As IT became ubiquitous, we recognized that IT was everywhere but in our theories. Despite significant efforts, Information System (IS) research is still in desperate search for the IT artifact. Recent reviews show that IS research first and foremost considers IT resources as a socio-technical and managerial concern. Analyses of inertia are restricted to cognitive limitations or technical challenges of IT development and use as separate activities. Hence, IS research assumes that more development resources, extended training, and better management could turn most failures into success. In this thesis, I posit that IS strategy research often treats normal failure as unexpected to maintain the rational idea that managers are in control and that IT does not matter in and of itself. I argue that planned and convergent views of change work well under stable and unitary conditions but in this way fail to account for the complexity of current IS strategy practice. To substantiate this claim, I demonstrate how IS research routinely neglects the material IT use story in the context of digital transformation (DT) studies and social informatics. Political conflict is a constant theme in IS strategy implementation research, yet few studies provided explanation for the apprehension that managers and workers display during the introduction of new IT resources; even as most managers remain men I found also no study that theorized gender politics as related to IS strategy outcomes. I argue in particular that the IS fields routine adherence to borrowed assumptions about the pace, linearity, and sequence of radical change have limited IS scholars to marginally improve on received DT narratives in which IT plays little or no part as IT appears as an agent mostly before and after DT. Though much is said about how IT triggers and enables organizational change, the actual processes and mechanisms that underlies IS strategy change enactments are thus poorly understood. To examine how the material roles of IT resources and their political use can be captured and explained, I summarize and synthesize insights grounded in empirics from four appended research papers. In this way, I chart avenues for material theorizing of micro-affordances and institutions, and develop an IS strategy-as-practice lens that attends IT use as a material practice. After developing this lens, I discuss how material practice perspectives afford deep understanding of the materialities through which actors create, sustain, and transform organizational practice with digital material, and highlight some opportunities to observe the social consequences of IT use in the context of critical studies on men and masculinities and digital gender.
Information systems (IS) seem prevalent in modern societies and have resulted in the rapid digitalisation of different societal sectors. One application domain of IS is emergency response, which is responsible for delivering essential services to save lives and minimise environmental damage in both small , frequent and large-scale emergencies. Specific IS applications are in turn used in emergency response to support such aspects as decision-making, communication, information sharing and the dispatching of resources. Public-sector cut-backs and a lack of professional resources have affected emergency response at the same time as natural disasters (e.g. forest fires, tsunamis, storms, terror attacks, and wars in the Middle East leading to mass migration) have intensified in recent decades. At the same time, frequent, small-scale accidents continue to occur on a regular basis, both in urban and sparsely populated areas. As a result, emergency response actors, first responders, are often placed under severe pressure. An emerging trend in response to these challenges, both in Sweden and internationally, is to create cross-sector forms of collaboration, by combining alternative resources from various sectors. Such collaborations are relatively new and involve heterogeneous stakeholders. Therefore, the thesis objective is to explore IS-related opportunities, challenges and needs aimed at supporting heterogeneous actors in emerging cross-sector collaborations in emergency response in order to enable and facilitate future related IS development. To achieve this, a user-centred approach was applied. A baseline study was performed followed by three case studies on 'co-location of actors', 'co-operative use of resources' and 'semi-professionals as first responders' by performing interviews, focus groups, participant observation, Future Workshops, an exercise and an after-action review. The thesis is based on case study research and qualitative research methods. Sociotechnical systems theory, the sociotechnical ensemble view, and network governance were used as the analytical framework. As part of achieving the thesis objectives, experiences from applying user participation in the context of cross-sector collaboration are also presented as part of the results. A context-specific framework developed to systematise and explore various important aspects of cross-sector collaboration in emergency response is also described. The results of this thesis indicate that the needs for IS in cross-sector collaborations vary from simple smartphone applications to manage alarms, positioning and the dispatching of new resources, to more sophisticated tools for sharing and viewing incident data. The results also indicate that these collaborations have the potential (e.g. resource redundancy, pooled competencies to increase total capacity) to improve Swedish emergency response if supported by adequate IS/IT support. The major challenges are organisational, economic and juridical and the most prominent are ambiguities in actors' tasks and