Outline and contribution of the papers

1.7.2 Paper II: Version transitioning

The second paper presents a grounded theory of the transition of the Microsoft software ecosystem from an old version to a new version of the NAV system. The grounded theory is based on interviews with respondents from Microsoft and the partner companies, document analysis, observations, and a demo version of NAV 2009 RTC. The grounded theory proposes the stages of ‘Perceiving’, ‘Pushing’,

‘Implementing’, and ‘Increased experience’ as phases in the transition process, and

‘Technology impact’, ‘Supplier impact’, ‘Customer impact’, ‘Strategy impact’, and

‘Market impact’, as contextual factors influencing the transition process. The findings suggest a number of enablers and barriers of the transition process. The grounded theory is integrated with existing theories of innovations to provide an initial step from a substantial to a formal theory.

The paper contributes to framing the phenomenon of role-oriented ESs by illustrating the transition that the actors in the ecosystem undergo when a new ES is released into the ES ecosystem.

The appended version is published in AIS Transactions on Enterprise Systems, 2012 (1): 4-17. A shorter version of the paper has been published in Proceedings of the 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), 2012, pp. 4709-4718.

1.7.3 Paper III: Concepts for analyzing and representing roles in ESs

The third paper proposes some foundational concepts for analyzing, modeling and representing organizational roles in ESs based on synthesis of organizational role theory. The concepts are applied to a case study of how Microsoft represents role-related concepts in its enterprise model and how some of these concepts are represented in the NAV 2009 RTC system. The case study is based on interviews, document analysis, and a demo version of NAV 2009 RTC. The study finds that organizational roles are represented through the use of Personas in the enterprise model and through so-called ‘centers’ in the NAV 2009 RTC system. A number of

role-related concepts, such as role aggregation and role specialization, are represented in the enterprise model. However, the case study finds that the relationship between roles and tasks/activities is implicit in the enterprise model, that this implicit relationship is partially inherited in the NAV 2009 RTC system, and that the system only allows association to a single predefined set of roles at a time. As a consequence, organizations with role sets that do not match the predefined role sets are dependent on tailoring to achieve optimal fit.

The paper contributes to understanding how organizational roles can be modeled and represented at the user interaction level when designing role-oriented ESs (RQ1) The paper was accepted for the Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (CENTERIS 2011) in Algarve, Portugal and subsequently published as a book chapter in Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2011, Volume 219, Part 4, pp. 341-350, Springer, Heidelberg.

1.7.4 Paper IV: Comparative study of representation of roles in ESs

The fourth paper in the dissertation examines the phenomenon of role-oriented ESs by comparing the motivations for role-orienting ESs and the approaches to analyzing, modeling, and representing predefined roles in ESs. The study is based on inductive comparative case studies of Microsoft and SAP, based on interviews, documents, and examples of role-oriented ESs from the two vendors. The research indicates that the primary motivation of the vendors for including predefined roles is to complement a function-centric approach with a user-centric approach to the design of user interfaces in ESs. The research furthermore identifies strategies of an embedded and an independent approach to modeling the role concept and a unified and a componentized approach to reflecting role aggregation in user interfaces.

The paper contributes to understanding how organizational roles can be modeled and represented at the user interaction level when designing role-oriented ES (RQ1)

The paper is a working paper and has been published in the Department of IT-Management Communications Working Paper Series, 2011.

1.7.5 Paper V: Fit of predefined roles in ESs and strategies for tailoring

This paper studies the tailoring of the predefined organizational roles in the Microsoft NAV 2009 RTC system, by studying the perceived fit of the predefined roles and strategies for tailoring the roles among the partner companies in the Microsoft software ecosystem. The study applies the Grounded Theory Method and draws on interviews, observations, and documents for the analysis. The findings suggest that the predefined roles may provide the implementation consultants with an initial level of fit for the individual user. However, the study suggests misfits of the predefined roles related to role scope and industry-specific roles. Based on the findings on misfits, a classification of role misfits is proposed. The strategies applied by the partner companies for addressing the misfits consists of moving from a level of role fit to a level of personal fit, when addressing the scope misfits, and reliance on independent software vendors for developing industry-specific roles, when addressing the industry-specific role misfits. Based on the findings on tailoring, a classification of role tailoring is proposed.

The paper primarily contributes to understanding how predefined roles in role-oriented ESs can be mapped, configured and tailored to fit actual roles of users in client organizations during implementation (RQ2) and the potential role-related misfits of role-oriented ESs (RQ3).

The paper is unpublished.

1.7.6 Paper VI: Implementation and use of role-oriented ESs

The final paper included in this dissertation studies the use of the predefined roles in NAV 2009 RTC as implemented in five customer organizations, for the purpose of identifying potential benefits and challenges of reflecting organizational roles in ESs.

The study is based on an extension of the foundation proposed in paper III for

analyzing role-oriented ESs. The data for the study is based on interviews with representatives of the customer organizations and data about the implementation of NAV 2009 RTC in each organization. The findings suggest that while reflecting organizational roles in ESs may provide potential benefits related to role specialization among end-users, lacking support for role aggregation beyond the predefined level of aggregation and cumbersome switching between the predefined role user interfaces may entail disadvantages for users with multiple roles. The study furthermore indicates that further personalization of the predefined role user interfaces may be both beneficial and disadvantageous from a knowledge sharing perspective. Finally, the findings suggest the importance of continuous support for predefined back-office roles, such as the accountant role, while indicating further need for supporting front-office roles, such as roles related to sales.

The paper primarily contributes to understanding how predefined roles in role-oriented ESs can be mapped, configured and tailored to fit actual roles of users in client organizations during implementation (RQ2) and the potential benefits of the use of role-oriented ES and the role-related misfits of these systems (RQ3)

The paper has been published in the conference proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Research and Practical Issues of Enterprise Information Systems (CONFENIS 2011), pp. 527-543, Aarhus, Denmark.

1.7.7 Summary

Table 2 provides a summary of the research approach and contribution of the appended papers.

Table 2. Summary and contribution of the appended papers.

Paper Short title Research approach Contribution I Ecosystem structure and

resources

Case studies and Resource-based view

Framing II Version transitioning Grounded Theory Framing III Concepts for analyzing

and representing roles in ESs

Case study and

Organizational role theory RQ1

IV Comparative study of representation of roles in ESs

Inductive case studies RQ1

V Fit of predefined roles in ESs and strategies for tailoring

Grounded Theory RQ2 + RQ3

VI Implementation and use of role-oriented ESs

Case studies and

Organizational role theory (extended from paper III)

RQ2 + RQ3

2 The research design

Having described the frame for the research, established the purpose of the study, presented the research questions that guided the research, and provided an overview of the contribution of the appended papers, the following chapter describes and explains the research approach that contributed to answering the three research questions. The chapter explains the overall research approach as well as how research was conducted for the “pre-studies” and the answers to each of the three research questions, including:

1) the role of the 3gERP project; 2) overall research approach; 3) the chosen methodologies; the research design for the pre-studies and the three research questions;

4) data collection and analysis; 5) and the role of theory.