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- Erixon, Cecilia
(author)
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Information System Providers and Business Relationships : A Study on the Impact of Connections
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Information systems are integrated in the daily business of companies, to support the exchanges with its counterparts. To manage these information systems, companies often turn to third parties: information system providers (IS-providers). IS-providers have competences that the companies become dependent on and they are therefore important for maintaining the company’s business performance. The companies develop dependencies on their information systems and thereby also on their IS-providers. This thesis studies the connection between a company’s relationships with IS-providers and its other business relationships.A single case study of how a focal company’s IS-providers impact the company’s customer relationships is conducted. The applied analytical framework combines an information system’s perspective and a business relationship perspective. The analytical level is guided by the concept of connection, which has its origin in the business relationship perspective. The information system’s perspective illustrates the characteristics of the information systems that the IS-providers manage. The business relationship perspective studies each business relationship as unique, originating in different exchanges and behaviour.The single case study involves five customer relationships and four IS-provider relationships, creating twenty within-cases. The results show that IS-providers impact differently on the business relationships of companies. The impact on companies is contingent on the information exchanges with the IS-providers, which integrate the information systems in their customer business relationships. The impact is explained by the strength of the connection and the degree of continuity of the connection. The strength of the connection depends on how the information system is used and which of the IS-providers are connected. The impact from one IS-provider can be described as a homogenous impact on all the connected business relationships. However, different IS-providers have different types of impacts, meaning that when a company has several IS-providers, the impact is heterogeneous. The study shows that the impact is most commonly positive.The thesis is of interest for researchers who wish to understand the interconnectedness between business relationships, and of value for business professionals, who wish to increase their understanding of the complex situation of using IS-providers for management of their information systems and the impact they have on their other business relationships.
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- Ekman, Peter, et al.
(author)
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Enterprise Resource Planning Systems : Expanding the Perspective
- 2004
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Modern Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) allow firms to integrate their information and control their departments. The ERPs are originally developed to handle a single firms production process, which means that their effects can be interpreted as affecting a firm intraorganizational. With the later growth of interorganizational usage of ERPs, something that is described as ERP2, firms can expand the ERP to include interorganizational usage (i.e. with different business partners). When doing so, the ERP design can’t only support internal routines, but it also have to adapt to the activities that are carried out with business partners. This article discusses the need to widening the perspective when examining ERPs in a business context; to not only involve intraorganizational or interorganizational issues, but to use both perspectives simultaneously. It also shows how the internal (intraorganizational) usage of the ERP can be interpreted as more rigid and governing than the use in the business interaction with others (interorganizational), which is more ad hoc. A case study indicates that the ERP use in the business interaction is less frequent or even dismissed and that other information systems (IS), suitable for the activities that are carried out with the business partners, are preferred. This highlights the need of considering the users needs, their activities, and their business interaction when designing ERPs that are support the business interaction with other firms.
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- Ekman, Peter, et al.
(author)
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Information Systems Use as a Result of External Influences
- 2006
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In: microCAD 2006 International Scientific Conference. - 9636617147 ; , s. 73-78
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The use of an information system (IS) can be studied as a result of all the efforts that an organization has put on the introduction of IS, as for example change management, user training, support training and proper technical infrastructure. The description takes its starting point in the organization per se, whilst the one in this paper is external. In this paper, a complementary perspective is offered that can explain the final use of an IS, illustrated by three empirical papers. The use of an IS can be a result of the interorganizational influences as customers, suppliers or other stakeholders. The paper shows that the external environment has a direct effect on how the user experiences an IS and uses it.
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- Karlsudd, Peter
(author)
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SUPPORT FOR LEARNING - POSSIBILITIES AND OBSTACLES IN LEARNING APPLICATIONS
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this thesis an overarching analysis is made of four articles published in refereed international journals. The articles are describing the development and implementation of learning support systems/learning support applications. The text which summarizes and retrospectively analyzes the projects described in the articles has been condensed into yet another article, which has been placed at the end of the thesis. This makes a total of five articles. In the analysis that is made of learning support applications the following questions are in focus: What results have the projects achieved and how have the experiences gained been utilized? What factors in the described projects have facilitated or hindered the idea, vision, design and implementation of the learning support systems? How have university intentions of supporting entrepreneurship and the commercialization of ideas and products benefited the projects? The results show that there are a great many similarities in the ideas and visions that have initiated and affected the learning support work. Improved communication and availability are expected from all the applications, as well as coordination, creating order and an overarching view. In spite of a large number of positive users, it has been difficult for the applications described to become integrated into the organizations. One possible reason for this is the bad anchoring of the projects in the management organization. Further, there was a lack of funding in the final phases of the projects, which considerably reduced the chances of establishing and continuing operating them. In the gap arising between the end of the implementation phase and the possible application for and granting of new funding, the project dies out of itself. One way of reversing this trend is to grant means for continued work and to get the organization and administration to upgrade the value of a learning application that has become established in the organization.
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- Aidemark, Jan
(author)
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Strategic Planning of Knowledge Management Systems : A Problem Exploration Approach
- 2007
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Knowledge management (KM) is focused on the problems and opportunities of using organizational knowledge as a resource. Information systems that are used to support KM processes are called knowledge management systems (KMS). A KMS is distinguished from any information system by the organizational processes that it supports, that is, creation, capture, storage and dissemination of competences and knowledge. The research area can be summarized as: “Perspectives and frameworks for the strategic planning of knowledge management systems, i.e. information systems for the support of organizational knowledge processes”. We approach the problem area from a strategic point of view, assuming that the problems of the area are based on a socio-technical dimension and that a multiple-paradigm approach is necessary for dealing with the problems of the various KM areas. The research strategy applied to achieve this is interpretative case studies. A number of case studies are used for exploring KM planning areas, developing frameworks for planning and testing the resulting approach. The empirical material consists of three main case studies, together with a number of secondary cases by other writers in the KM field. The outcome of the research is a planning approach, which is given the name: “The problem exploration approach”. The approach is intended for the generation of ideas of possible systems, as a strategic part of knowledge management systems planning. The purpose of the planning approach is to support the creation of a portfolio of KMS. A KMS portfolio is a structured set of information systems that could be developed for an organizational unit. The approach consists of five planning frameworks, all targeting different aspects of an organization. “The problem exploration approach” and its development process are then examined for more general insights into the subject of strategic KM planning. As an outcome of this examination a 12-point program for balancing a planning approach is presented.
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