services constantly grows with one of the major outsourced services being software development, often to emerging economies. Even though the benefits of outsourced software development can be an important incentive there still exist great risks especially for smaller businesses that generally do not obtain the necessary experiences to manage or even find an adequate provider. Thus, the objective of our study is to compile a holistic framework that covers all relevant aspects in the evaluation of a software provider in the context of outsourcing of software development. In order to reuse already proven evaluation concepts the paper identifies nine useful models for evaluating performance or service quality. Based on those, a dedicated model is developed which takes further practical factors in consideration. Through a survey with outsourcing experts the relative importance of the included dimensions and factors were determined.

Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J., Fischer, D., Beimborn, D., and Kloppenburg, M. (2015)
How Social Software Can Support Business Process Management - Developing a Framework
Forthcoming in: Proceedings of the 21th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Puerto Rico

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Solving complex tasks by collaborative teams is an important organizational capability. Beside traditional team work, an organization's collective intelligence can be supported by social software technologies. Within business process management (BPM), social software can be used to support the different lifecycle steps of a business process. In this paper, we introduce a framework which shows possible opportunities for social software to contribute to effective BPM. An expert workshop was conducted to receive a first evaluation of the framework. The combination of social software and BPM is supposed to improve the functional performance of IT systems for BPM and the employees' acceptance for BPM systems.

Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J., Beimborn, D., and Eckhardt, A. (2015)
Analyzing the impact of job characteristics on employees' acceptance of process standardization
Forthcoming in: Proceedings of the 23rd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Münster

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Business Process Standardization (BPS) leads to significant changes in employees' working environment which affect acceptance for such initiatives. Organizational psychology and management research have examined the influence of work design on employee behavior (e.g., turnover). Based on that, we develop a model to analyze the impact of job characteristics, such as skill variety, autonomy, or task significance, on BPS acceptance. We surveyed employees of a non-profit organization during a process standardization initiative. As main contribution, this research shows that skill variety is the most important job characteristic for determining BPS acceptance.

Jentsch, C., Schlosser, F., and Beimborn, D. (2015)
Applying a configurational approach for explaining the role of relationship quality for successful outsourcing arrangements
Proceedings of the 9th Global Sourcing Workshop, La Thuile, Italy

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Relationship quality dimensions like trust or commitment have been proven to be crucial determinants for the success of outsourcing arrangements. Most previous empirical studies focus on the success of relationship quality dimensions within a specific contextual outsourcing arrangement. We argue that the importance and formation of each relationship quality dimension highly depend on the contextual background of the particular study. To substantiate this contingency argument, we conducted 16 interviews with managers in different types of out-sourcing arrangements and questioned them about their understanding of relationship quality. Linking managers' statements with their outsourcing background, we found several configurational patterns that describe the different roles of relationship quality for successful outsourcing

Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J., Eckhardt, A., and Beimborn, D. (2015)
A Theoretical Perspective on Meaningfulness of Work and the Success of Business Process Standardization Initiatives
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Osnabrück

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Business Process Standardization (BPS) leads to organizational changes, which are often faced with employee resistance. To make BPS initiatives successful, the 'human resource' has to be taken into consideration and with it, the job process fulfilled by them, their needs, and their work environment. The objective of this research is to analyze the role of employees affected by BPS initiatives and their perceptions of their work they are doing as part of the processes to be standardized. Based on job characteristics theory and the work-role fit concept, we develop a research model theorizing the role of these concepts for the acceptance of BPS initiatives. As main theoretical contribution, this research explains how employees' job-related attitudes toward their own work and the collaborations with others determine their (non-)openness towards BPS initiatives, while it will also guide managers in incorporating the 'right' people into a BPS project.

Jentsch, C., Schlosser, F., and Beimborn, D. (2014)
From Strategic to Operational Collaborations: The Divergent Nature of Business/IT Shared Understanding
Proceedings of the 20th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Savannah (GA)

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The success of any business/IT collaboration depends on the shared understanding between business and IT professionals (B/IT-SU) on all organizational layers. However, most research on B/IT-SU merely focuses either on top management level or information system development (ISD) teams. This isolated research led to divergent conceptualizations of B/IT-SU. While studies on strategic collaboration concentrate on B/IT-SU of the objectives or the role of IT, ISD research postulates shared language as main B/IT-SU component. In this paper, we build on major findings of B/IT-SU research, and develop an integrated concept of the relevant dimensions that should be studied conjointly to provide a more consistent view of B/IT-SU. Furthermore, we discuss our concept from three perspectives: (1) strategic collaboration; (2) project collaboration; and (3) operational collaboration. The results provide insights into the key dimensions of B/IT-SU in regard to the distinctive hierarchical layer, respectively, and serve as initial foundation for further investigations of B/IT-SU.

Jentsch, C., Beimborn, D., Jungnickl, C., and Renner, G. (2014)
How to Measure Shared Understanding among Business and IT
Proceedings of the 2014 Academy of Management Conference, Philadelphia (PA)
Best Paper Proceedings

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A high level of shared understanding between business and IT is a critical success factor for effective IT usage in organizations. Hence, many studies in the Information Systems field have included shared business/IT understanding as a determinant in their research models. Most studies use a very compact instrument, measuring, typically, a one-dimensional construct that only addresses single facets of the overall concept. While most of these studies fulfill statistical validation requirements, content validity of the construct is seldom addressed. In this paper, we propose that more cognitive methods are needed to develop measures for complex constructs like shared understanding. The goal of our study is the development of a content validity proven survey instrument that measures the degree of shared business/IT understanding in a multi-faceted manner. In this paper, we adopt an innovative method of content validation by comparing survey results with data from a cognitive measurement approach (Repertory Grid Technique). We provide results from two studies: one experiment with students and a pilot field study with practitioners. After further refinements, the resulting instrument can support research on shared business/IT understanding and practitioners who aim at monitoring the relationship between business and IT units in their organizations.

Jentsch, C. and Beimborn, D. (2014)
What Matters in Business/IT Shared Understanding? Development of a Unified Construct
Proceedings of the 22nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Tel Aviv, Israel
(Research in Progress)

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The mutual understanding, shared knowledge, or cognition between business and IT units has been discussed frequently and in wide range of fields in IS research. On the other hand, we are still lacking a consistent and comprehensive conceptualization of what shared business/IT understanding is actually about, and previous studies have usually only taken some aspects of it into account. These often single-dimensional determinations represent an incomplete picture of shared business/IT understanding and thus can potentially lead to wrong or incomplete findings and implications. This research in progress steps into this gap and develops a comprehensive construct of shared business/IT understanding to provide future research with a unified concept that can be applied to various IS research contexts. In this paper, we discuss current conceptualizations of shared business/IT understanding and integrate them to a unified multidimensional construct, which will be validated and adjusted in future empirical research.

Jentsch, C. and Beimborn, D. (2014)
Shared Understanding Among Business and IT - A Literature Review and Research Agenda
Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Tel Aviv, Israel

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Researchers have acknowledged that shared understanding between business and IT is a crucial factor to achieve high performing teams, well aligned units, and superior business value of IT. In addition, they agree, that this determinant of social alignment is very complex and difficult to govern. However, a goal-oriented governance will only be possible if the target is clearly and adequate defined. In this paper, we will provide a structured review of the IS literature addressing the question how shared business/IT understanding has been conceptualized and used in the various fields of our research community. We identify strong differences between and within these research domains regarding the conceptualization. Primarily, we find that most of the papers just analyze single aspects of shared understanding but miss the "big picture". Our findings can point researchers to potential lacks of conceptualization of Business/IT Shared Understanding in their research domain and will help to cross borders among different research strands, which all will potentially profit from a more holistic and comprehensive investigation of shared business/IT understanding and its role for effective collaboration among business and IT.

Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J. and Beimborn, D. (2014)
What You Can Do to Inhibit Business Process Standardization
Proceedings of the 20th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Savannah (GA)
(Research in Progress)

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Business process standardization (BPS) has recently got into focus of the BPM literature as a methodology to substantially enable efficiency potentials and therefore improve process performance. So far, the BPS literature has exclusively focused on success factors for BPS and relevant capabilities. By contrast, inhibiting factors have not been sufficiently considered, yet, but success factors respectively enablers and inhibitors are not simply the opposites. The objective of this paper is to identify factors which inhibit BPS and to deduce management actions which help successfully standardize processes. To answer this question, we study the case of an international process standardization project in a global maintenance company. We derive a set of inhibiting factors for BPS. Thereby, some of these inhibitors have to be considered for any organizational change project while others are BPS specific. The specific inhibitors are analyzed in detail and discussed by mirroring them to non-BP standardization research.

von Stetten, A., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2014)
The Four 'W's of Face-To-Face - Suggesting an Enriched Perspective on Nearshoring Relationship Management
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGMIS Conference on Computers and People Research, Singapore

von Stetten, A. and Beimborn, D. (2014)
Analyzing the Effect of Proximity on Clan Control: Results from a Case Study Series on IS Nearshore Outsourcing
Proceedings of the 8th Global Sourcing Workshop, Val-d'Isére, France

Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J., Beimborn, D., and Kloppenburg, M. (2013)
Developing a Procedure Model for Business Process Standardization
Proceedings of the 34th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Milan, Italy
(Research in Progress)

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Firms are focusing more closely on standardizing or homogenizing instances of a particular business process across different business units or locations. Our paper introduces research in progress on a business process standardization (BPS) procedure model that guides firms in conducting effective BPS firm-wide. This model is currently being developed and tested by applying it to a business process at Lufthansa Technik, following a design science cycle and taking an action research approach. This paper shows how we are following the good-practice guidelines of design science and how we intend to evaluate the applicability and effectiveness of the model. Eventually, we expect this model to contribute significantly to extant research on BPS, which has to date focused on the outcomes of BPS and on the contingencies of BPS effectiveness rather than making prescriptive suggestions for reaping substantial process efficiency gains in large and decentralized firms.

Moos, B., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2013)
Innovation Success and Absorptive Capacity: The Combined Influence of Information Systems and Combinative Capabilities - A Theoretical Model
Proceedings of the 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Chicago (IL)

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Innovation is important for a firm's success and has been shown to be essentially influenced by absorptive capacity (ACAP). ACAP has been conceptualized by various dimensions that, in turn, rest on diverse antecedents. Currently, little is known about the impact of information systems (IS) on these dimensions of ACAP. Drawing on the complementarity argument that IS will only render an effect if jointly employed with complementary organizational capabilities, we develop a research model that elucidates the interplay of organizational capabilities, ACAP, and their effect on innovation success. In particular, we deal with combinative capabilities by splitting these organizational capabilities into mechanisms and control modes. Addressing calls in the literature and from industry, this model contributes to our understanding of how to build and improve a firm's innovation capabilities by theorizing combinative capabilities and IS as antecedents of ACAP.

Beimborn, D. and Palitza, M. (2013)
Enterprise App Stores for Mobile Applications - Development of a Benefits Framework
Proceedings of the 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Chicago (IL)

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Mobile devices and apps have changed the way consumers perceive and use IT. As mobile apps are easy to use and to procure, they have begun to enter the corporate world "under the radar" outside of the control of the IT unit. Employees bring their own mobile devices (BYOD) and apps to do their work - which raises various problems. As a counter-measure, firms have launched BYOD programs and set up Enterprise App Stores (EAS) where their employees can install certified and licensed apps under the firm's control. This paper aims to take a first step in scientifically exploring this new concept of EAS and exploratively develops a benefits framework which can serve as foundation for the conceptualization and empirical investigation of EAS value and adoption by future works.

Bergmann (geb. Kettenbohrer), J., Beimborn, D., and Kloppenburg, M. (2013)
Developing a Governance Model for Successful Business Process Standardization
Proceedings of the 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Chicago (IL)

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Standardization of business processes is considered as one of the most important instruments in the context of BPM. Research has mostly focused on the impact of business process standardization on business process performance while only a few attempts have been made to determine the success factors for effective process standardization, yet. However, a major issue in any standardization initiatives is to convince decision makers to follow the standard. This is particular true when it comes to process standardization: how can a firm be sure that its different divisions have implemented the process standard and that the employees adhere to the rules? In this paper, we propose a governance model that consists of a role concept for successful process standardization and provide first steps of evaluation through a qualitative case study with an international aviation company.

Beimborn, D. and Wolf, M. (2013)
Challenges in Offshore Outsourcing Relationship Management - A Peruvian Perspective
Proceedings of the 19th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Chicago (IL)

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In this paper, we examine challenges related with offshore outsourcing to Peru and their effect on relationship quality and outsourcing success. In three case studies, we interviewed clients and providers about their experiences with software development outsourcing from Anglo-American countries (U.S., Canada, Scotland) to Peru. We identified particular challenges which have at least a minor negative impact on relationship quality and outsourcing success, however, are manageable - the related management actions were extracted from the cases, as well. We argue that Peru becomes an interesting player in the global offshoring market and which particularities practitioners should be aware of when considering outsourcing to Peru.

Wiesinger, A. and Beimborn, D. (2013)
How management actions affect social exchanges in outsourcing relationships
Proceedings of the 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui (HI)

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This paper explores the effect of management actions on social exchanges in outsourcing relationships. Social exchanges between individuals constitute relationship quality between client and vendor, which is an important factor of outsourcing success. Based on the interaction approach, we develop a framework for management actions entailing three dimensions: the exchange targeted, the organization targeted and the effect on social exchanges. We apply the framework to studying a comprehensive case of an outsourcing relationship full of conflict. This proof-of-concept shows that it is vital to consider side effects of management actions on social exchanges as they indirectly influence outsourcing success.

Beimborn, D. (2012)
Considering the Relative Relevance of Outsourcing Relationship Quality
Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Barcelona, Spain

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Outsourcing relationship quality (ORQ) has shown to be an important construct in previous research on outsourcing effectiveness. But, while there are various works that have conceptualized and operationalized ORQ as a rich and multi-dimensional construct, other studies which consider ORQ as (usually mediating) component of their theoretical models make hardly use of those works but often use less rich constructs. The research on hand attempts bridging the gap between those two groups of works. A multi-dimensional ORQ construct is used to evaluate the relative importance of different ORQ dimensions, such as commitment, trust, etc., in regard to different dimensions of outsourcing success (overall satisfaction, goal achievement, service quality). For example, while many studies use trust as proxy for ORQ, our study shows that, depending on the outcome variable, other ORQ dimensions might be more relevant and should be used instead or additionally. Thus, the main contribution is identifying those ORQ dimensions which are most relevant regarding different outsourcing success variables. Future studies on outsourcing success factors will have a better ground to argue for or against using certain ORQ dimensions in their studies. Moreover, the study sensitizes managers for different distinct ORQ dimensions and their importance for a successful outsourcing relationship.

Wagner, H., Moos, B., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
The Contagious Power of Innovativeness: A Comparison of Different Types of Firm Partners
Proceedings of the Academy of Management Conference, Boston (MA)

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Continuously innovating is known to provide firms with a competitive edge over rival firms. As innovations are often created in networks, a firm's partners exert an influence on the focal firm's innovative outcome. Although many studies deal with innovation networks and open innovation as a means to explore external knowledge and exploit knowledge externally e.g., dealing with characteristics of partnership agreements, there is virtually no research regarding characteristics of external partners. Namely, whether a focal firm's partners are innovative themselves and what the effects of this innovativeness on a focal firm's innovative outcome might be. This study considers different types of partners such as customers and suppliers and deals with the differential impact of partners` innovativeness on a focal firm's knowledge stock, absorptive capacity (ACAP), and innovation success. Drawing on literature on open innovation and ACAP and employing a survey in the manufacturing industry, we show whether a certain partner types' innovativeness is linked to innovation success, knowledge stock, and ACAP of a focal firm. E.g., we found that only the innovativeness of firms organized in clusters is positively and directly linked to innovation success, while customers' innovativeness influences positively and directly certain components of ACAP and knowledge stock.

Moos, B., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2012)
Whom to ask for what knowledge? A comparison of exchange partners and their impact on knowledge types
Proceedings of the 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui (HI)

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From which sources does a firm acquire its knowledge? One of the most important key assets of a firm is its knowledge stock, which can be distinguished into different types of knowledge (e.g., market knowledge). This knowledge stock results from internal and/or from external sources such as exchange partners (e.g., customers). Our paper focuses on these external partners and investigates how the social capital residing in the relationships to these exchange partners is related to the creation of different types of knowledge. Thereby, this research generates practical guidelines for investing in a firm's network. Using data from 161 firms, the results show that (1) customers are the most important source for market knowledge; (2) regarding process, technological and organizational knowledge the combination of R&D partners and customers contributes the most; and (3) for product knowledge no single source being the most important knowledge contributor can be identified.

