How is Project Success Affected by Replacing the Project Manager?

Financial literacy in the digital age : A research agenda

Digital innovations are transforming financial services and resulting changes in consumer behavior and personal money management. Diffusion of pervasive digital technologies offers individuals quick and easy access to various digital services bringing opportunities and challenges into their personal money management. The study aimed to explore how digitalization affects individuals’ financial literacy and financial capability. As a result, we identified three main themes in the intersection of finance and digitalization: Fintech, Financial behavior in digital environments, and Behavioral interventions. We propose directions for measuring digital financial literacy, updates to the financial …

Errors and Complications in SQL Query Formulation

SQL is taught in almost all university level database courses, yet SQL has received relatively little attention in educational research. In this study, we present a database management system independent categorization of SQL query errors that students make in an introductory database course. We base the categorization on previous literature, present a class of logical errors that has not been studied in detail, and review and complement these findings by analyzing over 33,000 SQL queries submitted by students. Our analysis verifies error findings presented in previous literature and reveals new types of errors, namely logical errors recurring in similar manners among different students. We…

Moral conflicts in a project course in information systems education

Tero Vartiaisen väitöskirja kuvaa informaatioteknologian ammattilaisiksi opiskelevien ja työelämässä toimivien IT-ammattilaisten yhteistyöprojektissa kohtaamia moraalisia ongelmia. Hän tutki tietojenkäsittelytieteiden yliopisto-opintoihin kuuluvaa projektikurssia, jossa opiskelijaryhmät toteuttavat alan kehityshankkeita yrityksille. Hanke voi kohdistua esimerkiksi tietojärjestelmän tai organisaation tietojenkäsittelyprosessien kehittämiseen. Liike-elämän ja yliopiston välinen yhteistyö on vaativaa kaikille osapuolille. Vartiainen kartoitti asiakkaiden, opiskelijoiden ja yliopisto-ohjaajien kohtaamia moraalisia ongelmia. Hän keräsi tietoa osallistuvalla havainnoinnilla, haastatteluin, päiväk…

Replacement of the Project Manager Reflected Through Activity Theory and Work–System Theory

Replacement of the project manager (RPM) is a known phenomenon in information systems (IS) projects, but scant attention is given to it in the project management or IS literature. Given its critical effects on the project business, the organization, the project team, and the project manager, it should be studied in more depth. We identified factors which make RPM occurrences inherently different and we show that work-system theory and activity theory give comprehensive lenses to advance research on RPM. For the future research on RPM we identified three objectives: experiences on RPM, process model for RPM, and organizational culture’s influence on RPM occurrences.

Unauthorized copying of software and levels of moral development: a literature analysis and its implications for research and practice

.  Several approaches for and against the unauthorized copying of software have been proposed. These approaches can be divided into two categories: moral reasoning and solution. These categories of approaches to unauthorized copying of software are scrutinized in the light of Kohlberg's theory of Cognitive Moral Development. The results suggest that most approaches presenting solutions to unauthorized copying of software have focused attention on the lower levels of moral development, while approaches at the highest stage are few and far between. No single approach covers all the stages of moral development. The implications of this analysis for practice and research are discussed.

Co-Creation of Value for IT-Enabled Services : A Case of Geocaching

This study explores how value is co-created in one particular IT-enabled service, geocaching. Consumer Information Systems (CIS) framework is used as a sensitizing framework to study experienced geocachers' (n=14) perceptions of what they value in geocaching. The following core values emerged that motivate people to co-create value in geocaching: challenging oneself and others, joy of success, learning, and social relations. The results reveal that geocaching is distinctively hedonic in nature, as people pursue happiness and utility via geocaching. Even support for the geocaching community was motivated by such values. In addition, the results reveal that the environment of geocaching and s…

Unauthorized copying of software

Computer users copy computer software - this is well-known. However, less well-known are the reasons why some computer users choose to make unauthorized copies of computer software. Furthermore, the relationship linking the theory and the practice is unknown, i.e., how the attitudes of ordinary end-users correspond with the theoretical views of computer ethics scholars. In order to fill this gap in the literature, we investigated the moral attitudes of 249 Finnish computing students towards the unauthorized copying of computer software, and we then asked how these results compared with the theoretical reasons offered by computer ethics scholars. The results shed a new light on students' mor…

Morally Successful Collaboration between Academia and Industry — A Case of a Project Course

Academia-industry collaboration is common in the IT-field, and it includes training programs, research centre activities, and industry advisory boards (Watson and Huber 2000). For the industry, co-operation provides possibilities to acquire human resources and, for the academia, co-operation ensures that research and teaching activities are relevant. Regardless of its popularity little is known about moral issues relating to this phenomenon. This study intends to fill the gap in knowledge by determining the nature of moral conflicts perceived by clients, students, and instructors of a collaborative project course, and by formulating a framework to successfully getting grips with these confl…