responsibilities, and how to prioritise between ordinary work and 'new' first-response tasks. They must be addressed to enable certain IS-functions, e.g. information sharing and positioning of resources The results also highlight several institutional factors (e.g. mutual interest between members, collective problem-solving, secrecy aspects) which are believed to play a key role in the success or failure of the collaborations and which must be adressed in the development of IS-support. The actors also have substantial basic needs for training (e.g. fire extinguishing, first aid) and emergency supplies (e.g. fire extinguishers, healthcare kits). Applying user participation also faced challenges, the major one being the development of a future cross-sector collaboration in a context that does not yet exist, and involving stakeholders from resource-strained organisations in doing so. The stakeholders, and sometimes also the primary end-users, are partly unknown and tasks are undefined. As a response to these challenges, a combination of activities based on multiple design groups, scenario-based Future Workshops, focus groups, the context-specific framework, a practical exercise and an after-action-review was provided. The framework, which was used to support data collection and user participation, includes 15 dimensions each intended to represent important aspects of cross-sector collaboration. The thesis major contributions are the identified opportunities, challenges and need as a 'sociotechnical ensemble' and generated and from several studies, thus being comparable. The thesis more theoretical contributions is the combined application of the sociotechnical ensemble view and network governance where the studied collaboration forms are characterised as a hybrid form of networks and more traditional government mechanisms and where it is pointed out that network governance lacks explicit IS/IT aspects. In a wider perspective, the research fields of IS and political science may cross-fertilise each other when studying emerging cross-sector collaboration in the public sector. Identified user participation challenges relevant to the cross-sector collaboration context, suggestions on how they can be handled and the context-specific framework are contributions that can be used in practical user-centred IS development in similar contexts. ; Informationssystem (IS) används idag i de flesta verksamheter inom respons och räddningsområdet t.ex. för beslutsstöd, kommunikation, informationsutbyte och resurspositionering. Fel i systemen kan bidra till misslyckad samverkan vid räddningsinsatser som i sin tur kan riskera människors liv och orsaka skador på miljö och infrastruktur vid såväl små, frekventa olyckor som storskaliga händelser, kriser och katastrofer. Budgetnedskärningar, brist på professionella resurser, naturkatastrofer (t.ex. skogsbränder, stormar) och terrorattacker är några exempel på utmaningar som har intensifierats under de senaste decennierna. Samtidigt fortsätter frekventa, småskaliga olyckor att inträffa, både i urbana och i glesbygdsområden. Därför är responsaktörerna ofta under hård press. Ett sätt att hantera utmaningarna, både i Sverige och internationellt, är tvärsektoriella samverkansformer som i sin tur involverar ofta heterogena samhällsresurser. Samarbetskontexten är förhållandevis ny och de involverade aktörerna och deras behov delvis okända. Avhandlingen syftar därför till att utforska IS-relaterade möjligheter, utmaningar och behov för att stödja heterogena aktörer inom nya tvärsektoriella framväxande samverkansformer i svensk respons och räddning. För att utforska detta användes en användarcentrerad ansats. Därför genomfördes en bakgrundsstudie och tre fallstudier på 'samlokalisering av aktörer', 'sambruk av resurser' och 'semi-professionella som förstainsatspersoner' genom att utföra intervjuer, fokusgrupper, deltagande observation, Future Workshops, och en övning med följande After-Action-Review. Avhandlingen bygger därmed på fallstudieforskning och kvalitativa forskningsmetoder. 'Socioteknisk systemteori', begreppet 'socioteknisk ensemble' och 'network governance' teori används som forskningens analytiska ramverk. Som ett led i att uppfylla syftet presenteras dessutom erfarenheter från användarmedverkan i kontexten tvärsektoriell samverkan som ett delresultat samt ett kontext-specifikt ramverk utvecklat för att systematisera och utforska olika viktiga aspekter av tvärsektoriell samverkan i respons- och räddningsverksamhet. Avhandlingens resultat visar att behoven av IS i tvärsektoriella samverkansformer varierar från enkla smartphoneapplikationer för larmhantering, positionering och utryckning av nya resurser, till mer sofistikerade verktyg för informationsdelning och gemensamma lägesbilder. Resultaten pekar också mot att med rätt IS stöd har samverkansformerna potential (t.ex. i form av resursredundans, gemensam pool för ökad kapacitet) för att förbättra svensk räddningsverksamhet. De stora utmaningarna är organisatoriska, ekonomiska och juridiska. De mest framträdande är otydligheter i aktörernas uppgifter, roll och ansvar, och hur man prioriterar mellan sitt befintliga arbete och "nya" förstainsatser. Utmaningarna måste lösas för att möjliggöra IS-funktioner, till exempel vid informationsdelning och resurspositionering. Resultaten belyser också explicit flera institutionella faktorer (t.ex. gemensamt intresse och mål, kollektiv problemlösning, sekretesshantering) som tros ha en nyckelroll i samverkansformernas realisering och som måste hanteras i utveckling av relaterat IS-stöd. Aktörerna har också grundläggande behov av träning (t.ex. brandsläckning, första hjälpen) och utrusning (t.ex. brandsläckare, sjukvårdskit). Tillämpningen av användarmedverkan visade också på utmaningar, varav