Moos, B., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Knowledge Domains, Innovation Success, and Knowledge Management Systems: Evidence from an Empirical Study in the Manufacturing Industry
Proceedings of the 2011 IFIP 8.2/Organizations and Society in Information Systems (OASIS) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Shanghai, China

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Knowledge can be seen as a key asset of a firm for coming up with innovations. Therefore the knowledge stock of a firm comprising different domains like market or technological knowledge builds the basis for innovating successfully. Accordingly, the use of knowledge management systems is of great importance for building and enhancing the knowledge stock. The paper analyses the effect of each knowledge domain on innovations success and what the role of knowledge management systems is about within this context. Using data from 225 firms the results show that the use of knowledge management systems influences each knowledge domain positively and that for innovation success technological as well as process knowledge plays the most important role. Thereby our research gives practical guidelines for investigating into specific knowledge domains for generating innovation success.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
An Instrument for Measuring SOA Maturity
Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Shanghai, China
(Research in Progress)

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Existing empirical research on the business value of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) has only measured the extent of SOA adoption - but not maturity - to determine whether typical goals, like increased business agility or IT cost reduction, could be achieved. However, a widely implemented SOA might be less mature than an SOA adopted only in particular areas of the organization, which in turn can lead to mismeasurement and misinterpretation. On the other side, the few existing SOA maturity frameworks that have been specified by previous researchers lack valid operationalizations to make them applicable to empirical research. Ready to use items and scales for evaluating the particular maturity level of an organization are missing. We propose to measure the degree of SOA maturity as a new variable for future empirical research especially in the context of SOA business value. Our analytical approach uses 21 items to classify the maturity of an organization's SOA in seven maturity levels along seven maturity dimensions derived from The Open Group Service Integration Maturity Model (OSIMM). The applicability of this new instrument is shown using data from 121 organizations. The results show that the majority of the organizations has only reached SOA maturity levels two to four. Also, higher levels of SOA maturity highly and significantly increase the realized business value from SOA in terms of business agility, straight through processing (STP), and reduced IT costs. However, the marginal benefits are decreasing for higher levels of SOA maturity in cases of STP and business agility.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Does SOA Create or Require IT/Business Collaboration? Investigating SOA's Potential to Reduce the Gap Between IT and Business
Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Shanghai, China

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By extending the research on identifying the possible benefits of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA), we investigate how SOA delivers its value in an organization. One perspective in the existing literature suggests that service orientation works through creating better IT/Business collaboration as the "services" concept is a shared mental model that reduces the mental gap between IT and business units. Another perspective proposes that SOA benefits require IT/Business collaboration in the first place as IT and business must closely collaborate in order to leverage SOA's potential. We develop a theoretical model to understand how service orientation and close collaboration between IT and business departments are related. An analysis using data from 122 organizations reveals that SOA does not advance - but rather requires - close collaboration between the IT and business departments (i.e., collaboration is a moderator, not mediator, between SOA and its impacts). Therefore, close IT/business collaboration is an important success factor for realizing SOA's value potential and must be established using other means.

von Stetten, A., Beimborn, D., Weitzel, T., and Reiss, Z. (2011)
Managing the Impact of Differences in National Culture on Social Capital in Multinational IT Project Teams - A German Perspective
Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Helsinki, Finland

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How can management handle relationship problems arising from cultural differences in multinational IT project teams? This paper uses a social capital lens to better understand the negative impact of cultural differences in IT project teams. In contrast to many previous works we do not consider cultural differences as a whole but explore the role of the different national culture dimensions. This allows for a more detailed view on cultural differences in a team context and thus contributes to a better understanding about which dimensions of national culture drive relationship problems and which management measures can help to dampen the negative effects. Based on several exploratory cases (6 multinational IT projects in 4 companies, headquartered in Germany), the authors identify three patterns showing typical problems in team social relationships which arise from differences in particular dimensions of national culture. Pattern-specific as well as general management measures, employed to address the culture-driven negative effects, are identified as well.

Moos, B., Beimborn, D., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Knowledge management systems, absorptive capacity, and innovation success
Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Helsinki, Finland

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Innovation is considered a major driving force for the prosperity of firms and entire economies. Research suggests that a firm's capacity to acquire and utilize relevant knowledge from internal and external sources, i.e. its absorptive capacity (ACAP), is decisive for innovation success. But what is the role of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) for a firm's ACAP and innovativeness? Surprisingly, despite lots of mature research on both, ACAP and KMS, there is a gap linking the two. This paper hence asks: What is the effect of knowledge management systems usage on absorptive capacity and innovation success? Responding to recent findings in the management and organizational sciences we develop a theoretical model that links the availability and usage of KMS with a firm's ACAP and its organizational knowledge to explain innovation success. An empirical evaluation using data from 224 manufacturing firms shows that a firm's KMS strongly contributes to its ACAP and catalyzes the innovation process. The results suggest that organizational knowledge is important for innovation success and that successful KMS work through enhancing particular facets of ACAP.

Schroiff, A., Beimborn, D., and Brix, A. (2011)
The Role of Interaction Structures for Client Satisfaction in Application Service Provision Relationships
Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Helsinki, Finland

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This paper presents an embedded exploratory case study of an application service provider's (ASP) client relationships. We focus on the relationship between the vendor and the clients in the ongoing business, which we analyzed based on interviews with client representatives, a pre-interview questionnaire assessing goal achievement, service quality, and relationship quality, and an identification of the real-life social network structure between vendor and client staff (not to be confused with online social networks). We identified two categories of clients fundamentally differing in their expectations for ASP support, which influences the formation of the social network structure between both firms. We found that ASPs should be aware of client differences and differentiate their support services accordingly in order to satisfy their clients in the long run. As main contribution, we extend the Expectation Confirmation Theory by adding a social network-theoretic argument explaining why disconfirmation does not necessarily reduce satisfaction in B2B relationships.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
SOA-Governance für effektive serviceorientierte Architekturen - Eine empirische Studie in der deutschen Dienstleistungswirtschaft
Proceedings of the 10. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Zürich, Schweiz

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Sowohl die jüngere Forschung als auch die Erfahrung von Praktikern postulieren, dass eine SOA-Governance kritisch für eine erfolgreiche Implementierung von serviceorientierten Architekturen (SOA) ist. Dieser Beitrag bietet eine der ersten empirischen Untersuchungen bezüglich der Bedeutung verschiedener SOA-Governance-Mechanismen (Schaffung von Entscheidungsstrukturen, Nutzung von Standards, Verwendung von Servicemanagement- und Serviceentwicklungsprozessen, Qualifikation von Mit-arbeitern und Zusammenarbeit von Fachbereichen) für das Erreichen der gewünschten Modularität und einer hohen Wiederverwendungsrate. Die Ergebnisse basieren auf einer Umfrage unter deutschen Dienstleistungsunternehmen und zeigen, dass eine höhere Wiederverwendung nicht nur direkt durch verschiedene SOA-Governance-Mechanismen, sondern vor allem auch durch eine geeignetere Modularität als Mediator erreicht wird. Außerdem ist die Verwendung bestehender Entscheidungsstrukturen gegenüber der Schaffung neuer Entscheidungsstrukturen in Bezug auf die Erreichung von Modularität und Wiederverwendung zu favorisieren. Zuletzt wird ein starker Einfluss der Verwendung von Standards und klar definierter Servicemanagementprozesse auf die Effektivität von SOA deutlich.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Eine empirische Untersuchung des Wertbeitrages von serviceorientierten Architekturen (SOA)
Proceedings of the 10. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Zürich, Schweiz

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Bisher wurde der Wertbeitrag der Nutzung von serviceorientierten Architekturen (SOA) für Unternehmen weder in der Praxis noch in der Forschung jenseits von Einzelfallbetrachtungen nachgewiesen. Wir untersuchen in einer ersten quantitativen Studie die realisierten Vorteile einer SOA-Nutzung im Hinblick auf Kostenreduktion, unternehmerische Agilität, Datenqualität, Prozess-Monitoring, interne Geschäftsprozessintegration (STP) und unternehmensübergreifende Integration (B2B). Die Analyse von 134 Unternehmensantworten zeigt, dass SOA zu allen sechs Unternehmensvorteilen beiträgt. Außerdem ist erkennbar, dass sich SOA in klassischen Aspekten flexibler IT-Infrastrukturen wie Modularität, Flexibilität und Skalierbarkeit widerspiegelt. Und auch die Realisierung von Unternehmensvorteilen durch SOA kann zu bedeutenden Teilen über die Verbesserung der IT-Flexibilität als Mediator erklärt werden.

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., Schlosser, F., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
Die Bedeutung relationaler Faktoren für den IT-Wertbeitrag - Eine Studie unter den größten 1.500 US-Banken
Proceedings of the 10. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Zürich, Schweiz

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Diese Arbeit untersucht die Auswirkung von operativem ITBusiness-Alignment sowie insbesondere der Gestaltung der Beziehungsschnittstelle zwischen verschiedenen Fachbereichen auf die Nutzungsintensität von Informationssystemen sowie auf die Geschäftsprozessleistung. Wir entwickeln ein theoretisches Modell unter Anwendung einer sozialen Perspektive auf Alignment und auf die Beziehungsschnittstelle und evaluieren es anhand einer Studie der IT-Nutzung im Firmenkreditprozess US-amerikanischer Banken. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Qualität der Beziehungsschnittstelle zwischen verschiedenen Fachbereichen einerseits und zwischen IT-Einheit und Fachbereichen (gemessen in Form von Vertrauen, gemeinsames Wissen und struktureller Interaktion) andererseits erhebliche Auswirkungen auf die Nutzung der Informationssysteme im Kreditprozess und darüber auf die Leistung des Kreditprozesses haben. Insbesondere der Zusammenhang im Dreieck operatives Alignment, Beziehungsschnittstelle zwischen Fachbereichen und Nutzung von Informationssystemen liefert einen neuen Beitrag zu unserem Verständnis des Geschäftswertbeitrages der IT.