Continuous Requirements Risk Profiling in Information Systems Development

With the increasing adoption of agile, lean, and iterative development methods, information systems development (ISD) has become continuous, meaning that system development moves rapidly from release to release. This means that work practices and challenges that practitioners face have changed. Despite these changes, requirements development is still critical in ISD. However, IS literature is silent on how to manage requirements-related risks in the practice of continuous IS development. To fill this gap, we propose a continuous requirements risk profiling method. The study is informed by design science research methodology, and we apply focus group interviews and a Delphi study for data co…

End-user ethics teaching: issues and a solution based on universalization

The ethical aspects of computing have gained increasing attention at the professional level of education in universities. As a result, several works have been produced relating to computer ethics education at this level. However, the ever-increasing role and usage of computer technology means that ethical education related to computing is also necessary for non-professional/non-major computing/information systems students. Due to the differences between professional and non-professional education in terms of substance, along with pragmatic reasons (e.g. lack of resources), the ordinary end-users need a different educational program. This paper first explores issues (i.e. challenges and prob…

Supplemental Material - Micro-Level Mechanisms to Support Value Co-Creation for Design of Digital Services

Supplemental Material for Micro-Level Mechanisms to Support Value Co-Creation for Design of Digital Services by Tuure Tuunanen, Juuli Lumivalo, Tero Vartiainen, Yixin Zhang, and Michael M. Myers in Journal of Service Research

Micro-Level Mechanisms to Support Value Co-Creation for Design of Digital Services

This study identifies micro-level value co-creation mechanisms that support the design of digital services. As services are now becoming digital—or at least digitally enabled—how to design digital services that enable value co-creation between a service provider and customers has become an increasingly important question. Our qualitative research study provides one answer to this question. Based on 113 in-depth laddering interviews analyzed using interpretive structural modeling, our study shows that value co-creation mechanisms differ between business-to-business and customer-to-customer digital service types. We identify five mechanisms to support value co-creation in the design of digit…

Attitudes to and factors affecting unauthorized copying of computer software in Finland

Several quantitative studies have sought to determine the factors affecting the unauthorized copying of software, particularly in North America. However, we find no statistically reliable studies on the situation in Europe. In order to address this gap in the literature, we explored the attitudes to and factors affecting the unauthorized copying of computer software of 249 Finnish university students: nine hypotheses derived from the existing research on unauthorized copying of computer software or theories of ethics were tested. A quantitative questionnaire was used as the research instrument. The results shed new light on the characteristics of users and factors affecting the unauthorized…

Replacing Project Managers in Information Technology Projects

According to anecdotal evidence, project managers working on information technology (IT) projects are occasionally replaced, although the literature on information systems (IS) and project management (PM) makes little mention of it. With a view to narrowing this knowledge gap the authors examined the reasons behind the practice. The authors took an interpretive approach to the data gathering and analysis, and collected descriptions about replacing project managers (RPM) from interviews and questionnaires (n=43). The concept of contradiction served as a lens through which to identify the underlying reasons. Contradiction refers to statements asserting or expressing the opposite of another st…

Value Co-Creation and Co-Destruction in an IS Artifact: Contradictions of Geocaching

In this paper we study how value co-creation and value co-destruction are present in an IS artifact. We apply the concept of contradiction (structural tension) to study an IS artifact, geocaching. Based on the analysis of interview data and discussion forum postings, we identified the following contradictions: i) introducing secret society to outsiders, ii) geocaching by breaking its rules, iii) experiencing nature while consuming it, iv) building community occurs with competition. These contradictions show that value co-creation and co-destruction interacts in this IS artifact. Based on the results, we propose that IS research should adopt the concepts of value co-creation and co-destructi…

Value Co-Creation and Co-Destruction in Online Video Games : An Exploratory Study and Implications for Future Research

In this empirical study we studied how players of online video games co-create and co-destroy value. From players’ perceptions we identified that value co-creation and co-destruction occur amid themes of giving feedback and building relations. Feedback encourages players but it may also be harmful in the form of verbal abuse. Building relations relates to making friends in general but also on an international level. Building relations also relates to competition that creates a bad spirit. The most intensive interplay between value co-creation and codestruction was found in gaming groups. Gaming groups motivate players to engage in intense gameplay, but at the same time they are resourcedema…

A Study of Computer Science Students' Ethical Attitudes and Its Implications to

In this study I investigated 198 Finnish computer science students' attitudes concerning computer usage and professional practic e in computing to determine content for computer ethics education. Students were to analyse acceptability of individuals' behavi our in 23 cases. It is postulated that divergence of attitudes in cases lead students to present opposing viewpoints during smal l group discussions and thus to develop moral sensitivity and judgment in students. The following issues emerged in this study: cracking to computer systems, using a database of an employer for one's own purposes, honesty in client relationships, acknowled ging someone's contribution, keeping software without p…

Omission of Quality Software Development Practices : A Systematic Literature Review

Software deficiencies are minimized by utilizing recommended software development and quality assurance practices. However, these recommended practices (i.e., quality practices) become ineffective if software professionals purposefully ignore them. Conducting a systematic literature review (n = 4,838), we discovered that only a small number of previous studies, within software engineering and information systems literature, have investigated the omission of quality practices. These studies explain the omission of quality practices mainly as a result of organizational decisions and trade-offs made under resource constraints or market pressure. However, our study indicates that different aspe…