:: CALL FOR PAPERS ::

 

21st European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)

June 5-8, 2013, Utrecht University, Netherlands

https://sites.google.com/site/ecis2013nl/

 

Track: IT Governance & Sourcing

https://sites.google.com/site/ecis2013nl/the-conference/tracks-and-keynotes/track-it-governance-sourcing

 

*** Deadline for paper submission: December 7^th, 2012 ***

 

 

:: Track Description ::

 

In today’s environment, the available choices and possibilities for how to source IT make the demands on effective IT governance even greater and more multifaceted. Over the past decade “new” IT sourcing models, such as offshore outsourcing or crowd and open sourcing, have become well-established practices. By going beyond borders and boundaries, these models challenge existing conceptualizations and theories of IT governance:

 

(1) Offshore outsourced IT projects span national borders, bridge organizational boundaries and highlight the intersection ofcultures.

(2) Crowd- and open-sourced projects not only challenge organizational boundaries, but also traditional ideas about ownership of resources, tasks and outputs.

(3) Cloud services may make the IT artifact seemingly disappear; but while the IT resources have moved outside of the organization’s boundaries, the efforts of molding organizational routines, usage practices, and IT resources have not disappeared and still have to be controlled.

(4) In addition, where more “traditional” technologies and organizational arrangements are still dominant, such as for example with ERP packages, the challenges of exercising governance over development and implementation efforts remain highly important and complex.

 

IT sourcing initiatives are often organized in the form of projects. To advance such projects towards their goals, governance and control mechanisms are needed to regulate the actions of stakeholders, to motivate participants, and to ensure that their capabilities are fully brought to bear on the task. As such, the term IT project governance emphasizes not only the control of an individual project, but also the organizational governance mechanisms for monitoring and overseeing IT projects, which are enacted in each individual project. This includes for example the use of project managementoffices (PMOs), the role of the board of directors, project portfolio management practices, and the coordination of related IT projects through “change programs” or other coordination mechanisms.

 

The objective of this track is to foster and promote research on IT (project) governance and sourcing by providing deeper, richer, and more nuanced insights into the topic. The track particularly tries to bring together researchers studying governance issues in different sourcing contexts (e.g., outsourcing, offshoring, agile and open source software development, etc.), from different stakeholder perspectives (e.g., client vs. vendor, business vs. IT), as well as using innovative research methods. We thus particularly welcome papers that address the overall conference theme “Beyond Borders” by addressing IT governance and sourcing at the intersection between hierarchical, organizational, national, and cultural borders. We also welcome contributions that venture beyond the boundaries of current conceptualizations and theorizations of IT governance and sourcing.

 

The track invites both completed research papers and research in progress papers.

 

 

:: Track Topics ::

 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

 

* IT governance: Effective governance structures, processes, and capabilities; executive and board involvement in IT governance; structure and nature of business-IT relationships, etc.

 

* IT sourcing decisions and outcomes of various sourcing models including outsourcing, crowd and open sourcing, sourcing via the cloud, offshoring, nearshoring, insourcing, and shared services; governance structures that produce sourcing decisions; multi-vendor strategies, etc.

 

* IT sourcing practices: Contractual vs. relational governance, agency vs. stewardship theories, client- vs. vendor-retained capabilities, governance of vendor portfolios, etc.

 

* Interfaces between IT governance and IT project governance: Impact of IT governance arrangements on IT projects; PMOs, project portfolio management, and other arrangements that allow monitoring, control, and prioritization of resources and work across projects; executive and board involvement in IT projects; roles and responsibilities of IT project stakeholders, etc.

 

* IT project governance/control: Governance of different project types and IS methodologies (e.g., internal vs. outsourced, traditional vs. agile), dynamics of governance and control mechanisms over the project lifecycle, transmission of control in hierarchical and lateral relationships, etc.

 

* Social aspects of IT (project) governance: Cultural influences on governance practices, intended vs. unintended effects of governance mechanisms, etc.

 

* New theoretical perspectives and research approaches that challenge and extend our understanding of IT governance and sourcing such as critical and constructivist views, action design research, longitudinal andethnographic approaches, etc.

 

 

:: Track Chairs ::

 

Martin Wiener, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, martin.wiener@wiso.uni-erlangen.de (primary contact)

Magnus Mähring, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, magnus.mahring@hhs.se

Ulrich Remus, University of Innsbruck, Austria, ulrich.remus@uibk.ac.at

 

 

:: Associate Editors ::

 

Daniel Beimborn, University of Bamberg, Germany

Jens Dibbern, University of Bern, Switzerland

Gilbert Fridgen, University of Augsburg, Germany

Robert Gregory, University of Göttingen, Germany

Julia Kotlarsky, Aston Business School, UK

Susanne Leist, University of Regensburg, Germany

Johan Magnusson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Gary Pan, Singapore Management University, Singapore

Joe Peppard, Cranfield University, UK

Carol Saunders, University of Central Florida, USA

Susanne Strahringer, University of Dresden, Germany

Steffen Zimmermann, University of Innsbruck, Austria