Moos, B., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
The Role of Innovation Governance and Knowledge Management for Innovation Success
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

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To innovate is one of the basic functions of a firm and a competitive necessity in dynamic markets. So what management mechanisms can a firm use to foster innovation success? This paper analyzes if knowledge management (KM) and innovation governance (IG) distinguish top innovation performers. Theoretically, we scrutinize if KM and IG mechanisms, composed of systems capabilities (organizational structures, policies, and processes) and coordination capabilities, are antecedents of absorptive capacity, knowledge stock and, eventually, innovation success of a firm. Using data from 204 firms, the results show that (1) IG and KM applying firms have significantly higher innovation success resulting from higher absorptive capacity and greater knowledge stock, (2) the most important IG mechanisms are measuring innovation success, using tools for monitoring the innovation process and a structured idea management, (3) KM drives innovation generation but not its transfer to products and markets.

Walentowitz, K., Beimborn, D., Schroiff, A., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
The Social Network Structure of Alignment - A Literature Review
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

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The social network structure at the interface between a firm's business and IT units is of vital importance to business/IT alignment and hence an important IT governance object. Yet, there is a substantial gap in understanding the nature of these social structures and how they affect IT business value. Based on a literature review that comprises articles published in eight top IS journals since 2000, this paper identifies social network structure characteristics which represent antecedents of alignment. These are subsequently translated into precise concepts of social network analysis (SNA). The identification and formalization of such social network structures allow IT governance to implement social engineering mechanisms in order to influence the social network structure and thus business/IT alignment and IT value. Examples for such translated arguments are a high degree centrality of CIOs vis-à-vis other executives and strong ties in terms of cross-domain knowledge between the CIO and other executives.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2011)
What Are Important Governance and Management Mechanisms to Achieve IT Flexibility in Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA)? An Empirical Exploration
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

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Recent research results and practitioner experience both posit that Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) governance is critical to successfully implement and utilize SOA. We investigate the impact of different SOA governance and management mechanisms (structures, processes, and employees) for leveraging SOA's potential to increase an organization's IT infrastructure flexibility. The results based on data from 73 SOA using organizations reveal: (1) a negative impact of implementing new decision-making bodies on 2 dimensions of IT flexibility (IT modularity and integration) (2) a positive impact of the SOA management processes service management and service development on 2 dimensions of IT flexibility (modularity and integration of IT infrastructure) (3) a positive impact of business units collaboratively identifying jointly utilizable services on modularity (4) and a particularly strong impact of standards, and also of employee qualification, on all dimensions of IT infrastructure flexibility.

Beimborn, D., Moos, B., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
The Impact of Knowledge Management on Absorptive Capacity
Proceedings of the 2010 IFIP 8.2/Organizations and Society in Information Systems (OASIS) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), St. Louis (MO)
(Research in Progress)

Walentowitz, K., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
The Influence of Social Structures on Business/IT Alignment
Proceedings of the 2010 JAIS Theory Development Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), St. Louis (MO)

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Motivated by the importance of business/IT alignment for IT value creation and the fact that despite an extensive stream of literature discussing drivers of and success factors for alignment, the problem of reaching business/IT alignment is still not fully solved and alignment still ranks among the top three concerns of CIOs, we strive to explain alignment success based on the social structures present at the interface of business and IT on an operational level. While such structures at top management level are prominently discussed success factors of alignment, the analogues structures on the operational level have rarely been analyzed and there is a substantial gap in understanding the nature of these social structures and how they affect IT business value. We extend our prior research, which identified social patterns that are potentially beneficial for business/IT alignment, by adding detailed explanations of why these are beneficial for business/IT alignment. Hence, this paper contributes to existing research by providing new insights to the general assumption that social structures are important and by explaining why, despite the vivid discussion, still many firms fail to establish business/IT alignment. We find that strong bridges at the interface between business and IT, as well as strong connections of interface actors with their management and their unit are advantageous for the creation of IT/business knowledge, solidarity between IT and business and the power of the interface actors between IT and business, and in this way are beneficial for business/IT alignment.

Schroiff, A., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
The Role of Social Network Structures in Outsourced Projects
Proceedings of the 2010 International Research Workshop on Information Technology Project Management (IRWITPM) (Pre-ICIS), St. Louis (MO)

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IT management increasingly involves teams dispersed throughout a globalized world in internal as well as outsourced projects. In this work, we focus on the latter and analyze the impact of social network structures between vendor and client team members on project success. We present the findings of a comprehensive literature analysis and give an outlook on the ongoing empirical investigation. The goal is to propose a model linking structural properties of social networks to dimensions of success of outsourced IT projects. We base this model on indications found in prior research and the results of explorative case studies in outsourcing arrangements. Our findings so far show that the network density at the client-vendor interface and the multiplexity of ties are the salient, but not sole, network properties for which existing research implies an influence on success of outsourced IT projects. Case studies will reveal how and why these and other social network properties have an impact on project success.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
Investigating Adoption Determinants of Service-oriented Architectures (SOA)
Proceedings of the 2010 Special Interest Group on Services (SIGSVC) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), St. Louis (MO)
(Research in Progress)

Schlosser, F., Beimborn, D., and Wagner, H. (2010)
Who Is Doing What? The Impact of Task and Role Documentation on Outsourcing Service Quality
Proceedings of the 16th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Lima, Peru

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Our research contributes to the quest for management action items that drive outsourcing management success. We hypothesize and empirically show that a certain piece of IT governance, the explicit documentation of roles and responsibilities of staff residing in the client firm's retained organization contributes to social alignment in terms of interaction quality, shared knowledge, and trust between the client firm's business and side and the outsourcing vendor. Our model is quantitatively tested by using data from 171 IT outsourcing arrangements in the German banking industry. We show that the documentation of tasks and responsibilities affects the service quality delivered by the vendor in terms of reliability and responsiveness, and that this impact is fully mediated by both client-internal social alignment and vendor/client alignment. This result represents a piece for helping practitioners to develop a better understanding of how to design their outsourcing governance to maintain and improve ongoing outsourcing relationships.

Schroiff, A., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
Structuring the Structure in Outsourcing Research - A Social Network Perspective on Outsourcing Relationship Management
Proceedings of the 16th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Lima, Peru

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To what extent are structural assumptions veiled in extant outsourcing research? In this paper we suggest a unified view on social ties between individuals in outsourcing relationships. In a comprehensive literature analysis of outsourcing research since 2001, we identified structural assumptions and categorize them based on social network measures. Our analysis uncovers two salient patterns: 1) The gatekeeper vs. high density trade-off in interaction between client and vendor employees, and 2) the question whether the strength of ties between individuals can be too high for a professional outsourcing relationship. We present these patterns and other social network structures to formalize assumptions mostly not explicated yet considered important in existing outsourcing research. Based on our results, further research should analyze the impact of these patterns of social structure on outsourcing success.

Walentowitz, K., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
The Impact of Business/IT Social Network Structures on IT Service Quality
Proceedings of the 16th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Lima, Peru

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In this paper, we explore the basic premise that IT service quality follows the structure of business/IT interactions and thus highlight an important organizational design issue in IT governance. Motivated by concepts used in social network theory we build a model that proposes a causal relationship between structural characteristics of social business/IT networks and IT service quality. The model is empirically evaluated and explained using case studies based on five interviews in three firms. Thus we extend the general assumption that the business/IT partnership is crucial for IT service quality by identifying structural characteristics of the network among and between business and IT staff which enhance this partnership. Important results are that strong and bridging ties at the business/IT interface are crucial for IT service quality and that a good integration of interface actors within their own unit supports IT service quality.

Moos, B., Beimborn, D., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
Suggestions For Measuring Organizational Innovativeness: A Review
Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

Schlosser, F., Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2010)
The Role of Internal Business/IT Alignment and IT Governance for Service Quality in IT Outsourcing Arrangements
Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

von Stetten, A., Beimborn, D., Kuznetsova, E., and Moos, B. (2010)
The Impact of Cultural Differences on IT Nearshoring Risks from a German Perspective
Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

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Which nearshoring risks arise from cultural differences between German outsourcers and IT providers located in the nearshore environment? This paper focuses on the domain of IT nearshoring which is quite sparsely researched. Based on exploratory expert interviews from the IT service industry in six typical nearshoring countries from a German perspective (Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey), we analyze which and how cultural differences influence typical outsourcing risks. We develop a causal model which derives outsourcing risk factors (such as insufficient formal communication, insufficient interaction, emotionally laden communication, and insufficiently open communication) from different cultural dimensions and links them to traditional outsourcing risk dimensions.

