(Apologies for cross-postings of this announcement.)

 

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CALL FOR PAPERS

 

MIS Quarterly Executive

June 2017 Special Issue

"Digital Business Transformation and the Changing Role of the IT Function"

 

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SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS

 

Nils Urbach, University of Bayreuth, nils.urbach@uni-bayreuth.de (Primary contact)

Paul Drews, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, paul.drews@leuphana.de

Jeanne Ross, MIT Sloan School of Management, jross@mit.edu

 

 

MOTIVATION

 

Digital business transformation has a dramatic impact on the corporate world. Technological trends such as big data, the internet of things, mobile computing and cloud computing significantly influence processes, products, services and business models. The potential benefits resulting from this digitization trend are enormous. At the same time, these disruptive technologies and business models are forcing companies to rethink their strategies and capabilities – and to do so quickly. Well-established companies, in particular, face pressure from start-ups with their extraordinary potential for rapid innovation and high level of implementation competence.

 

Due to its inherent technology focus, the digitization trend has increased the importance of information technology and heightened demands on companies’ IT functions. Accordingly, besides ensuring the regular IT operations, IT functions are increasingly requested to proactively identify technological innovations and to rapidly transfer them into marketable solutions – and with that to directly contribute to the company’s overall success. Many IT functions do not have the necessary structures, processes and abilities to systematically develop business innovations. Additionally, they are often perceived as being too bureaucratic, hardly flexible and not on a par with the business departments. Hence, the IT function is undergoing a change that comprises new modes of internal organization as well as new forms of collaboration and alignment with other business departments. Furthermore, many IT units are taking on responsibility for providing digital services directly to the enterprise’s customers and consumers.

 

Given the importance of these changes to IT practice, MISQE is seeking papers for a special issue that will explore how IT functions can cope with the changes brought on by the digital economy, and how IT functions can enable, support or even drive the digital business transformation. With this special issue, we hope to contribute to discussions about the implications of digitization on the IT function, its structures, processes and people, as well as about the adjustments that are necessary to address the new challenges.

 

 

POSSIBLE TOPICS INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO

 

Organizational change, governance and business/IT relationship

o New organizational designs

o Bi/multimodal / two-speed / multi-speed IT organization

o New collaboration and alignment models between (digital) business and IT

o Demand management for developing digital services

o Changing IT governance structures and budgeting processes

o Role of the CIO / CDO

 

New IT capabilities

o Digital strategy development

o IT innovation management approaches

o Technology scouting

o Managing risks of digitization

 

Changes in the IT value chain / sourcing

o Changing integration of external partners

o New sourcing models and partners

o Integration of external innovation capacities

 

Changing development practices

o User-centered software development practices

o Agile project management

o Intermingling of software development and IT operations (DevOps)

 

Changes in IT infrastructure provisioning

o The future of cloud computing, cloud markets

o Standardization and adaptability of IT architectures

o Data center management

 

Changes in workforce

o Skill development for the digital age

o Developing the workplace of the future

 

 

IMPORTANT DATES AND REVIEW PROCESS

 

In the tradition of the MISQ Executive, the path to publication is fast-paced with rapid review turnaround. We encourage interested authors to contact the editors before submitting in order to receive early guidance and reduce review time.

 

Special Issue full paper submission deadline:  October 17, 2016

First editorial review sent to authors: November 28, 2016

Paper resubmission based on editor feedback deadline: January 9, 2017

Second editorial review, decision and suggestions to authors: February 20, 2017

Final submission of accepted papers deadline: April 3, 2017

MISQE publication: June 2017

 

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically via e-mail to the special issue editors. For the format of the papers, please follow the regular submission guidelines on the MISQE website. The size of the manuscript should be between 7,000 and 9,000 words.

 

 

EDITORIAL BOARD

 

Frederik Ahlemann, University of Duisburg-Essen

Cynthia Beath, McCombs School of Business

Tilo Böhmann, University of Hamburg

Andreas Drechsler, Victoria University of Wellington

Pernille Kræmmergaard, IT University of Copenhagen

Christine Legner, HEC Lausanne

M. Lynne Markus, Bentley University

Christian Matt, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich

Martin Mocker, ESB Reutlingen and MIT Sloan School of Management

Benjamin Mueller, University of Groningen

Joseph Nehme, HEC Paris

Joe Peppard, ESMT Berlin

Maximilian Röglinger, University of Bayreuth

Michael Rosemann, Queensland University of Technology

Sandra Sieber, IESE Business School

Mary Sumner, Southern Illinois University

Huseyin Tanriverdi, McCombs School of Business

Michael Wade, IMD Lausanne

Markus Westner, OTH Regensburg

Martin Wiener, Bentley University

Till Winkler, Copenhagen Business School

Robert Winter, University of St. Gallen

Stehanie Woerner, MIT Sloan School of Management

 

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Prof. Dr. Nils Urbach

 

Professor of Information Systems

and Strategic IT Management

 

University of Bayreuth

 

Wittelsbacherring 10

95444 Bayreuth
GERMANY

 

Phone +49 921 55-4712

Fax +49 921 55-84-4712

nils.urbach@uni-bayreuth.de

www.sim.uni-bayreuth.de