1,721,297 research outputs found
Quantitative data analysis: a companion for accounting and information systems research
No full textThis book offers postgraduate and early career researchers in accounting and information systems a guide to choosing, executing and reporting appropriate data analysis methods to answer their research questions. It provides readers with a basic understanding of the steps that each method involves, and of the facets of the analysis that require special attention. Rather than presenting an exhaustive overview of the methods or explaining them in detail, the book serves as a starting point for developing data analysis skills: it provides hands-on guidelines for conducting the most common analyses and reporting results, and includes pointers to more extensive resources. Comprehensive yet succinct, the book is brief and written in a language that everyone can understand - from students to those employed by organizations wanting to study the context in which they work. It also serves as a refresher for researchers who have learned data analysis techniques previously but who need a reminder for the specific study they are involved in
Green Business Process Management
No full textIn managing their operations, organizations have traditionally focused on economic imperatives in terms of time, cost, efficiency, and quality. In doing so, they have been a major contributor to environmental degradation caused by re-source consumption, greenhouse emissions, and wastage. As a consequence, or-ganizations are increasingly encouraged to improve their operations also from an ecological perspective, and thus to consider environmental sustainability as an additional management imperative. In order to lessen their impact on the natural environment, organizations must design and implement environmentally sustainable processes, which we call the challenge of Green Business Process Management (Green BPM). This chapter elaborates on the challenge and perspec-tive of Green BPM, and explores the contributions that business process management can provide to creating environmentally sustainable organizations. Our key premise is that business as well as information technology managers need to engage in a process-focused discussion to enable a common, comprehensive understanding of organizational processes, and the process-centered opportunities for making these processes, and ultimately the organization as a process-centric entity, “green.” Through our review of the key BPM capability areas and how they can be framed in terms of environmental sustainability considerations, we provide an overview and introduction to the subsequent chapters in this book
Modeling and analyzing the carbon footprint of business processes
No full textMany corporations and individuals realize that environmental sustainability is an urgent problem to address. In this chapter, we contribute to the emerging academic discussion by proposing two innovative approaches for engaging in the development of environmentally sustainable business processes. Specifically, we describe an extended process modeling approach for capturing and documenting the dioxide emissions produced during the execution of a business process. For illustration, we apply this approach to the case of a government Shared Service provider. Second, we then introduce an analysis method for measuring the carbon dioxide emissions produced during the execution of a business process. To illustrate this approach, we apply it in the real-life case of a European airport and show how this information can be leveraged in the re-design of "green" business processes
A Study on the Decision to Continue Using a Modeling Grammar
Full text linkConceptual modeling is the process of building a representation of selected phenomena in a problem domain for the purpose of understanding and communication among stakeholders (Wand and Weber 2002) in the process of information systems analysis and design. A crucial element in the context of conceptual modeling is the ‘conceptual modeling grammar’, i.e., the set of (graphical) constructs and the rules that show how to combine the constructs for modeling real-world domains (Wand and Weber 2002).\ud
In line with the reported popularity of conceptual modeling and despite an observable proliferation of modeling grammars, only a few have been widely accepted by practitioner communities. While IS research has shown that modeling grammars differ quite significantly in their features and characteristics, e.g., correctness and ease of use (Batra et al. 1990) or support for domain comprehension and problem solving tasks (Agarwal et al. 1996), actual practice informs us that, seemingly independent from such intrinsic characteristics, certain modeling grammars have achieved higher levels of adoption and dissemination in modeling practice than others. Hence it appears that the findings from prior IS studies provide only little explanation of actual acceptance and usage patterns. Acceptance and usage studies are quite popular in IS research in general (Davis 1989; Bhattacherjee 2001b) but the question of the continuance decision, viz., the decision of an individual to continue using an artifact (Bhattacherjee 2001b), has only to a small extent been addressed in the modeling community.\ud