Joachim, N., Beimborn, D., Hoberg, P., and Schlosser, F. (2009)
Examining the Organizational Decision to Adopt Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) - Development of a Research Model
Proceedings of the 2009 Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Phoenix (AZ)

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What are the determinants of an organization's decision to adopt Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)? Although the paradigms of service orientation and SOA have become quite omnipresent in the IS literature, research is still lacking to provide a comprehensive view upon drivers and inhibitors of the organizational decision to adopt SOA. Based on the mature strand of adoption research, this paper develops a conceptual model in order to increase the understanding of the determinants influencing this decision. Thereby, the drivers and inhibitors are distinguished in organization-specific and innovation-specific factors. The organization-specific factors cover two aspects: (1) the compatibility of technology and organization (i.e., SOA expertise of the employees, management support for SOA, IT/ Business alignment, degree of process documentation) and (2) management fad and fashion. The innovation-specific factors cover the perceived benefits, perceived complexity, and standardization of available technologies related to SOA. Beside developing this theoretical model for laying the foundation for future empirical research, a further contribution of this paper is the development of a comprehensive measurement model for SOA adoption, which differentiates between the IT and the enterprise layer.

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., and Schlosser, F. (2009)
The Role of SOA for BPO Intention - Proposing a Research Model
Proceedings of the Workshop on eBusiness (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Phoenix (AZ)

von Stetten, A., Beimborn, D., and Kuznetsova, E. (2009)
Cultural Differences between Client and Vendor in IT Nearshoring Relationships and their Impact on IT Nearshoring Risks - A Research in Progress
Proceedings of the 17th SIG-CCRIS Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Phoenix (AZ)
(Research in Progress)

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This paper focuses on the domain of IT nearshoring which is quite sparsely researched compared with IT offshoring or IT outsourcing in general. We conducted eleven exploratory expert interviews from the IT service industry in six typical nearshoring countries from a German perspective (Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey) and in a German consulting firm being specialized in advising German client companies that intend to outsource IT related activities to vendors in nearby countries. Based on these interviews, we analyze which and how cultural differences between client and vendor influence typical outsourcing risks. We develop a causal model which derives outsourcing risk factors (such as insufficient communication, management, and cooperation) from different dimensions of national culture and links them to traditional outsourcing risk dimensions. This is a research in progress as more interviews, especially on the client side, will follow.

von Stetten, A. and Beimborn, D. (2009)
Analyzing National Differences in IT Adoption between Culturally Close Countries - A Conceptual Model
Proceedings of the 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Francisco (CA)

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Cross-cultural research in IT adoption has so far most often concentrated on disparities in IT adoption between countries with highly different culture profiles. Instead, we argue that there are also differences between cultural closely related countries (which, e.g., are geographically close and share the same language) which need to be understood. The question raises whether the dimensions of culture applied in prior literature to analyze IT adoption in highly distinct cultures are sufficient for explaining the differences in a close culture context as well or whether a more differentiated model of cultural dimensions has to be drawn. Based on indicative results from a three-country comparison within Central Europe, we find substantial differences in adoption drivers (Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use) which seem to be impacted by "microcultural" disparities. As a consequence, we develop a conceptual model based on human values and cross-national differences in IT adoption which will allow us to analyze and explain these differences in future research.

Beimborn, D., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2009)
Examining the Relationship Between Trust and Control in IT Outsourcing Relationships
Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Verona, Italy

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What is the role of control in maintaining trust in outsourcing relationships? Although the literature is quite rich on conceptualizing the relationship between control and trust in inter-organizational relationships, there exist quite sparse quantitative works which help to evaluate the models developed. In this paper, we analyze data from 156 IT outsourcing relationships of German banks in order to get insights into the actual relationships between different modes of control and the level of relational trust in these relationships. Additionally, we examine the role of service quality (measured in terms of reliability and responsiveness) in this context. The results show that trust is positively related with most modes of control, and that there is indicative evidence that control supports trust in high-service quality situations while it leads to a reduction of trust in relationships suffering from bad service quality (cycle of trust vs. distrust).

Beimborn, D., Moos, B., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2009)
The Role of Client-Internal Social Linkages for Outsourcing Success - An SNA Approach
Proceedings of the 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Francisco (CA)

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What is the role of a firm's internal social relations between business departments and IT unit for the success of its IT outsourcing relationship? In this paper, we propose that the relationship between business and IT of a firm is crucial for achieving effective outsourcing management and for enabling the vendor to deliver the services as demanded. Since the business side of the client firm represents the users of the information systems but the IT unit represents the interface to the outsourcing vendor firm, interaction between both units is proposed to be required for maintaining a good outsourcing relationship. Based on a survey in the German Banking Industry and by adopting a Social Network Analysis Approach which captures the interaction structure within the client firm and thus represents an innovative scale to outsourcing research, we show that tight social linkages within the client firm lead to higher service quality achieved by the vendor firm.

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., Schlosser, F., and Streicher, B. (2009)
The Role of IT/Business Alignment for Achieving SOA Business Value - Proposing a Research Model
Proceedings of the 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Francisco (CA)

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What is the interplay between IT/Business alignment and Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) regarding the achievement of business value in terms of business flexibility? This paper introduces a conceptual model that derives propositions about how IT/Business alignment, IT flexibility, and business flexibility are interrelated and how SOA and alignment interact in order to increase business flexibility. We apply and integrate well-known multi-dimensional concepts of both IT/Business alignment (in terms of strategic alignment, structural alignment, and social alignment) and IT flexibility (technical and non-technical IT flexibility) and map the conceptual components of SOA (architectural and the governance dimension) to this resulting model. This conceptualization will allow for more profoundly structured research on how SOA contributes to business value.

Münstermann, B., Joachim, N., and Beimborn, D. (2009)
An empirical evaluation of the impact of process standardization on process performance and flexibility
Proceedings of the 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), San Francisco (CA)

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This paper argues that business process standardization, as part of BPM activities, is an effective way to improve business process flexibility and performance. We develop and empirically evaluate a theoretical model of the differential impact of business process homogenization and optimization on business process flexibility and performance. The analysis based on data from 85 large firms shows a strong and highly significant influence of process standardization on business process flexibility and performance. This paper is among the first to propose a research model and empirical operationalization to analyze the twofold impact of process standardization on business process flexibility and performance. For practitioners the paper provides actionable recommendations on how to apply the findings to their management context.

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., and Münstermann, B. (2009)
Impact of Service-oriented Architectures (SOA) on Business Process Standardization - Proposing a Research Model
Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Verona, Italy

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What is the impact of a Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) on the efficiency and effectiveness of business process standardization (BPS)? The contribution of this paper is the development of a research model around the impact of SOA on BPS in terms of achieving fundamental efficiency and flexibility potentials while covering both the business layer and the IT layer of the firm. Drawing on an accepted and widespread enterprise architecture model, we derive propositions that explain why and how SOA's characteristics help to standardize business processes and how the interplay between SOA and BPS leads to an increased overall business value. Additional moderator arguments, such as the level of service granularity, the centrality of SOA governance, or Business IT alignment, are added to the research model as critical success factors of achieving business value of SOA.

Blumenberg, S., Beimborn, D., Martin, S., Brodnik, B., Gunne, C., and Wendt, S. (2009)
Determinants of Outsourcing Success in the Financial Industry: The Impact of Importance
Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

Beimborn, D., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2009)
Proposing a theoretical model for IT governance and IT business alignment
Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

Beimborn, D., Gleisner, F., Joachim, N., and Hackethal, A. (2009)
The Role of Process Standardization in Achieving IT Business Value
Proceedings of the 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

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We empirically investigate the interplay and impact of process standardization and IT intensity on business process performance in terms of efficiency, quality, control, and processing time. To this aim we surveyed the retail advisory operations of Germany's largest banks. We find that standardization enhances efficiency, quality and control of the advisory process. Additionally, IT intensity on its own shows positive effects on efficiency and quality as well, while it leads to more customer facing time needed for a single customer. Also, the interaction effect with process standardization is relevant. We conclude that IT creates business value through facilitating process standardization and process control. Our results strongly indicate that managers have to look carefully at the type of the processes before standardizing it.

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
A Social Linkage View on the Business Value of IT
Proceedings of the 2008 JAIS Theory Development Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Paris, France

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Our research intends to explore whether a social perspective on IT business alignment can help shed light on the IT value creation process by considering different facets of interpersonal linkage. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model which could be discussed at the JAIS workshop. Further, we use some empirical data from 149 US banks in order to find first empirical evidence whether our research focus represents a promising direction. We find initial support for our main hypotheses that communication, cross-domain knowledge and mutuality among and between IT and business staff significantly impact IT usage and business process outcomes. The final results of our research could contribute to our understanding of how the IT resource should be understood and used to measurably contribute to firm goals. The initial findings support the caveat of recent studies suggesting that informal aspects of alignment might be quite notable (e.g. Chan, 2002) and show that our theoretical understanding of alignment should be extended to better incorporate social aspects of daily work life.

