News

Three paper from the BAS-Team accepted for presentation at the HICSS-49

49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, January 5-8, 2016, Kauai, Hawaii, US

We are pleased about the acceptance of the three following articles at the 49. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-49). Sven Dittes and Professor Stefan Smolnik will present the papers at HICSS-49 to be on January 05 – 08, 2016 at Kauai, Hawaii, USA.

1) Silke Weißenfels, Katharina Ebner, Sven Dittes, Stefan Smolnik: Does the IS Artifact Matter in Sociomateriality Research? A Literature Review of Empirical Studies

Summary: A fundamental objective of IS research is the investigation of the dynamic interplay between the social and the material. As a consequence, the concept of sociomateriality has evolved to depict the interaction of the social and material in different environments, such as organizations. Although various definitions have emerged, sociomateriality remains a buzzword; however, its application in real world settings often remains unclear. Our study’s objective is to assess the IS artifact in sociomaterial research and to clarify the intertwining of the social and material agencies. On the basis of the conceptualization of the IS artifact and the dominances of the agencies, we suggest a framework to systematically evaluate the artifact’s role in sociomaterial research settings, and derive opportunities and potentials for future research on sociomateriality. Our approach will be helpful to focus greater attention on the dynamic interplay and the role of the IS artifact in sociomaterial inquiries.

2) Sven Dittes, Stefan Smolnik: Is it an Antecedent? Is it an Outcome? No, it’s Culture! Understanding the Relationship between Cultural Values and the Use of Information Systems Fostering Collaboration

Summary: Information systems (IS) that foster collaboration in organizations, such as knowledge management systems (KMS), enterprise social software (ESS), and collaboration systems, have shown the potential to improve employees’ work quality and performance. However, leveraging these benefits is highly dependent on the influence of cultural values within the organization. Furthermore, using such systems is said to have also the potential to change cultural values. Based on these insights, we conducted a comprehensive literature review in order to understand whether and how empirical studies observe such effects. Our review shows that empirical studies uncovering the phenomenon of reciprocity between cultural values and the use of IS to foster collaboration is still scarce. As a result of our study, we derive a research agenda that includes research opportunities to study this relationship in an organizational setting.

3) Murray E. Jennex, Stefan Smolnik, David T. Croasdell: The Search for Knowledge Management Success

Summary: Defining when a knowledge management (KM) project or initiative is successful is difficult. Jennex, Smolnik, and Croasdell propose that KM success is measured in four dimensions: impact on business processes, impact on KM strategy, leadership/management support, and knowledge content [20], [21]. This study proposes a set of measures that operationalizes these four dimensions. A survey explores the extent to which these measures are observed in specific KM projects or initiatives. Results from the survey identify 20 items indicating KM success and provides evidence that the KM success dimensions are significant.