den främsta var att utveckla framtida tvärsektoriell samverkan i ett sammanhang som ännu inte existerar och att involvera intressenter från organisationer med ansträngda resurser för att genomföra detta. Intressenterna, ibland även de primära slutanvändarna, är delvis okända och uppgifterna är odefinierade. Som ett sätt att hantera utmaningarna genomfördes en kombination av aktiviteter som baserades på multipla designgrupper, scenariobaserade Future Workshops, fokusgrupper, ett kontextspecifikt ramverk, en övning och en After-Action-Review samt det kontext-specifika ramverket. Ramverket som användes för att stödja datainsamling och användarmedverkan innehåller 15 dimensioner som är tänkta att representera viktiga aspekter av tvärsektoriella samverkansformer. Avhandlingens främsta bidrag är de identifierade möjligheterna, utmaningarna och behoven som en 'social ensemble' och som genererade och jämförbara ur flera studier. Avhandlingens mer teoretiska bidrag är den kombinerade tillämpningen av 'sociotechnical ensemble' och 'network governance' där de studerade samverkansformerna lyfts fram som en blandform av nätverk och mer traditionella styrmekanismer och där det påpekas att network governance saknar explicita IS/IT delar. I ett större sammanhang kan forskningsfälten IS och statsvetenskap kan komplettera varandra vid studier av framväxande tvärsektoriell samverkan i offentlig sektor. Relevanta utmaningar vid användarmedverkan i kontexten, förslag på hur de kan hanteras och det kontext-specifika ramverket är bidrag som kan används i praktisk användarcentrerad IS-utveckling i liknande sammanhang.
This research initially sprung out of a natural curiosity for the emerging phenomenon of open data with its combination of democratic perspectives, since it is based on freedom of information legislation, and its potential for a multitude of citizen driven innovations. Research showed that while open data repeatedly was being envisioned for having immense potential of leading to a multitude of innovations and societal impacts, most of the attention still remained on challenges related to enable a broad realisation of open data, that is, putting more data on the web. At the same time, research and reports indicated that open data was a more complex matter than expected, and that the release of open data was guarded by myths saying that opening up of data equalled instant benefits from open data use, and that open data initiatives were emerging too slowly. In general, the understanding of how to address open data so that the envisioned innovative potential was enabled remained a pressing issue. Therefore this research set out to explore how the public sector open data phenomenon is being shaped to address societal opportunities and challenges, and thereby enabling both practical and theoretic contributions. The field of Social Shaping of Technology (SST) was chosen as main theoretic lens since it provided good models for approaching technology development and innovation in general, and also includes social and political dimensions without being limited by organisational borders or managerial dimensions. By engaging in a case study of two Swedish municipalities and their respective open data initiatives in combination with a study on European policies and reported open data use, a number of research papers has been written, of which four is included in this thesis.Findings reveal that the highly heterogeneous evolvement of open data can advantageously be seen as shaped into a metaphorical open arena for innovation and value creation, inspired by a SST concept called arenas for development. The arena concept enables us to bring together processes and entities that otherwise are dislocated, and to gain a holistic view of the shaping processes at stake for this yet immature ICT-phenomenon. Also, it allows us to address the evolvement of open data in a way that intertwines with social, political and technical aspects. Within the overall concept of an open arena for innovation and value creation, the research revealed two concepts for understanding how societal challenges and opportunities were addressed with the help of open data; multidirectional and multicentre evolvement, of which the latter is a contribution to SST theory. As a final reflection, this thesis provides some thoughts on future implications and possibilities of the democratic stance of open data. ; Godkänd; 2014; 20141121 (joslas); Nedanstående person kommer att hålla licentiatseminarium för avläggande av filosofie licentiatexamen. Namn: Josefin Lassinantti Ämne: Informatik / Social Informatics Uppsats: Public Sector Open Data -Shaping an Arena for Innovation and Value Creation Examinator: Professor Birgitta Bergvall-Kåreborn Institutionen för system- och rymdteknik Avdelning: Datavetenskap Diskutant: Professor Debra Howcroft Manchester Business School Tid: Torsdag den 4 december 2014 kl 09.30 Plats: A1547, Luleå tekniska universitet ; System förAnvändardriven TjänsteInnovation Etapp 2