Martin, S., Wagner, H., and Beimborn, D. (2008)
Process Documentation, Operational Alignment, and Flexibility in IT Outsourcing Relationships: A Knowledge-Based Perspective
Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Paris, France

von Stetten, A. and Beimborn, D. (2008)
Towards an explanation of differences in IS adoption between German speaking countries: Comparing Switzerland, Austria and Germany
Proceedings of the 16th SIG-CCRIS Workshop (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Paris, France

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The way cultural values affect the adoption of information technology is an important field of research within the area of Information Systems. Up to now, much research work has been done to explain differences in IT Usage between totally different cultural regions. By contrast, in this paper we discover significant differences regarding the usage of information technology respectively the Internet in HR marketing between the German speaking and culturally rather close countries Austria, Switzerland, and Germany within a survey among the 1,000 largest companies in the particular countries. The paper in hand develops a theoretical model to analyze these differences and outlines our plans for empirical research pursuing the objective to scrutinize and explain the ascertained differences in IT Usage between the mentioned countries.

Beimborn, D. and Joachim, N. (2008)
Proposing the Relationship Between IT Business Alignment and the Business Value of Service-Oriented Architectures in Financial Firms
Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Enterprise Applications and Services in Finance Industry (FinanceCom) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Paris, France

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What is the business value of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) and how can we achieve it? This paper represents a conceptual piece of research which focuses on the impact of IT Business Alignment (ITBA) on the successful implementation of SOA, in terms of its business value. The contribution of this model is predominant in proposing a threefold effect of ITBA on achieving a successful implementation of SOA through the specific strategic needs defined by a particular firm in a specific industry, i.e., the banking industry. As a result, we show that the business strategy moderates the impact of SOA‟s general potentials on its actual business value and claim that this relationship is further moderated by ITBA, which must be thoroughly considered by practitioners deciding on introducing SOA in their firm.

Beimborn, D. and Joachim, N. (2008)
How to Achieve Business Value of SOA? - Investigating the Relationships between SOA, IT Business Alignment and Sourcing Strategies
Proceedings of the 2008 Special Interest Group on Services (SIGSVC) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Paris, France

Beimborn, D., Hirschheim, R., Schlosser, F., Schwarz, A., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
How to Achieve IT Business Alignment? Investigating the Role of Business Process Documentation in US and German Banks
Proceedings of the 14th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Toronto (ON) Canada

Beimborn, D., Hirschheim, R., Schlosser, F., Schwarz, A., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
Comparing the Operational Integration of a Core Information System in Insourcing and Outsourcing Firms
Proceedings of the 14th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Toronto (ON), Canada

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
Drivers and Inhibitors of SOA Business Value - Conceptualizing a Research Model
Proceedings of the 14th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Toronto, Canada

Martin, S., Beimborn, D., Parikh, M., and Weitzel, T. (2008)
Organizational Readiness for Business Process Outsourcing: A Model of Determinants and Impact on Outsourcing Success
Proceedings of the 41th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

Beck, R. and Beimborn, D. (2008)
The Impact of Direct and Indirect Network Effects on the Diffusion of Communication Standards
Proceedings of the 41th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

Expectations about stand-alone and network benefits determine the adoption decision of customers and hence the diffusion of standards. To increase the number of adopters of a communication standard like EDI, not only the ability to exchange messages (as a source of direct network effects), but also the provision of complementary services such as standardized master data, e.g., by establishing a central, industry-wide EDI data pool (as a source of indirect net-work effects) is important. We thus examine the differing impact of direct and indirect network effects on the adoption and diffusion of communication standards. The incorporation of both network benefits into an agent-based simulation model may help to better understand the underlying diffusion problem.

Blumenberg, S., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2008)
Determinants of IT Outsourcing Relationships: A Conceptual Model
Proceedings of the 41th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

View Abstract

How can relationship quality in outsourcing partnerships be achieved, sustained, and improved? In this paper we present a conceptual model that focuses on the identification of the relevant determinants for a successful IT outsourcing relationship as well as on the operationalization IT outsourcing relationship quality. We contribute to existing relationship literature by thoroughly examining existing constructs and, if applicable, spliting and redistributing them. We also consider additional relationship quality dimensions and determinants. The derived eleven dimensions and fifteen determinants are empirically validated in a subsequent three step empirical approach providing a much more detailed and throroughly structured relationship quality model which will eventually help practitioners in improving their crossorganizational IT-business relationships.

Beimborn, D., Schlosser, F., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
What makes successful banks successful? - The key role of alignment in financial process quality
Proceedings of the 2007 SIM Academic Workshop on IT Business Alignment (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Montreal (QC), Canada

Beimborn, D., Joachim, N., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
Proposing an Instrument for Evaluating the Business Value of Service-Oriented Architectures
Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Enterprise Applications and Services in Finance Industry (FinanceCom) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Montreal (QC), Canada

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
The Impact of Operational Alignment on IT Flexibility - Empirical Evidence from a Survey in the German Banking Industry
Proceedings of the 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Keystone (CO)

View Abstract

Alignment and IT flexibility have been found to be crucial for a firm's long-term success in many indus-tries. This paper investigates how alignment and flexibility are interrelated at an operational level. Based on a survey with Germany's Top 1,000 banks we show on a business process level that shared knowledge and mutual understanding (as dimensions of alignment) between IT unit and business department have a positive impact on IT flexibility. On the other hand, higher degrees of communication between business and IT units do not correlate with higher IT flexibility.

Wüllenweber, K., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
Business Process Outsourcing: The Challenge of Process Standardization
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Outsourcing of Information Services (ICOIS), Heidelberg

Martin, S. and Beimborn, D. (2007)
Modeling the Impact of IT Business Alignment on Business Process Outsourcing Success
Proceedings of the 2007 Special Interest Group on the Adoption and Diffusion of IT - European Diffusion Interst Group in Information Technology (Pre-ECIS Workshop), St. Gallen, Switzerland

Martin, S., Beimborn, D., Parikh, M., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
Getting ready for success: may alignment be of help?
Proceedings of the 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Keystone (CO)

Beimborn, D. and Blumenberg, S. (2007)
How to Measure Relationships - Merging Alignment and Outsourcing Research towards a Unified Relationship Quality Construct
Proceedings of the 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Keystone (CO)

View Abstract

The literature has shown that relationship management between and within different entities is crucial in manifold contexts. The prominent IS research strands of IT business alignment and outsourcing relationships tackle this topic from different perspectives. We argue that there are strong overlaps of these concepts and claim for a consolidation of both research strands. We match both research stream´s measurement constructs, show the overlap as well as the remainder and propose a unified model. This model consists of six dimensions and allows for a combined measurement of relationships between business and IT units within as well as across organizational boundaries.

Beimborn, D., Fladung, R., and Rothlauf, F. (2007)
How to Configure Cost-Optimal Procurement Consortia for Academic Libraries
Proceedings of the 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Keystone (CO)

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The academic sector has been faced with strong monopolization tendencies occurring in the academic publisher market in recent years. A countermeasure from the demand-side has been the formation of procurement consortia by academic libraries which are intended to reduce costs and simultaneously optimizing the availability of academic journals in order to sufficiently serve their customers (i.e. faculty and students). The objective of this paper is to determine cost-minimal structures for library consortia. We develop a non-linear and binary optimization model which is solved by applying a genetic algorithm (GA). The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the GA by applying it to a real-world problem in the German academic e-journals market. The results show that the found solution results in costs that are approximately 30 % lower than the current regional-based solution.

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2007)
The Influence of Alignment on the Post-Implementation Success of a Core Banking Information System: An Embedded Case Study
Proceedings of the 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

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The literature suggests that the success of an information system among others depends on its utilization. In this paper, we argue that operational IT business alignment is an important driver of system usage and thereby of the market success of the supported business process. Using an embedded case study in four branches, the back office, and the IT department of a retail bank, many findings of the recent alignment literature can be supported. Using a strict business process perspective, we also offer new insights by showing that alignment is important for IS success in operations as well and positively influences post-implementation IS usage. In particular, mutual understanding between the units and shared domain knowledge not only between IT and business but also between different business units supported by the same core IS turned out to be very important factors of IS usage that have so far been neglected.

