Track Descriptions

Track Chairs
Scott R. Boss, Bentley University, sboss@bentley.edu
Brad Trinkle, Mississippi State University, brad.trinkle@msstate.edu

Track Description
The  Accounting Information Systems track highlights research that focuses on the link between accounting and information systems, including topics  that range from IT governance to interorganizational information systems and draws from a variety of disciplines like accounting, psychology, sociology, cognitive science, behavioral science, economics, politics, computer science, and information technology.

Mini-Track 1: General Accounting Information Systems

Dave Henderson, University of Mary Washington, dhender3@umw.edu

Accounting information systems (AIS) research focuses on the link between accounting and information systems. It includes topics that range from IT governance to interorganizational information sharing. The General Accounting Information Systems mini-track includes any and all topics in the field of AIS that are not included in the other more specialized mini-tracks. Suggested topics include systems integration, value of information systems, and global AIS and case studies.

Mini-Track 2: IS Control, Audit and Reporting

Alec Cram, Bentley University, wcram@bentley.edu

This mini-track is focused on the role that AIS plays in capturing and storing transactions, ensuring their accuracy, timeliness and validity, and satisfying the organization’s legal and regulatory requirements. AIS provides the vast majority of data required for operational, tactical, and strategic decision making, as well as the basis for interorganizational information  sharing and external reporting to various stakeholder groups. Appropriate topics for this mini-track include (but are not limited to) continuous auditing, auditing end user systems, internal audit, COSO, CobiT, AS5, forensic auditing, data mining/business intelligence, querying, ebXML, XBRL, AIS use and data ambiguity.

Mini-Track 3: Accounting Information Systems Models, Designs and Implementation

Gregory J. Gerard, Florida State University, ggerard@business.fsu.edu

This mini-track is focused on the role that AIS plays in creating models to help better store, share information, reengineer, process and represent the organization’s resources, events and agents. This mini-track is intended to promote research on the different data and process models for AIS. Appropriate topics for this mini-track include (but are not limited to) AIS design, Ontologies used for representation of AIS, Object Oriented databases for AIS, Items-Agent-Cash (IAC) Model, UML for modeling of AIS, AIS Architectures, Reengineering of legacy AIS into ERP systems, XBRL databases modeling and design, Resource-Event-Agent (REA) models, data models, Information sharing of AIS with supply chain systems, enterprise systems modeling, interorganizational information sharing, and data relevance.

Mini-Track 4: Enterprise IT Governance and Security for Compliance Management  

Virginia Kleist    West, Virginia University, virginia.kleist@mail.wvu.edu

The mini track topic of Enterprise IT Governance and Security for Compliance Management addresses the increasing importance of that subset of IT activities associated with fulfilling external regulatory or ethical obligations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, FDA, law enforcement reporting, socially responsible supply chain provenance and other information  systems compliance requirements. This mini track seeks to solicit research from a wide array of research areas including, but not limited to: a) Enterprise IT governance structures for effective compliance management, b) Enterprise compliance risk assessment and compliance risk management, c) Information assurance prioritization and strategy, d) Establishing  auditable trust models for securing electronic commerce, e) Valuation of information assets for security assurance resource optimization, f) Budgeting for and cost effective management of information systems associated with governmental regulations, g) Successful and unsuccessful compliance management via automated, continuously auditing software solutions, and h)  Shared information, interorganizational trust models and policy ontologies for compliance management.

Mini-Track 5: Accounting Information Systems and Big Data    

This mini-track focuses on the impact of big data on the accounting information systems (AIS) area, broadly defined.  This includes data related to the events recorded by an organization’s enterprise system (such as HR, Supply Chain, General Accounting, and so forth) and how this relates to data outside of the organization. For example, how are auditors going to use big data? Would the use of big data by auditors have helped to identify financial statement and other frauds?  How can organizations use big accounting data to provide business insights, especially when combining this data with data from outside the organization, such as tweets, and web scrapings?  What are the impediments to the use of big data within the AIS area? How can the embedded semantics from REA-based (Resource-Events- Agents) systems enhance the use of analytics and big data?  What is the role of enterprise risk management in big data?