Accordingly, the imperative of this research is to develop an understanding of the continued use of modeling grammars by individual modelers after its initial adoption. This focus of the study can be justified in referral to the observation that, often, the initial adoption of a modeling grammar is an organizational decision. Yet, prior studies, e.g., (Brown et al. 2002), have suggested that individual acceptance in the post-adoption phase would have significant implications for the long-term viability and eventual success of modeling grammars.\ud
In particular, this study seeks to explore whether certain intrinsic characteristics of modeling grammars, such as their capabilities to provide faithful representations of real-world domains (Wand and Weber 1993), pose an impact on an individual’s intention to continue using a modeling grammar. The unit of analysis in this study is the ‘conceptual modeling grammar’, following the definition presented above. The ultimate dependent variable of interest is the ‘intention to continue to use’ (Bhattacherjee 2001b), and as independent variables the ‘representational capabilities’ of conceptual modeling grammars (Wand and Weber 1993; Weber 1997) are studied.\ud
The study design employs multiple research methods, in particular semi-structured interviews as part of case studies (to explore the independent variables, i.e., to build the model), and surveys (to measure the effect of these variables on the dependent variables, i.e., to test the model). The remainder of this paper is as follows. The next sections describe research model and empirical study design. Then, the contributions to-date are described and a discussion of study limitations is given
Towards an Understanding of Process Model Quality. Methodological Considerations
Full text linkQuality is one of the main topics in current conceptual modelling research, as is the field of business process modelling. Yet, widely acknowledged academic contributions towards an understanding or measurement of business process model quality are limited at best. In this paper I argue that the development of methodical theories concerning the problem of process model quality must be preceded by methodological elaborations on business process modelling. I further argue that existing epistemological foundations of process modelling are insufficient for describing the extrinsic and intrinsic traits of model quality. Taking into account the inherent social and purpose-oriented character of process modelling in contemporary organizations I present a socio-pragmatic constructionist methodology of business process modelling and sketch out implications of this perspective towards an understanding of process model quality. I anticipate that, based on this research, theories can be developed that facilitate the evaluation of the ’goodness’ of a business process model
Reasoning about discontinuance of information system use
Full text linkWhile many studies have explored conditions and consequences of information systems adoption and use, few have focused on the final stages of the information system lifecycle. In this paper, I develop a theoretical and an initial empirical contribution to understanding individuals’ intentions to discontinue the use of an information system. This understanding is important because it yields implications about maintenance, retirement, and users’ switching decisions, which ultimately can affect work performance, system effectiveness, and return on technology investments. In this paper, I offer a new conceptualization of factors determining users’ intentions to discontinue the use of information systems. I then report on a preliminary empirical test of the model using data from a field study of information system users in a promotional planning routine in a large retail organization. Results from the empirical analysis provide first empirical support for the theoretical model. I discuss the work’s implications for theory on information systems continuance and dual-factor logic in information system use. I also provide suggestions for managers dealing with cessation of information systems and broader work routine change in organizations due to information system end-of-life decisions
Of hygiene and motivator factors : Views from “down under”
Full text linkComments on “Qualification Profile of University Professors in Business and Information Systems Engineering (BISE)
Evaluation of Conceptual Modeling Languages. An Epistemological Discussion
Full text linkThe Information Systems (IS) discipline is coined by a multiplicity of available conceptual modeling approaches. Thus, evaluation techniques have been developed in order to assess the appropriateness of a conceptual model in a given context. Up to now, however, both modeling and evaluation approaches lack a thorough epistemological foundation and discussion, leading to problems regarding the applicability of a certain modeling language in a given context on the one hand, and regarding the feasibility of certain evaluation approaches towards certain modeling questions on the other hand. We address the question of epistemology in evaluation research and therein argue that there is an immanent need for publishing epistemological underpinnings of evaluation approaches in order to assess their applicability in given modeling contexts. We present a basic discussion framework that allows for the analysis of epistemological implications of available evaluation approaches for conceptual modeling languages
Process Modeling in the 21st Century
No full textProcess Modeling is like turning a lot of light bulbs on in the minds of managers
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