Information technology facilitates production and spreading of information, as well as enables the transformation towards e-government and e-services. As a consequence, numerous official documents are born digital, i.e. no paper originals exist. Although there is a lot of ongoing research in digital preservation and digital curation, how digital material is to be preserved for the long-term is still an issue. In the area most research concerns technological aspects. However, the point of departure for this thesis is that the challenge of long-term digital preservation also demands human, social and organizing considerations. This is explored on the basis of how people involved in digital preservation understand, experience and interpret the current situation. The methodological approaches for this thesis are found in interpretative and feminist technoscience perspectives. The Research is also influenced by design perspectives, such as participatory design and systems design, where the latter involves Viable System theories. The empirical material was gathered through participant observations, brainstorming, future workshops, and individual and group interviews. Additional contributions to this study consists of recurrent discussions with systems developers at the Long-term Digital Preservation Centre. The empirical material has been analyzed through ongoing interpretations, discourse analysis, by mapping actors and agendas, and also by themes that have arisen during the research. The research was initiated by exploring the current situation as understood, experienced and interpreted by archivists. Findings from the initial studies suggested that cooperation and communication around digital preservation were not functioning well in many organizations today. Also, responsibility questions were unclear, such as which functions and roles are responsible for digital preservation and what kinds of responsibility are then involved. These questions constituted the continuation of the research and additional studies were made, now from organizing perspectives. A governmental authority has contributed with a 'best practice' case, which is demonstrated through the lenses of the Viable System Model (VSM) and its underlying theories. The VSM is in this research used as a plan for how to organize digital preservation. However, a plan needs recurrent revisions since people (and technologies) do not always act as supposed. Rather the actions tend to be based on available understandings and knowledges, i.e. situated actions. These in turn, can be viewed as related to ongoing reconfigurations of the world - agency. The main findings are that in order to organize for digital preservation, archival creating organizations should pay attention to humans, technology and the overall organization, and the interplay between these parts. There should be efforts for facilitating collaboration and communication among staff. Identification of preservation processes and where they take place in the organization is important. This can be the foundation for clarification of tasks and responsibilities, where the responsibilities are threefold; the practical, the technological and the strategic. When working on a plan for organizing digital preservation, it is also preferable to involve the staff concerned.Moreover, information technology makes possible the accessibility of the digital material in a totally different way than paper, or analogue archival material. This makes it necessary to modify the view of archives. Hence, a new view of archives is provided; as a more active and living part of the entire information assets held by an organization. ; Godkänd; 2009; 20090504 (mar_run); DISPUTATION Ämnesområde: Informatik / Social Informatics Opponent: Dr /Docent Agneta Ranerup, IT-universitetet vid Göteborgs Universitet Ordförande: Dr/Professor Ann Hägerfors, Luleå tekniska universitet Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Fredag 5 juni 2009, klockan 10:00 Plats: A-huset, sal A109, LTU
The objectives of this study were to analyse: (i) efficiency gains that a municipality would gain by publishing accounts payable data as open data; and (ii) socio-economic effects with a major focus on democracy aspects. Summarising, we can state that potential efficiency gains related to opening accounts payable data can be significant, which was also confirmed by previous studies. Based on experience of Swedish municipalities publishing accounts payable as open data, we have made an estimation of potential efficiency gains due to reduced time to answer inquiries coming from citizens, journalists, and organisations. Based on these assessments, the potential efficiency gains may reach approximately 2 million kr per year for large municipalities. Additionally, availability of open data on accounts payable may result in further reduction of time needed to handle an inquiry due to opportunity to direct a person to thee open data file, a more exact and specific question formulation, and reduced number of inquiries. It was found that democratic aspects in publishing accounts payable were perceived as more important than potential time savings and efficiency gains. This is especially important for smaller municipalities, which do not get that many inquiries and cannot expect the same level of savings effect. Democracy aspects are closely related to transparency, openness, and opportunity to push procurement prices down. All this leads to even greater savings for municipalities. Another important aspect is finding mistakes and discovery of corruption cases. Elimination of such cases in the future would result in considerable savings at national level. One of the important findings of this research is the fact that municipalities already publishing open data do not see any related risks, while municipalities that are only preparing to publish open data see a number of risks related to open data publishing. The major concerns are related to confidentiality, privacy, and secrecy risks, unclear quality of data, and increased workload for some units. We also make a number of recommendations from different perspectives, which could accelerate the process of open data publishing. This analysis was carried out by Tatjana Apanasevic from RISE Research Institutes of Sweden as a part of Nationell Skalning Öppna Data (NSÖD) project, financed by Vinnova. The analysis is based on primary data collected through interviews with seven municipalities (the City of Gothenburg, the City of Lidingö, Skövde, Varberg, Karlskrona, Uppsala, and Skellefteå), a service provider, consultants working with open data, and three (data) journalists.