Severin Grabski, Michigan State University, grabski@msu.edu

Track Chairs
Ryan Wright, University of Massachusetts Amherst, rwright@isenberg.umass.edu
Sven Laumer, University of Bamberg, sven.laumer@uni-bamberg.de
Geneviève Bassellierr, Mcgill university, genevieve.bassellier@mcgill.ca

Track Description
The extant diffusion and adoption literature has improved our understanding of how IT is utilized by individual, group, and organization. In turn, we now have keen insights into relevant topics such as digital innovation, digital business models, and factors that affect IT implementation, to name a few. With the digital economy now widespread there is still much work to be done in many exciting new areas.  We need to investigate the potential of new innovations, while also  examining downsides of diffusion and adoption. Issues such as IS misuse, obsessive addiction, technostress, and information overload all have become important areas to investigate. This track seeks to attract research that theoretically and/or practically provides valuable insights to the adoption and diffusion of innovation IT at the individual, group, organizational, industry, or societal levels. This can include the use of all type of methodologies to explore different types of IT innovations.

Mini-Track 1: Design Factors and Technology Adoption  

Numerous design features are emerging to enhance user experiences with new information systems, especially web-based and mobile applications. Their effects, however, may not turn out to be exactly as expected. For example, the features related to interactivity and personalization may interact with each other. Currently, there is a lag between academic research and industrial practice. It is expected that theoretical discussions and empirical studies may yield deeper insights and provide theoretical and practical guidelines. We solicit expositions and investigations of both qualitative and quantitative natures. Analyses at different levels (individual, group, organizational, societal, and cultural) using a variety of methods (e.g. survey, case study, ethnography, big data analysis etc.) are all welcome. Completed or research-in-progress studies on topics like the impacts of cloud-computing on application design and adoption, mobile application design and user acceptance, cultural considerations in designs, design and adoption of enterprise systems, and so on are all welcome.

Jun Sun, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, jun.sun@utrgv.edu
Zhaojun Yang, Xidian University, zhaojunyang@xidian.edu.cn

Mini-Track 2: Diffusion, Adoption, and Assimilation of IS Innovations    

Diffusion, adoption, and assimilation (DAA) are related processes that describe how an information systems (IS) innovation may become ingrained among individuals within a social system. Diffusion refers to the processes by which individuals become aware of an innovation; adoption represents the processes by which individuals make the decision to accept the innovation; and assimilation describes the processes by which individuals appropriate the innovation for everyday use. Although a significant body of literature describes factors that influence adoption and assimilation (or post-adoption or continuance) largely based on cross-sectional research, there is a lack of evidence on the processes of DAA over time. Specifically, little is known about the various steps/stages by which individuals become aware of, decide to use, and appropriate IS innovations. Consistent with the conference theme of “A Tradition of Innovation,” we solicit theoretical expositions and empirical investigations that provide novel and unique insights into the processes of DAA.

Anand Jeyaraj, Wright State University, anand.jeyaraj@wright.edu

Mini-Track 3: Organizational Factors that Influence the Adoption and Diffusion of Emerging Information Technology (SIGADIT)    

The use of emerging information technology has increasingly become more vital to organizations that strive for a sustainable competitive advantage.  This mini-track aims to expand our knowledge regarding the adoption and diffusion of emerging information technology (e.g., 3D printing, business analytics, cloud computing, electronic health records, health informatics, and wearable technology). Factors such as employee attitudes, organizational climate, and readiness for change can all influence the adoption and diffusion of emerging technology.  This mini-tracks purpose is to expand our understanding of organizational factors that impact the adoption and diffusion of emerging information technology.

David M. Bourrie, University of South Alabama, dbourrie@southalabama.edu
Matt Campbell, University of South Alabama, mattcampbell@southalabama.edu

Mini-Track 4: The Dark Side of Information Technology  

Information systems (IS) research traditionally emphasizes the positive values and outcomes (e.g., productivity and enjoyment) of information technology (IT) use. The dark usage (e.g., compulsive use and addictive use) and negative outcomes of IT use (e.g., information overload and technostress) remain an under-explored area of research. Emerging IS  research has begun to examine the dark side of IT use that harms the individuals, organizations and societies. While the dark usage and negative outcomes of IT use have attracted increasing scholarly attention, the continuous advancement of IT has dramatically increased the scope and intensity of the phenomena. This mini-track provides a forum for the  exchange of research ideas and best practices related to the dark side of IT. It aims to raise awareness of the emerging negative aspects of adoption and use of IT, and address the challenges of maintaining a productive, enjoyable and healthy use of IT.