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
The Impact of Outsourcing on IT Business Alignment and IT Flexibility: A Survey in the German Banking Industry
Proceedings of the 12th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Acapulco, Mexico

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., and Martin, S. (2006)
The e-Business Potential of Value Chain Crossing
Proceedings of the 2006 Workshop on eBusiness (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Milwaukee

View Abstract

This paper provides exploratory findings of an empirical survey accompanied by a series of case studies that motivates research in e-Business largely neglected before, namely the lateral cooperation of firms from two different industries that interconnect their business processes by means of electronic integration. The integration of financial processes in non-banks and financial service providers. We identified empirical evidence for a large potential of value chain crossing but also found substantial inhibitors for the adoption of this idea. Starting from those findings, we outline a research program to tackle this promising area of e-Business research in future.

Beck, R., Beimborn, D., Franke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
Strategies to Boost Standard Diffusion in Communication Networks - Insights from Network Effect Theory
Proceedings of the 2006 Special Interest Group on Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology (DIGIT) (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Milwaukee (WI)

View Abstract

IT standards are subject to network effects which establish challenges concerning a successful diffusion of standards. A renowned example is a mobile service provider trying to establish a network of customers while potential user often wait until the network is sufficiently large in terms of other users (direct network effect) or content available (indirect effect). Despite the potential benefits to adopters and providers, there is still much uncertainty on the differential impact of direct and indirect network effects on the diffusion of standards and their impact on successful diffusion strategies to establish a user base. Our research questions thus are: (a) ...what are the adoption drivers of IT standards and (b) ...how can providers influence these drivers to develop an installed base? Based on network effect theory, we propose a formal model that simultaneously considers the different effects of direct and indirect network effects on the diffusion of communication standards. Using com-puter-based simulations we can show that IT providers could exploit the alternating impact of direct and indirect network effects at different diffusion stages to successfully establish an installed base. This has fundamental implications for the provider's pricing and market strategy.

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., Wagner, H., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
Strategy Matters - The Role of Strategy Type for IT Business Value
Proceedings of the 12th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Acapulco, Mexico

View Abstract

There is a general consensus among practitioners and researchers alike that IT business alignment improves business performance. Alignment mostly is researched at a strategic level, but has to be implemented in daily operations to be effective. Therefore, in this paper we introduce the concept of operational IT business alignment, reflecting the functional integration at the structural level and representing the linkage between business and IT structure. Using structural equation modeling and data from 136 banks we show that operational IT business alignment positively impacts IS usage and IT flexibility and in turn process performance. Furthermore it is shown that the effect of IT business alignment strongly depends on the type of business strategy a bank follows.

Beimborn, D., Martin, S., and Blumenberg, S. (2006)
Exploring Potential IOS-supported Partnerships between Banks and SMEs
Proceedings of the 12th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Acapulco, Mexico

View Abstract

The partnership between banks and non-banks is one of the oldest and most common lateral business partnerships. While banks are looking for new markets and for cost efficient ways to implement new business models, SMEs presumably have considerable efficiency potentials within their financial processes. Some of these potentials could be realized by integrating functionality provided by banks within the financial processes of SMEs. What factors drive the attitude of SMEs toward adopting of new, integrated financial services provided by banks? Through a case study-based, exploratory research ap-proach, we identify four major factors that influence the attitude of SMEs toward adopting new integrated business functions offered by banks.

Beimborn, D. and Weitzel, T. (2006)
Game Theoretical Analysis of Cooperative Sourcing Scenarios
Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

View Abstract

A possible trend in outsourcing, cooperative sourcing is the merging of similar processes by several firms. For example, several banks could merge their payments processes and the underlying IT to jointly realize economies of scale. But what are conditions of stable outsourcing coalitions? And how to allocate costs within the outsourcing value web? In this paper we present a micro economic model for analyzing cooperative sourcing decisions. Using a game-theoretical equilibrium analysis, distribution rules of cooperative sourcing benefits are evaluated and necessary condition for stable sourcing cooperations are identified. We formally prove that only a proportional allocation of costs will regularly lead to stable coalitions. Still, a game theoretic experiment indicates that deciders not knowing about the results are more likely to choose inefficient allocations leading to instable sourcing networks.

Beimborn, D. (2006)
A Model for Simulation Analyses of Cooperative Business Sourcing in the Banking Industry
Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai

View Abstract

What will be efficient sourcing constellations in the competitive banking market which force banks to optimize their processes and to change organizational structures? This paper presents a model for investigating causes and effects of Cooperative Sourcing in the banking industry. Cooperative Sourcing means merging of similar processes by several firms, such as several banks merge their credit handling as well as the underlying IT, to achieve economies of scale. The model is able to capture these IS-based factors and to analyze the efficiency of sourcing decisions and rsulting market constellations.Due to the complexity of the involved factors, a simulation approach is used for applying the model. Fed with appropriate data the model could support BPO decisions based on analytical analyses as well as on simulation-based compound investigations.

Wagner, H., Beimborn, D., Franke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2006)
IT Business Alignment and IT Usage in Operational Processes: A Retail Banking Case
Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Kauai (HI)

View Abstract

What is the impact of operational (i.e. non-strategic) IT business alignment on IT usage? Using case studies in three branches of a retail bank employing identical information systems, many findings of the alignment literature can be supported. The cases also add new insights by showing that alignment is important in operations as well, and that alignment positively impacts IT usage. Especially mutual understanding between the business units and the IT unit turned out to be the single most important factor of IT usage that resulted from frequent interaction and, as far as the IT unit is concerned, from the business orientation of the IT personnel.

Beimborn, D. (2005)
A simulative analysis of causes and effects of cooperative business process outsourcing in the banking industry
Proceedings of the IRMA International Conference, Doctoral Symposium, San Diego (CA)

Beimborn, D., Martin, S., and Homann, U. (2005)
Value Chain Crossing Between SMEs and the Banking Industry
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Electronic Business (ICEB), Hong Kong

View Abstract

What are future requirements for ERP solutions for SMEs? The following research paper focuses on identifying possible new interfacial areas between banks and SMEs. New banking services could be embedded into SMEs' information systems to support their financial processes such as cash management, reconciliation, customer management and asset management. We develop a framework and a methodology for our empirical explorative research. They are intended to be the foundation for investigating both, financial processes within SMEs, as well as firms' willingness to adopt new services offered by financial service providers. Furthermore, first results from four case studies indicate some promising results. They also show particular problems from granting a bank access to SME-internal systems.

Beimborn, D., Franke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
Drivers and Inhibitors for Outsourcing Financial Processes - A Comparative Survey of Economies of Scale, Scope, and Skill
Proceedings of the 11th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Omaha (NE)

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Economies of scale, scope, and skill are known to be major drivers or inhibitors for outsourcing business processes. This paper presents a comparative analysis of economies of scale, scope, and skill achievable by outsourcing financial processes in non-banks and banks based on two empirical studies conducted with Fortune 1,000 non-banks and Fortune 500 banks in Germany. It can be shown that industrialization tendencies within the credit business in banks are in parts broader sophisticated than within financial processes of other industries. Credit process managers estimate economies of scale and skill achievable by outsourcing to be higher than chief financial officers do. Furthermore, economies of scope, which inhibit selective sourcing, are evaluated as being less problematic. As a result, the credit process managers' disposition to outsource (parts of) primary financial processes in banks is higher compared to the CFOs' attendance to outsource parts of their secondary financial processes in non-banks. In accordance with common knowledge, economies of scale and skill are identified as drivers for outsourcing business processes while economies of scope represent an inhibitor. In contrast to common knowledge, our studies suggest German banks being on the way to industrialization and modularization.

Beimborn, D., Martin, S., and Homann, U. (2005)
Capability-oriented Modeling of the Firm
Proceedings of the 2005 IPSI Conference, Amalfi/Italy

König, W., Beimborn, D., Franke, J., and Weitzel, T. (2005)
Sourcing von Finanzprozessen - Ein Modell zur simultanen Bewertung von Economies of Scale und Scope
Proceedings of the 7. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik, Bamberg

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Während viele Unternehmen Fortschritte in der IuK-Technologie zur Automatisierung ihrer primären Prozesse, zu einer internen und externen Vernetzung und letztlich zur Neuaufteilung und Optimierung der gesamten Wertschöpfungskette genutzt haben, wurden Sekundärprozesse selten als eigener Optimierungsgegenstand betrachtet. In einer empirischen Studie zu sekundären Finanzprozessen in den 1.000 größten deutschen Unternehmen (ohne Banken und Versicherungen) wird gezeigt, dass vor einer Outsourcing-Entscheidung kulturelle Hürden der Entscheider zu überwinden sind. Es zeigt sich insbesondere, dass die individuelle Outsourcing-Erfahrung der entscheidenden Manager von Bedeutung ist und dass Economies of Scale und Scope getrennt betrachtet und damit mögliche Trade-offs häufig ignoriert werden. Zur Erweiterung der reinen Outsourcing-Entscheidung im Hinblick auf viel versprechende Modelle des kooperativen Outsourcing wird untersucht, wer geeignete Partner für eine selektive Auslagerung von Teilprozessen durch eine Kreuzung der eigenen Wertschöpfungskette mit derjenigen des Partners (Value Chain Crossing) sein können. Aufbauend auf diesen empirischen Ergebnissen wird ein Simulationsmodell vorgestellt, welches insbesondere die simultane Betrachtung verschiedener Einflussfaktoren der Outsourcing-Entscheidung erlaubt.