In the European Union significant asymmetries prevail among member states in the most diverse areas. The telecom sector is no exception to this, with some members being much more advanced than others. Within the member states asymmetries also occur. And if we extrapolate this to a broader audience, for example the OECD, the European Union has been far away from some other members in what concerns asymmetries within own countries, with Japan and South Korea being the most evident. In 2016 the European Commission proposed a new regulatory framework for the telecom sector which was adopted in late 2018 by the European Parliament and must be transposed to national laws by member-states by late 2020. As we move towards the digital revolution, the so-called industry 4.0, the new EU regulatory framework has the aim of removing most of these asymmetries, by guaranteeing that most citizens will have access to a very fast Internet connection regardless of where they live. This regulatory framework provides some guidance and goals and funding objectives, but for operators and governments this is just not sufficient per se. Against this background, the overall research issue of this thesis is a methodological approach to how to determine the best access technology from a multi-criteria and multi-stakeholder perspective. In particular, to provide coverage in a certain region who lacks service a priori (therefore unprofitable by nature), problematics to be addressed include: i) what are exactly the new regulatory framework guidelines; ii) which strategic operational model to use; iii) what is the most appropriate technology to achieve these objectives; iv) how to handle the pricing incognita and all the financial component; v) how risky it is to make these objectives a reality.
The concept of digital divides has been on the agenda in research and policy making for at least the last 20 years. But it is still, a challenge to grasp this concept that is so elusive and transforming. Inclusion, access and equality are still key values for democraticgovernance and must be addressed in particular whenforming and contributing to a digital government. This paper seeks to intervene in current debates on digital divides and digital inclusion by analyzing two cases of responses among street-level public administration in relation to e-government services in Sweden. The case studies are strategically chosen and conducted in national agencies and in local public libraries. Three lines of contributions are discussed, firstly theimportance to care for equality secondly the need to see the non-users, and thirdly to discuss the potential of putting focus on digital diversity.
Collaboration in the public sector is imperative to achieve e-government objectives such as improved efficiency and effectiveness of public administration and improved quality of public services. Collaboration across organizational and institutional boundaries requires public organizations to share e-government systems and services through for instance, interoperable information technology and processes. Demands on public organizations to become more open also require that public organizations adopt new collaborative approaches for inviting and engaging citizens in governmental activities. E-government related collaboration in the public sector is challenging, however, and collaboration initiatives often fail. Public organizations need to learn how to collaborate since forms of e-government collaboration and expected outcomes are mostly unknown. How public organizations can collaborate and the expected outcomes are thus investigated in this thesis by studying multiple collaboration cases on the acquisition and implementation of a particular e-government investment (digital archive). This thesis also investigates how e-government collaboration can be facilitated through artifacts. It is done through a case study, where objects that cross boundaries between collaborating communities in the public sector are studied, and by designing a configurable process model integrating several processes for social services. By using design science, this thesis also investigates how an m-government solution that facilitates collaboration between citizens and public organizations can be designed. The thesis contributes to literature through describing five different modes of interorganizational collaboration in the public sector and the expected benefits from each mode. It also contributes with an instantiation of a configurable process model supporting three open social e-services and with evidence of how it can facilitate collaboration. This thesis further describes how boundary objects facilitate collaboration between different communities in an open government design initiative. It contributes with a designed mobile government solution, thereby providing proof of concept and initial design implications for enabling collaboration with citizens through citizen sourcing (outsourcing a governmental activity to citizens through an open call). This thesis also identifies research streams within e-government collaboration research through a literature review and the thesis contributions are related to the identified research streams. This thesis gives directions for future research by suggesting that future research should focus further on understanding e-government collaboration and how information and communication technology can facilitate collaboration in the public sector. It is suggested that further research should investigate m-government solutions to form design theories. Future research should also examine how value can be co-created in e-government collaboration.