Christy M.K. Cheung, Hong Kong Baptist University, ccheung@hkbu.edu.hk
Matthew K.O. Lee, City University of Hong Kong, ismatlee@cityu.edu.hk
Zach W.Y. Lee, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Zach.Lee@nottingham.edu.cn
Dimple R. Thadani, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Dimple.Thadani@nottingham.edu.cn

Track Chairs
Tom Stafford,Louisiana Tech University, stafford@LaTech.edu
Stacie Petter, Baylor University, stacie_petter@baylor.edu

Track Description
This track serves as the primary point of contribution and subsequent publication of innovative research on management information systems across a wide range of topic areas. The purpose of the track includes showcasing unique and leading edge regarding the state, practice, antecedents and consequences of management information systems as a field of practice, as an artifact of business and its processes, and as a scholarly field of endeavor.

We welcome any forward-thinking and unique views of information systems as minitracks. We also specifically seek mini-tracks affiliated with AIS Special Interest Groups that are innovative and emergent and have not yet found specific conference affiliation for development and evolution.

This track serves as a high-level congregation of the converging interests of researchers in the field, with a particular interest in research that might not find good fit with mainstream areas of information systems research. This track welcomes the innovative, the provocative, and the experimental in regards to both topical and methodological coverage.

This track serves as a focal nexus and clearinghouse for leading thought on information systems research. The track offers opportunities for authors to submit papers of quality and innovation. As such, the notion of the Advances in Management Information Systems track is thematically consistent with that of the affiliated IS journal to which we intend to provide journal publication opportunities (The Data Base for Advances in Information Systems, special issue(s) on Advances in Management Information Systems Research).

Mini-Track 1: Advances in Chief Data Officer Research and Practice (sigIQ)    

The success of organizations has become increasingly dependent on data. To harness the value of data, many organizations have established a new breed of executive, the Chief Data Officer (CDO). Depending on different choices and focuses in collaboration (inwards vs. outwards), data space (traditional data vs. big data), and value impact (service vs. strategy), a CDO plays various vital roles in an organization. This minitrack solicits original research contributions that explore CDO practices and their organizational impacts. Both theoretical and empirical studies are welcome. The minitrack also solicits well developed, forward-thinking discussion and position papers that will have breakthrough impacts on the MIS field.

Ningning Wu, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, nxwu@ualr.edu  
Richard Wang, MIT Information Quality Program, rwang@mit.edu

Mini-Track 2: Advances in Healthcare IT security and privacy research    

The healthcare industry is currently undergoing a radical technological transformation. From medical devices to clinical information systems to smartphone applications, the opportunities to leverage the capabilities of modern technology to improve health outcomes are innumerable and in many cases invaluable. However, these novel capacities to improve healthcare outcomes bring new risks to the security and privacy of medical technologies and systems as well as individuals’ sensitive health-related information. This minitrack welcomes completed papers and research-in- progress submissions that offer insights into the security and privacy challenges of technological innovation in the health sector. Examples of general research topics that fit this call include but are not limited to: (1) cybersecurity of medical devices, (2) health IT security, (3) health information security and privacy, (4) health information systems (HIS) security, (5) security and privacy issues with BYOD in healthcare, (6) security and privacy issues in mobile health (mHealth) applications.

A. J. Burns, The University of Texas at Tyler, aburns@uttyler.edu
M. Eric Johnson, Vanderbilt University, eric.johnson@owen.vanderbilt.edu

Mini-Track 3: Advances in MIS Research – General Topics    

The General Topics minitrack is intended for high quality papers on topics that do not have a specific fit with other AMCIS tracks.  We are open to all topics and methodologies.  We particularly seek papers that break new ground and have exciting implications. Please check the detailed descriptions of other tracks before submitting to this track.  The General Topics track also invites papers written by other track chairs who cannot submit a paper to their own track.