Beimborn, D., Fladung, R., and König, W. (2004)
An Optimization Framework for Efficient Information Supply in the Academic Sector
Proceedings of the 8th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Shanghai

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In recent years, increasing monopolization tendencies in the market for electronic information resources in the academic sector have led to the formation of consortia by university libraries and other academic institutions, which are intended to act as an antipole to increase their bargaining power against the monopolistic structures of the publisher market. The aim of this research paper is the development of a model that determines minimal-cost structures for buying consortia in the context of academic libraries. Two different points of view are discussed: on the one hand the optimal choice of the pricing model for purchasing electronic journals and on the other hand the optimization of consortia structures for bundling bargaining power. For the first part of the framework a break-even based approach is developed and applied to empirical data. It can be shown, that German academic libraries can cut their procurement costs by canceling subscriptions and switching to pay per view by about 30%. The second topic - the consortia structure problem - is solved by a binary non-linear optimization model, which also is applied to a real situation. In future it is able to determine, for example, the optimality of a Germany-wide library consortium and to show efficient alternatives.

Weitzel, T., Beimborn, D., and Franke, J. (2004)
Outsourcing the Financial Chain: an Empirical Analysis of Sourcing and Partnering Potentials
Proceedings of the 10th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), New York (NY)
Best Paper Award/Best Outsourcing Paper

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While many firms have used advancement in information and communication technology to optimize their supply chain and primary processes, there is still a substantial efficiency potential associated with financial processes. In this paper, a conceptual framework for a systematic financial chain management is developed. Based on this, an empirical survey with the Fortune 1,000 enterprises of Germany shows that while outsourcing of the financial chain is still quite rare it can be successfully used to focus on core competencies. A main finding is that CFOs tend to systematically overestimate the quality of their financial processes and especially the firm's competencies compared to external experts. This is an important cultural barrier to a value redesign that could offer substantial efficiency improvements.

Beck, R., Weitzel, T., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2003)
The Network Effect Helix
Proceedings of the 2003 MISQ Academic Workshop on ICT Standardization (Pre-ICIS Workshop), Seattle (WA)

Beimborn, D. and Hoppen, N. (2003)
Optimal Scope and Length of Software Patents - A Simulative Approach
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Electronic Business (ICEB), Singapore

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Usually, patent protection is awarded only to technical inventions such as light bulbs, shavers and pharmaceuticals. After computer programming became viable, and protection of computer programs became desirable, most countries decided that software was too abstract or intangible to be patentable, and copyright be-came the dominant form of protection. Nowadays software patents are a widely discussed topic in the U.S. and in Europe because of their proposed impact on na-tional innovation rates. Based on an analysis of the determinants of successfully developing software, we developed a bipartite probability model for comparing a deregulated market without patents to a market using a patent system. Using computer-based simula-tions, we compare different scenarios to test the impact of different patent dura-tion and width on the innovation behaviour of the software market. We can show that that strong patent protection is globally efficient only in markets with a rela-tively low profit potential.

Schrott, G. and Beimborn, D. (2003)
Informal Knowledge Networks: Towards a Community-Engineering Framework
Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Seattle WA, USA

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The problems which knowledge workers face these days are very dynamic, unstructured, highly complex, and often cannot be fully explicated. Such problems of 'moving targets' require different problem solving capabilities by the actors. Because abstract information is less valuable in these environments, knowledge workers have to utilize other channels than 'hand-books'. Hence, corporate knowledge networks again are on top of the research-agenda. For the knowledge worker not the access to large databases but the access to knowledgeable colleagues becomes the important factor. In such networks the question arises, which managerial actions are appropriate for successful community-development, i.e. supporting the actors. Unfortunately, today's practices of commu-nity-engineering are often characterized by gross simplifications and strong technological focus rather than modeling the impact of managerial actions before taking them. As part of a larger research-project, this paper addresses topological structures as action vari-able of community-engineering. A computer-based simulation model is introduced and applied to real-life data from over 800 students and staff of the Economics and Business Administration Department at Frankfurt University, Germany.

Schrott, G. and Beimborn, D. (2003)
Managing Virtual Knowledge Networks: Topology and Performance
Proceedings of the 2003 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work (ACM GROUP03), Sanibel Island FL, USA

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Virtual informal communication networks are widely recognized as an important part of corporate knowledge management (KM). Unfortunately, most practices of community-engineering are characterized by intuitive actions from KM managers rather than systematic network development based on detailed analysis. Therefore, as part of a larger research framework, this paper addresses topological structures as action variable of community-engineering. A dynamic computer-based simulation model is introduced and applied to real-life data from over 800 students and staff of the Economics and Business Administration Department at Frankfurt University, Germany. Several metrics of networks performance are developed and illustrated using different exemplary actions of community-engineering.

Weitzel, T., Gellings, C., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2003)
IS Valuation Methods - Insights from Capital Markets Theory and Practice
Proceedings of the 7th Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), Adelaide, Australia

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In this paper, an analogy between IT firm valuation and IS valuation is used to learn from how investment banking professionals cope with the renowned valuation problem. It becomes clear that theoretically sound approaches like the discounted cash flow might be inappropriate to determine the true value of a software company. Especially for IT valuation, real options approaches are a promising way of capturing the ”true“ underlying value to new technologies. Unfortunately, as expert interviews reveal, the importance of this approach in investment banking practice is negligible.

Hoppen, N., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2003)
Patente auf Software - gibt es eine optimale Schutzweite?
Proceedings of the Business Informatics International Congress, Dresden, Germany

Hoppen, N., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2003)
The Impact of Software Patents on the Structure of the Software Market - A Simulation Model
Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Naples, Italy

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The issue of software patents is widely discussed in Europe today. The standard economic rationale for patents is to protect potential innovators from imitation, which ultimately provides the incentive to incur the costs of innovation. This incentive topic is strongly discussed in network effect markets such as the software market. We identified five characteristics of software which are crucial for the question of patenting and its consequences: Sequentiality, complementarity, the utilization and availability of open code and the necessity to ensure interoperability as well as the digital character of the goods. Based on seven assumptions affiliated from the literature, we developed a bipartite central probability model comparing a deregulated market without patents to a market using the patent system. The main objectives were to evaluate the frequency of innovations in the software market and on the other hand to investigate monopolistic tendencies. We simulated our model under two different parameter constellations (optimistic and pessimistic environment from a patent owner's view). Selected snapshots of exemplary simulations showed that strong patent protection circumvented technical progress from a macroeconomic perspective. Moreover, in the long run only one actor (monopolist) dominated the market. Reducing the protection strength (pessimistic environment) resulted in partially contrary effects.

Weitzel, T., Beimborn, D., and König, W. (2003)
An Individual View on Cooperation Networks
Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

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Networks utilizing modern communication technologies can offer competitive advantages to those using them wisely (e.g. enterprises). Besides technical and organizational issues there are prob-lems concerning planning and operating networks due to an asymmetry of costs and benefits among the network agents making the development of internalization strategies difficult. Goal of this paper is to systematically identify the strategic decision situation of individual agents as a foundation for cooperation strategies aimed at exploiting network benefits. A systematic analysis of decision errors of agents in networks using computer-based simulations reveals principal solution scenarios and shows that network cooperation problems might frequently be not as difficult to resolve as often feared using comparatively simple strategies.

Beck, R., Beimborn, D., and Weitzel, T. (2003)
The German Mobile Standards Battle
Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Big Island (HI)

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The diffusion of innovations has long been a research domain in IS research. Yet, there is no sound theory nor practice to fully understand the complex mechanisms behind networks of users who are tied together by compatibility requirements as is frequently witnessed in information and communication networks. The goal of this paper is to identify key determinants of the technology battle between WAP and i-mode that is recently raging between German cellular service providers and to propose a possible diffusion path. By adapting an existing network model of technology diffusion, key influences are identified and incorporated into a computer-based simulation model. In doing so, trade-offs like better presentation quality on i-mode cellular clients vs. higher service costs compared to WAP applications can be modeled to propose a systematic sensitivity analysis of factors influencing the success of the respective mobile technologies and associated services. Not at least, the simulation model supports mobile services providers to customize their prices for a faster market penetration through regarding not only indirect (WAP, i-mode) but also direct network effects (SMS, i-mail) as crucial factors for adopters.

Publications of Prof. Dr. Daniel Beimborn

Journal Articles (Peer Reviewed)

Conference Articles (Peer Reviewed)

Other Journal or Newspaper Articles

Books

Book Chapters

Others