Information Systems and e-Business Management最新文献

Complex supply chains require coordination efforts from supply chain partners. The concept of the service control tower plays an essential role in the transition towards Logistics 4.0 and coordination in supply chains. This paper analyses the concept of the (service) control tower. We find different (service) control tower applications in the literature. Some are focused on a specific domain (e.g., transportation and pharmaceutical logistics), while others have a more generic approach. We review available architectures and determine strengths and gaps. Additionally, we find that the construction of inter-organizational systems is complex. We explore the process of collaboration in four phases. Next, we define the service control tower and recognize four levels that organizations construct to create the system. However, in an inter-organizational context, strategic interests cause conflict and result in different technical and business dilemmas. We identify several dilemmas based on experts’ inputs during workshops with companies in constructing a service control tower. Most dilemmas occur in an early stage of development and are often related to the system’s governance, data sharing and IT integration. Finally, we provide potential users, developers and researchers of (service) control towers with a maintenance-oriented architecture for service control towers.

Unemployment is a pressing societal problem world-wide. The consequences of unemployment are disproportionately more severe for older individuals. Building on literature on digital technologies in the context of unemployment and social support in digital peer groups, we design and evaluate a novel job counseling approach to leverage the power of digital peer groups to assist older unemployed individuals in regaining employment. Our approach supplements the traditional one-on-one offline counseling. It is specifically designed for older unemployed individuals, with small group sizes, moderation, and implementation through an easily accessible online messenger. We demonstrate the practical applicability of the proposed approach by instantiating it in cooperation with the German Federal Employment Agency, and we demonstrate how the approach can be used in terms of mutual social support. We evaluate the efficacy of the approach in a controlled, randomized field experiment with 987 older unemployed individuals. The results demonstrate the approach’s positive impact on reemployment chances of older unemployed individuals, by increasing their job search skills and job search intensity. Furthermore, our evaluation reveals that gender and job market situation are important contextual factors for the effectiveness of the digital peer group-based approach, warranting further recognition in research.

Software development organizations (SDOs) are increasingly working to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) tools, like GitHub Copilot, to meet varied expectations. Nevertheless, we know little about how SDOs manage these expectations. This paper investigates how different SDOs expect AI tools to impact software development, and how these expectations change after a period of considering and evaluating AI tools. We conducted a multiple-case study involving three SDOs. To elicit initial expectations towards AI tools, we collected data using semi-structured interviews and field visits. To assess the persistence of expectations towards AI tools, we collected data from meetings, a debriefing, and retrospectives on AI tools. We found three expectations particular to one SDO; four shared between two SDOs; and six pervasive across all SDOs. Five expectations did not persist after experiential learning with AI tools, due to platform- and SDO-related factors. SDOs must carefully manage their expectations towards AI tools due to the variety and complexity of expectations. Some expectations are niche-specific based on their compatibility with the unique SDOs' people- and structure-related aspects, while others are becoming mainstream for a broader array of SDOs. Recognizing factors that affect the persistence of expectations and how they manifest in the individual SDO will enable SDOs to form their initial expectations and understand how these might change during adoption of AI tools, supporting expectation management.