Ashley Bush, Florida State University, abush@business.fsu.edu

Mini-Track 4: The Internet of Things: Emerging IS Research Challenges  

We have arrived at a critical juncture in the history of information systems. It is projected that the number of electronic nodes (“things”) linked to the internet will reach 50 billion by 2020. Only a fraction of these “things” will be conventional computing devices such as laptops, phones etc. Many nodes will be the result of recent and future innovations in sensor technology. These devices will shape the environment we live in, analyzing, controlling, monitoring, and optimizing our world. There is growing realization that the IS community is faced with a challenge to address IoT-related issues such as (a) Privacy, Security and Ethics (b) Reference Architectures and Development Technologies (c) new Business Processes and Business Models and (d) new methods of evaluating and improving technology usage in the IoT era. The papers in this mini-track will highlight how the IS community is responding to the research challenges posed by IoT.

Brian Donnellan, Maynooth University, brian.donnellan@nuim.ie
Alan Hevner, University of South Florida, ahevner@usf.edu
Kieran Conboy, NUI Galway, kieran.conboy@nuigalway.ie
Richard Linger, Lenvio Inc., rick.linger@lenvio-inc.com

Mini-Track 5: Information Systems and Positive Organizational Scholarship

Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) focuses on “what is positive, flourishing, and life-giving in organizations” (Cameron and Caza 2004, p. 7), and investigates ideas such as compassion, virtuousness, wisdom, resilience, relationship quality, and employee personal growth. POS research is emerging, as exemplified by special issues in respected journals like AMR and JBE. Current IS research trends – such as building a bright society (JAIS special issue call) and societal challenges (MISQ special issue published) – are decidedly humanistic in focus and align well with POS. We contend that research at the intersection of POS and IS offers opportunities for the IS discipline to make additional, distinctive contributions, including answering recent calls to use IS to make the world a better place (Walsham 2012). This mini-track aims to stimulate IS researchers to engage in studying POS-related phenomena. All methodological approaches, including quantitative and qualitative approaches, as well as theoretical papers, are welcome.

H. Kevin Fulk, Tarleton State University, hkfulk@tarleton.edu
Suranjan Chakraborty, Towson University, schakraborty@towson.edu
Sutirtha Chatterjee, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, sutirtha.chatterjee@unlv.edu

Track Chairs
Uzma Raja, The University of Alabama, uraja@cba.ua.edu
Amit Deokar, University of Massachusetts Lowell, amit_deokar@uml.edu
Ashish Gupta, Auburn University, ashish.gupta@auburn.edu

Track Description
Recent technological innovations and novel applications that are being driven by data science & analytics are changing the way organizations and the society-at-large consumes data and information in an unprecedented way. For instance, big data approaches supported by social media computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing the way individuals communicate and live. It has led to the need for the creation of new and innovative tools and techniques for advanced analytics to gain valuable insights for decision makers and organizations. The ability to manage (big) data, information and knowledge to gain competitive advantage, and the importance of business analytics for this process has been well established.

Organizations are allocating greater time and resources to enhance and develop new decision support applications driven by advanced analytics to garner insights and knowledge. As organizations transform into data and analytics centric enterprises, more research is needed not only on the technical aspects of  analytics such as data science algorithms, computing infrastructure, but also on various other organizational issues in the analytics context. Examples include managerial, strategic, leadership, data governance issues; process innovation, inter-organizational issues, etc. Research contributions in this space can inform industry on handling various organizational and technical opportunities along with various challenges associated with building and executing big data driven organization. This track seeks original research that promotes technical, theoretical, design science, pedagogical, and behavioral research as well as emerging applications in the innovative areas of analytics, big data, and knowledge management.

Research areas in big data, analytics and knowledge management (KM) include but are not limited to: data analytics & visualization for varied data  (or sources) such as sensors or IoT data, text, multimedia, clickstreams, user-generated content involving issues dealing with curation, management and infrastructure for (big) data; standards, semantics, privacy, security and legal issues in big data, analytics and KM; performance analysis, intelligence and scientific discovery in big data, analytics and KM; analytics applications in smart cities, sustainability, smart grids, detecting financial fraud, digital learning, healthcare, criminal justice, energy, environmental and scientific domains, and the like; business process management applications such as process discovery, conformance and mining using analytics and KM; cost-sensitive, value-oriented data analytics and utility-based data mining; data-driven decision decision analysis and optimization.