Commercial organizations are experiencing a growing need to access business-criticaldata in the longer term of their operations. Governmental regulations as well as commercial interestsinfluence this need. Organizations are willing to procure cost-effective services to this end - servicesthat are increasingly based as public or private cloud solutions. With the advent of autonomous cloudservices comes the possibility to assemble (mix and match) preservation services in a workflowbasedservice-oriented solution. Following the interaction with information managers in (three)commercial organizations operating in different markets and after a review of current literature, wehave revealed a lack of comprehensive guidelines and decision support in service selection as part ofpreservation planning. Existing models and frameworks used for assessing the quality of preservationservices either manage performance-based features that service provider's offer or the technicaldetails of the preservation actions themselves. In this paper we present our preservation-planningframework (Preserv-Qual) that addresses the need for decision support in the selection ofpreservation services that explicitly acknowledge the differences among aspects of information usewithin an organization. We describe the outcome from an evaluation of the framework in threecommercial organisations as a service quality assessment and decision support tool. This papershows how our framework supports the use of existing and proven methods, models and principlesfor service assessment, digital preservation and decision support. ; Godkänd; 2014; 20140624 (ingand)
Disclosure is all about communication and Genres are about analyzing communicative action. "Genres of Disclosure" as repetitive patterns of disclosing has given less attention. Drawing on Palen and Dourish's work, this paper expand its defined scope from a social approach into a more socio-technical approach. Evolutionized by the affordances of a new digital medium, new genres have emerged. We called these new subgenres, secondary genres of disclosure. We provide a taxonomy for these type of genres and some real examples to illuminate the concept. Implications of use for designing privacy and venues for further research are discussed. It is concluded that "Genres of Disclosure" can serve as a common language between users, system providers and legislators to preserve privacy within any system that has consequences for personal privacy. ; Godkänd; 2014; 20141008 (alipad); Konferensartikel i tidskrift
In this paper we present findings from the CASSANDRA project, in the area of energy efficiency. We set out to explore what view on energy efficiency elderly individual tenants and the European Union (EU) convey, respectively, as well as whether their respective views differ or not. Data used are a) qualitative interviews with 15 tenants at a multi-residential building for elderly people; and b) EU Directives in relation to energy efficiency. We find that environmental concerns are shared by both parties, and that resources are limited is also agreed upon. Where they differ is around growth and lack of information, of which the first is not an issue for the tenants, and the other they regard to be wrong – they see themselves as informed. Of specific interest was whether the tenants was aware, knowledgeable and motivated or not, since this is regarded to be preconditions for energy efficiency, according to the EU. Our findings show that most individual consumers show great concern for the environment, and they claim that they are raised and taught in being economic with all resources. ; Godkänd; 2014; 20140825 (marrun)
This study set out to investigate how user groups and their relation to impactswithin open data phenomena were being portrayed in two levels of official EU documents; policy documents and a set of topic reports. Specifically, we also searched for implications thereof on the believed scene for open data based innovations. Findings reveal highly contradicting views of user groups, where the policy documents mainly explicitly acknowledged user groups belonging to the ICT sector and drawing on economic values. The topic reports on the other hand presented a much more diverse picture of open data users, as ranging from various sectors and with a broader engagement in the realisation process thanmere re-use. These differences were seen to be fuelled by myths about new ICT at the policy level, which also infused a range of possible implications for a future innovation scene based on open data re-use. In particular, possible implications were found in four areas; 1) what user groups were acknowledged, 2) what parts of the realisation process users engaged in, 3) what skills where deemed important, and, 4) what impact user groups were aiming for. Also, this provides implications for how open data success is measured and evaluated. ; Godkänd; 2014; 20140611 (joslas) ; System förAnvändardriven TjänsteInnovation Etapp 2
