Business and Information Systems Engineering Links Science with Entrepreneurship

One of the major success indicators for applied research sciences is the rate of transfer from research into practice. Only if concrete and economically successful products are derived from research results, such sciences can induce an impact. However, this process of innovation mandatorily needs entrepreneurship. Within the domain of business information systems, the two German enterprises SAP AG and IDS Scheer AG demonstrate that linking research and innovation is the key to lasting success on the information technology markets. German industry has significant disadvantages concerning the cost of human resources. Therefore it can be only successful with products that incorporate a high degree of innovation and that are consequently highly priced. But the invention of such products needs scientific research as a source of inspiration. Germany has a highly developed infrastructure of research facilities and organizations. However, they need to be better coordinated and aligned with business needs. Vice versa, enterprises need to actively approach the scientific community in order to clearly formulate their demand. Such a strategy requires changes on all sides. To achieve a change in the domain of science, it is necessary to change the profile of leading researchers, such as full professors. They should incorporate attributes of an entrepreneur and be profiled more as a research manager who tries to anticipate future needs and to develop their unit in terms of research subjects as well as personnel and financial resources. Consequently, the process of application, selection and review of leading researchers should be more oriented on processes that are common in enterprises. E. g. external head-hunters can be involved in the searching and assessing process in order to obtain the best qualified person for the research vacancy. Also enterprises need to change their attitude towards scientific research. In order to foster this process, executives could be invited to advisory and supervisory boards of research organisations. Furthermore, these executives must be proactively informed about the research activities and results in order to attract their interest and to show potentials for a transfer into products. There is still a long way to go in the hunt for innovation leadership and all these suggestions can only be a starting point. Accepted after one revision by Prof. Dr. Buhl. This article is also available in German in print and via : Scheer AW (2008) Wirtschaftsinformatik zwischen Wissenschaft und Unternehmertum. WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK. doi     

The Relevance of Organization Theory to the Field of Business and Information Systems Engineering

Information and communication systems (ICS) impact their organizational environment in significant ways; hence, the design, implementation, and use of ICS are inseparably linked to fundamental issues of organizational design and behavior. Current research in the field of business and information systems engineering (BISE), however, is primarily technology- or practice-oriented and concerned with the construction and validation of prototypes, whereas little attention is paid to theoretical insights into organizational phenomena and relationships. In this paper, we argue that paying more attention to organization theory would provide valuable guidance in addressing the close links between ICS on the one hand, and organizational systems on the other. To support our argument, we refer to selected theoretical perspectives and highlight their potential relevance to the BISE field.

Status Quo and Potential of XBRL for Business and Information Systems Engineering

The paper examines the current state of research as regards the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) by using the literature review methodology. The results show that an empirical-quantitative research design is used most of the time. The contributions vary in substance in terms of research on XBRL and research with XBRL. Research with XBRL focuses on the development of conceptual XBRL extensions. Work on XBRL considers, for example, the changes in reporting as a result of XBRL as well as the acceptance and enforcement of financial reporting standards. The results point to open issues and are relevant for research and practice.     

Perspectives in the Interplay Between Business and Information Systems Engineering and Computer Science

The relationship between business and information systems engineering (BISE) and its main reference disciplines business administration and informatics has changed several times during the last decades. Despite some frictions during the 1980 s and 1990 s, the interplay between informatics and BISE is becoming much more constructive and has proven extremely fruitful. Important examples of this co-evolution include data management and conceptual modeling, internet-based information and transaction systems, and the emergence of computational business sciences. The increasing integration of virtual and real world in the “Internet of Things” offers new scientific and organizational challenges for the cooperation between the BISE and informatics, which can only be formulated and solved jointly. This article is also available in German in print and via http://www.wirtschaftsinformatik.de: Jarke M (2008) Perspektiven der Wirtschaftsinformatik aus Sicht der Informatik. WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK. doi: . Accepted after one revision by Prof. Dr. Buhl.     

Evolutionary Business Information Systems

This article reflects on existing and emerging future challenges arising in the area of “evolutionary business information systems”, a class of systems that demand an evolutionary software development process and which support secondary design of various conceptual layers. We place both existing contributions and future research opportunities in context by referring to an idealized, preliminary system architecture. Finally, we emphasize our pluralistic perspective on the research object and the resulting need for methodological flexibility in the sense of interdisciplinary configurations of research methods.