Mini-Track 1: Big Data and Business Transformation

The minitrack aims to explore the business transformations big data entail, and how they are harnessed to enable innovative ways of conducting business and to support rapid decision making with external stakeholders such as business partners, customers, and public authorities. Yet, to understand how big data can be of value requires an examination of the interplay between various factors (e.g., social, technical, economical, environmental). In order to gain insight and solve such challenges, research methods and accompanying theoretical perspectives need to go beyond the traditional scope of Information Systems. Papers that address topics on how information sources, technological infrastructure, human skills and knowledge, organizational/team structures, and management practices coalesce to achieve desired ends, are of increased interest. Emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary papers bridging organizational science, information systems strategic management, marketing, and computer science. The minitrack welcomes quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods papers, as well as reviews, conceptual papers, and theory development papers.

Ilias O. Pappas, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, ilpappas@idi.ntnu.no
Patrick Mikalef, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, patrick.mikalef@idi.ntnu.no
Paul A. Pavlou, Temple University, pavlou@temple.edu

Mini-Track 2: Big Data Driven Process Mining and Innovation  

One of the main aspects of business analytics is process innovation driven by the use of data generated from the day-to-day business operations of an organization. Process innovation involves workflow re-design and resource re-configuration for higher efficiency, better quality and effectiveness; improving decision making processes for better information flow and decision-enablement. Process mining, a relatively new research discipline, may play a significant role in enabling such innovations. The objective of Process Mining is to discover, monitor and improve actual business processes by extracting knowledge from voluminous event logs generated as a result of the execution of those processes. The aim of this mini-track is to promote theoretical and empirical research addressing the aforementioned aspects of process innovation. Example topics may include, but are not limited to – design of data driven decision making processes, case studies and empirical evaluation of data-driven process innovation, process mining approaches and algorithms.

Sagnika Sen, Pennsylvania State University, sagnika.sen@psu.edu
Arti Mann, University of Houston Clear Lake, mann@uhcl.edu

Mini-Track 3: Business Analytics for Managing Organizational Performance

The goal of business analytics (BA) is to summarize massive amounts of disparate corporate and customer data into succinct information that can help management better understand their business processes, make informed decisions, and measure and improve organizational performance. BA can provide managers with the ability to integrate enterprise-wide data into metrics that link specific objectives to the performance of different business units. In today’s hypercompetitive environment, accurate real-time BA metrics are even more critical for measuring and enhancing organizational performance. Many technologies contribute to BA solutions, including databases, data warehouses, data marts, analytic processing, social analytics, and data mining, among others. BA needs to acquire data from multiple platforms and provide ubiquitous access. This requirement to leverage so-called “big data” presents numerous managerial challenges. This mini-track aims to promote innovative research in the BA domains of organizational performance measurement and improvement.

Benjamin Shao, Arizona State University, ben.shao@asu.edu
Robert D. St. Louis, Arizona State University, st.louis@asu.edu

Mini-Track 4: Business Intelligence & Analytics Cases

The availability of data is driving organizations to store, organize, and analyze information to make better decisions.  What types of decisions are being made and with what tools?  Organizations need proper information in the right form at the right time.  Business intelligence and analytics are the tools that organizations can use.  How are they justified, used and implemented?  The focus of this min-track is to investigate BI analytics applications in a case study approach.  Topics including various elements of analytics such as descriptive/retrospective, predictive and prescriptive applications along with IT based reporting mechanisms that provide actionable information to stakeholders in an organization (e.g. dashboards, interactive reports, etc).  Case studies incorporating streaming, real-time initiatives and approaches leveraging structured and unstructured data sources are welcomed. Case study submissions should go beyond a pure data and technology focus and extend the scope to include describing the information creation process (e.g. deciding data sources to be used to create most effective BI for decision support) and potentially mechanisms for monitoring effectiveness for BI users.  Minitrack papers can be fast-tracked to the Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce. Papers should be significantly enhanced and follow several other guidelines.