This thesis describes and analyses the move from individual adoption to institutionalisation of an information technology innovation: online education in universities. The study focuses on the processes that took place within two universities, one in Sweden and the other in Argentina, regarding online education adoption and the organisational changes developed. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of individual and organisational strategies for the institutionalisation of the innovation. To achieve this aim, three research questions were posed. The first focused on the way in which teachers influence the adoption processes. The next addressed the changes and interactions at the individual and institutional levels resulting from these processes. The third question deepened into the methodological practices that can harmonise stakeholders" objectives and the conflicting interests regarding online education initiatives. Innovation theory, complemented with organisational theories provided the foundation for the description and analysis of the information technology innovation and the adoption processes. The results of analysing and interpreting the collected data from the two universities in two different countries (Sweden and Argentina) showed that the adoption processes appeared to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The iterative nature of the appropriation and the constant "newness" of the information technology innovation may be plausible explanations for the phenomenon. Though the change has not yet become an integral part of the formal core of the institutions, it has been a great achievement considering the universities" structure, culture and resources. The contributions provide complementary and pluralistic insights into the research field of Information Systems, for both theory and practice, as well as into higher education managers" decision-making. Furthermore, the knowledge contribution of the thesis could be applied to implementation of information technology innovations in other organisations with similar characteristics as the studied higher education institutions. Such characteristics are, for example, to be complex and knowledge intensive. Interactions at macro and micro organisational levels could be modelled as the cyclic linkage between sensemaking outcomes and institutionalized structures. A higher level of theorization resulted in a meta-theory model to describe and explain the linkage itself within the perspective of adaptive structuration theory. Regarding practice, scholar-engaged research allowed conflicting interests to be reconciled by changing the existing practices through sensemaking and negotiation among stakeholders in an ongoing implementation. As an overall conclusion, online education is still far from being fully institutionalised. After four years of technological and contextual changes during the research development, a positive shift can be seen in teachers" attitude towards online education. They show more confidence in working with constantly improved virtual environments. Nevertheless, there are still key factors that need to be faced regarding online education adoption and institutionalisation. These factors are of a strategic nature and the way to handle them seems to be more political than technological or pedagogical.
The recent opening up of government data in open digital formats is believed to emerge into a new innovation scene. This paper analyses two Swedish open data initiatives from the perspective of inside-out open innovation in order to develop a better understanding of this on-going process from within a public sector perspective. Findings reveal that the governmental context leads to a dual mode of innovation; where the providers of resources for innovation act in an inside-out innovation process but the users of the very same resources acted as innovators in an outside-in innovation process. Together this formed a broad societal framework for innovation. For the cocreation of innovations, public sector participation was also found to vary on a passive-active scale, while the external data users as innovators were always actively involved. This study also contributes to business open innovation with its findings of open innovation on a societal level. ; Godkänd; 2013; Bibliografisk uppgift: Nominated for best student paper award.; 20131120 (joslas) ; System förAnvändardriven TjänsteInnovation Etapp 2
During the last years, spotlight has landed on the digitally formed 'open data' as both a main ingredient of open government (Lathrop et al. 2010) with its focus on transparency and participation (Meijer et al. 2012), and as a mean for forming a new information market and leveraging new digital services (Cox et al. 2003), (Janssen 2011a). This new phenomena has led the public sector into a changed relationship with citizens (Maier-Rabler et al. 2011), and has also opened the door for citizens to interpret the previously closed public sector data into new innovative services and new truths (Margetts 2011). Still it is not yet clear how the relation with citizens as service developers can be made to work, and empirical findings reveal a major uncertainty about this relation and its characteristics.This research proposal sets out to explore the relationship between data owners in public sector and service developers/owner that utilises public sector open data in order to find answers to how this relation can be made to leverage regional growth. Used methods are qualitative case studies of two Swedish municipals, in combination with a netnography study of a citizen initiated discussion forum about public sector open data. ; Godkänd; 2012; 20121123 (joslas)