For most car and truck manufacturers access to information about the status of produced vehicles end with their sale. With embedded connectivity units this changes so that manufacturers can gather data from vehicle in-build sensors and thus, gain insights into each products usage. Our study investigates why manufacturers aim to integrate connectivity units into their products to gather sensor based usage information and what hinders them to do so. Thereby, we aim to identify the factors that have an influence on the decision of vehicle manufacturers to adopt the concept of the vehicle digital twin. To unveil those factors, we conducted 30 expert interviews at two vehicle manufacturers in which we found benefits and barriers regarding the realization of a product digital twin. By conceptualizing the benefits and barriers, which have a positive or negative influence on the adoption decision from the perspective of the manufacturers, we were able to derive general influences on the adoption decision. In our adapted technology-organization-environment framework we found influences in the technological (i.e. product data and product heterogeneity), the organizational (i.e. business model orientation, readiness of internal processes and digital culture) and the environmental (i.e. competitors behaviour, legal regulations and customer demand) dimension.

Organizations are increasingly challenged to digitally transform themselves, and to respond to calls for increased sustainability. While the adoption of sustainable innovations, such as Green information systems (Green IS), are one way to address both challenges, there are only few insights that provide non-technology or company-specific insights into specific positive and negative Green IS outcomes. We address this shortcoming and shed light on Green IS adoption outcomes, as well as their interconnection to general sustainability initiatives in organizations. In a descriptive survey we find that many organizations already employ sustainability principles, but few incorporate Green IS. We confirm organizations almost exclusively report positive outcomes of Green IS usage, such as reduced resource consumption, increased compliance with regulations, and social acceptance. Based on these findings we suggest to especially further research the process of Green IS adoption.

Enterprise Architectures (EAs) are commonly visualized in the form of text, numbers, tables, graphs, models, and diagrams. These information visualization types are used to describe EAs in today’s organizations, but often lack an intuitive representation. In this paper, we provide another form of EA visualization utilizing the city metaphor. This spatial metaphor is suitable for visualizing complex information structures and potentially facilitates easy understanding of EAs, especially for non-IT staff. Based on a literature review and three rounds of open card sorting, we mapped eleven classes of EA objects to city elements. Our results enabled us to develop a formal language that allows an implementable and human-readable specification of various views, which we call EA City. We created an early stage 3D EA City prototype to demonstrate its applicability. Our model provides a solid foundation for further work on the city metaphor in the context of EA visualization.

Organizations and society nowadays face significant challenges. Organizations are required to fundamentally digital transform by assimilating Information Technology (IT) and Information System (IS) assets. Society faces an increasingly severe global climate disruption and needs to become more environmentally friendly. Green IT (GIT) and Green IS (GIS), as technologies and initiatives that seek to reduce the negative impacts of IT/IS on the environment, are a response to this. They can help organizations to gain a competitive advantage while also addressing broad-scale environmental issues. We undertake a literature review to frame the general GIT/GIS adoption process. We provide an overarching understanding by modeling a sequence of five cognitive adoption phases (outset, pre-adoption, adoption, post-adoption, and outcome) on four levels (environmental, societal, organizational, and individual). By recognizing that GIT/GIS adoption has multiple drivers and outcomes, we provide an extensive perspective on GIT/GIS adoption. 

Making informed decisions about historically grown and often complex business and Information Technology (IT) landscapes can be particularly difficult. Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) addresses this issue by enabling stakeholders to base their decisions on relevant information about the organization’s current and future Enterprise Architectures (EAs). However, visualization of EA is often confronted with low usefulness perceptions. Informed by the cognitive fit theory (CFT), we argue that decision-makers benefit from interacting with EA visualizations using Augmented Reality (AR), because it enables a consistent task-related mental representation based on the natural use of decision-makers’ visual-spatial abilities. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate ARs suitability for EA-related decision-making. We follow the design science research (DSR) approach to develop and evaluate an AR head-mounted display (HMD) prototype, using the Microsoft HoloLens. Our results suggest that EA-related decision-making can profit from applying AR, but users find the handling of the HMD device cumbersome. 

Urbach, N.; Ahlemann, F.: IT-Management im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung (Monograph). Springer, 2016. Abstract Details Full textCitation

In this book, Prof. Ahlemann and Prof. Nils Urbach discuss the implications of the current need for digitalization for companies and their IT. In the course of digitalization, IT organizations’ focus shifts from being a mere service provider to supporting the shaping of the business. IT is consequently increasingly required to cooperate proactively with other departments and to identify innovation possibilities.

The book’s target group includes IT managers, executives responsible for IT, and practice-oriented researchers, providing advice on how to react to, but also shape digital transformation.

Die gegenwärtigen Entwicklungen in Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft und Informationstechnologie führen zu veränderten Anforderungen an den modernen Wissensarbeitsplatz. Um diesen Anforderungen gerecht zu werden, sind die erforderlichen organisationalen und technologischen Voraussetzungen zu schaffen. Der vorliegende Beitrag geht der Frage nach, welche konkreten Anforderungen an den „Wissensarbeitsplatzplatz der Zukunft“ gestellt werden, welche Herausforderungen sich dadurch für das strategische IT-Management ergeben und wie die erforderlichen Entwicklungsschritte aktiv angegangen werden können. 

Bookstores have been strongly affected by the rise of electronic commerce. Traditional (physical) bookstores now have to compete with online counterparts that possess several advantages over them, such as lower prices and 24/7 availability. This paper investigates the influence that online bookstores have on the sales of physical bookstores in China. The geographic restriction is based on the particularities of the Chinese market that differentiate China from other markets, both in the book market as well as in the adoption of E-commerce. Since there is a lack of overview in the English academic literature on this topic, we conducted a literature review to summarize the current state of research. Our research highlights multiple advantages and disadvantages of physical and online bookstores in the Chinese market, which in turn influence the sales of traditional bookstores. This paper offers a theoretical and a practical contribution. Participants of the Chinese book market can use the results to better assess and improve their market position by addressing the disadvantages or building on the strengths identified during the review. Furthermore, this paper can serve as a starting point for English researchers, as almost no research on this topic has been published in English.

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