Jerry Fjermestad, New Jersey Institute of Technology, jerry@njit.edu
Stephan Kudyba, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Stephan.p.kudyba@njit.edu
Kenneth Lawrence, New Jersey Institute of Technology, kenneth.d.lawrence@njit.edu

Mini-Track 5: Big Data for Supply Chain and Operations Management

Data Science, Predictive Analytics, and Big Data (DPB) describe a broad array of data-driven business practices that are reshaping the way firms complete in the marketplace. However, employment of these practices is proving tenuous, as firms find difficulty assimilating, analysing, and exploiting the high volume of data made available to them in order to support critical business decisions. Research is needed to build theory and inform practice regarding means through which firms adopt and use DPB for supply chain and operations management applications. In addition, evidence of performance and other desired outcomes is scarce, as is research into the mechanisms that support such outcomes. This minitrack covers topics across this domain, covering a wide range of topics related to DPB in supply chain and operations.

Benjamin T. Hazen, Air Force Institute of Technology, benjamin.hazen@live.com
Bradley Boehmke, Air Force Institute of Technology, bradleyboehmke@gmail.com

Mini-Track 6: Information Strategy and Data Privacy in Business Analytics

Business analytics is often employed by business to support their day-to-day decision-making and typically involves using human subject data such as customers, patients, and online and mobile users. There is an increasing concern about privacy, confidentiality, and security of the data by the individuals. On the other hand, organizations need to consider the  impact of strategic behaviors of individual data providers on data utility and analytical model quality. Important issues in data analytics, such as strategic information disclosure, data quality, and data privacy, need to be addressed. This minitrack aims to promote cutting edge research in data strategy, information disclosure, privacy protection, and other challenges using data mining, text mining or a combination of other analytical approaches in the business analytics domain. Suggested topics: Data acquisition; Data quality in big data; Data privacy; Data security; Data sharing strategy; Data manipulation; Missing value imputation; Mobile and location data analytics; Online review data analytics; Strategic information disclosure.

Julie Zhang, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Juheng_Zhang@uml.edu
Jialun Qin, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Jialun_Qin@uml.edu
Xiaobai (Bob) Li, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Xiaobai_Li@uml.edu

Mini-Track 7: Locational Big Data and Analytics: Implications for the Sharing Economy (SIGGIS)

This mini-track provides a research forum on varied aspects of GIS for business intelligence, location-based analytics, knowledge management, and spatial data management.  Aligned with the AMCIS 2017 theme, “A Tradition of Innovation”, research contributions related to “Location and the Sharing Economy” are encouraged, e.g. firms such as Uber and Airbnb depend on enterprise-wide spatial data and related analytic software. Topics include the locational aspects of the shared economy, spatial big data, spatial decision making, spatial knowledge management, cloud-based GIS, spatial crowdsourcing, management decision-making using GIS, volunteered geographic information (VGI), spatial workforce development, managerial concerns, regulation, privacy, security, ethical aspects concerning the sharing economy, mobile location-based applications, location-based theory, mobile-based GIS, software development incorporating place, societal issues of spatial big data, and emerging areas of GIS and location analytics. This mini-track encourages manuscript submissions on theory, methodology, applications, behavioral studies, case studies, and emerging areas with encouragement for the sharing economy.

James B. Pick, University of Redlands, James_Pick@redlands.edu
Daniel Farkas, Pace University, dfarkas@pace.edu
Brian Hilton, Claremont Graduate University, Brian.Hilton@cgu.edu
Avjit Sarkar, University of Redlands, Avijit_Sarkar@redlands.edu
Hindupur Ramakrishna, University of Redlands, Hindupur_Ramakrishna@redlands.edu
Namchul Shin, Pace University, nshin@pace.edu

Mini-Track 8: Social and Ethical Issues in Big Data

Proliferation of social media, online networks and web 2.0-3.0 technologies are enabling individuals and companies to engage with digital technologies at an unprecedented scale. An individual’s digital footprint is further informed by their communication preferences, purchase behaviour, financial transactions, geospatial location tracking, medical records, and even heredity. This accumulation of big data can be used by governments and various business enterprises to peer into human behaviour at a finer granularity than never before. While, big data can be used to predict the spread of diseases, potential genetic anomalies, and provide other useful insights, it comes at a price.  Society is increasingly questioning the ethical risks associated with unfettered analysis of mass surveillance, profiling, and the creation of data mosaics without users’ volition. This mini-track focuses on research that addresses social and ethical issues associated with big data technologies and their uses.

Thilini Ariyachandra, Xavier University, ariyachandrat@xavier.edu
Babita Gupta, California State University Monterey Bay, bgupta@csumb.edu
Gloria Phillips-Wren, Loyola University Maryland, gwren@loyola.edu

Mini-Track 9: Sports Analytics

Sports are a huge portion of the global economy with global annual revenues expected to be approximately $145 Billion for year 2015. United States alone accounts for over 40% of this revenue. Sports Management is a complex operation involving marketing of game, fan engagement, ticket sale, game operations, player performance, team ranking, sports medicine, injury risk prevention, concussions, athletic training and sports rehab, talent scouting, etc. to more recently integration of wearable technologies. This complexity coupled with the existence of different types of data sets and the integration of mobile technologies provides for a fertile playground to apply analytics to reap immediate benefits. This mini track invites original and high quality submissions from all aspects of sports that apply analytics, including injuries and concussions during sports practice and game play. For a detailed call, please visit https://sites.google.com/site/sportsmoneyball/. Selected papers from this minitrack will be invited for inclusion in a Springer book on Big Data in Sports.

Ashish Gupta, Auburn University, ashish.gupta@auburn.edu
Gary B. Wilkerson, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Gary-Wilkerson@utc.edu
David Paradice, Auburn University, dparadice@auburn.edu
Ramesh Sharda, Oklahoma State University, Ramesh.sharda@okstate.edu

Track Chairs
Matt Nelson, Illinois State University, mlnelso@ilstu.edu
Michael Shaw, University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne, mjshaw@illinois.edu
Troy Strader, Drake University, troy.strader@drake.edu
Chandra Subramaniam, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, csubrama@uncc.edu

Track Description
For AMCIS 2017, SIGeBIZ is proposing the focus of the tracks to be on technical, behavioural, design and strategic research issues associated with Digital Commerce. This encompasses studies of Internet-enabled transactions between consumers, businesses, and other organizations, as well as use of Internet technologies within organizations. The studies may utilize any research methodology. Related online business topics such as legal, ethical, and societal issues would also fit in this track.

Mini-Track 1: Business Models for the Digital Economy

This minitrack serves as a forum for the presentation and discussion of new and innovative approaches of business models for coping with the challenges of the digital economy as well as digital transformation. We consider an economy based on the digitization of information and the respective information and communication infrastructure as digital economy. These developments are creating and are requiring new types of business models. Value creation processes and structures will be altered radically, new type of products and services are emerging. Therefore, this minitrack addresses all topics concerned with the analysis, design, development, implementation, and control of future business models for the creation of economic value in the digital economy from a communication, organizational, business, economic, and managerial perspective applying a theoretical, conceptual, or practical approach.

Hans-Dieter Zimmermann, FHS St. Gallen University of Applied Sciences, Hans-Dieter.Zimmermann@fhsg.ch

Mini-Track 2: Social Influence, Sentiment, and Behavior on eBusiness

Recently, social media is a popular medium either for users or companies. The amount of message on social media is huge and accumulated continuously. The power on social media reveals deep meanings; for example, photos on Instagram, videos on YouTube, emojis on Facebook, and short messages on Twitter. The meaning of words, photos, or icons is not just the way it has. The sentiment and behaviour behind social media has influence and impact on business. Enterprises attempt to employ social media and social network tools to implement e-commerce businesses. By using social media, enterprises have lots of opportunities to increase the success of e-businesses. Social-commerce is gradually emerged on account of practical circumstances and the necessity of business operation. Social commerce is regarded as an important combination of social computing technologies and social networking effect that have deep impact in shaping commercial channels on and off the Internet.

Wei-Lun Chang, Tamkang University, Taiwan, wlchang@mail.tku.edu.tw
Yen-Hao Hsieh, Tamkang University, Taiwan, yhhsiehs@mail.tku.edu.tw
Aviv Segev, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea, aviv@kaist.edu
Vladlena Benson, Kingston Business School, V.Benson@kingston.ac.uk
Andreas Rauber, Vienna University of Technology, rauber@ifs.tuwien.ac.at

Mini-Track 3: Information Technology (IT)-enabled Supply Chain Management: Co-Creating and Capturing Business Value from IT

The preoccupation with supply chain management (SCM) has been present over the last few decades. Numerous studies have pointed to the need to increase the level of integration of inter- and intra-organizational processes and information systems in order to achieve a greater level of seamlessness and reduce duplication efforts and corresponding inefficiencies for competitive advantage. This mini-track aims to look at how to co-create and capture business value from new concepts (e.g., social media, Web 2.0, ‘Big Data’, ‘Business Analytics’, ‘Open data’, ‘Internet of Things’, ‘Web of Things’, green supply chain) and technologies (e.g., RFID technology, Bluetooth, ERPII, 3D Printers) both at the firm and supply chain levels. In particular, the minitrack seeks papers that attempt to provide new insights through models, simulations, theories, case studies and surveys.

Samuel Fosso Wamba, Toulouse University, s.fosso-wamba@tbs-education.fr
Shahriar Akter, University of Wollongong, sakter@uow.edu.au
Ygal Bendavid, The Université du Québec à Montréal, bendavid.ygal@uqam.ca
Rameshwar Dubey, Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management, rameshwardubey@gmail.com
Jean Robert Kala Kamdjoug, Catholic University of Central Africa, jrkala@gmail.com
John D’Ambra, UNSW, Australia, j.dambra@unsw.edu.au

Mini-Track 4: SIGeBIZ: Social Media and Social Commerce

This mini-track recognizes the increasing importance of social media and social commerce to businesses and organizations, and highlights the quickly changing environment and development in this field. This mini-track provides a forum for researchers, educators, and practitioners working in the areas of social media and social commerce to meet and interact. The mini-track serves as an outlet for studies related to technology, business models, protocols, industry experiences, legal aspects, security issues, and innovations in social media and social commerce. We welcome all aspects of research related to social media and social commerce and are open to all types of research methods (e.g., simulation, survey, experimentation, case studies, action research, etc.).

John Erickson, University of Nebraska at Omaha, johnerickson@unomaha.edu
Keng Siau, Missouri University of Science and Technology, siauk@mst.edu

Track Chairs
Marijn Janssen, Delft University of Technology, m.f.w.h.a.janssen@tudelft.nl
Vishanth Weerakkody, Brunel University, vishanth.Weerakkody@brunel.ac.uk
Lemuria Carter, Virginia Commonwealth University, ldcarter@vcu.edu
Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Swansea University, ykdwivedi@gmail.com

Track Description
ICT has been invading public administration and is changing the ways governments operate. Initially e-government was focussed on alternative service delivery mechanism, but nowadays e-government is now considered as a key enabler of public sector transformation for improving governance, including transparency and accountability and citizen participation in democratic processes and policy making. E-government changes the relationships between the government and the public and covers topics like multi-channel service delivery, creating transparency, evidence-based policy-making, transformational government, adoption and open government. Many governments have embraced these efforts, but struggle with implementation and adopting ICTs as part of the service delivery and policy-making processes. Within the information systems field e-government has its own niche in terms which include practical and theoretical relevance.

Mini-Track 1: Data and Analytics in Government

Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives have proliferated as new mechanisms for achieving government transparency, civic engagement, and collaboration for open innovation which are primary goals of the 2009 Open Government Directive of the Obama Administration. The concept of OGD underscores the recognition of OGD as valuable tangible or intangible resources at the government’s disposal. MiniTrack on Data and Analytics in Government (SIGeGOV) aims to examine these emergent phenomena of critical importance with their potential significant implications for new theory, research methodology and government practices. Specifically, the MiniTrack aims to stimulate discourse on the transformative potential of big and open data in enhancing e-government services, openness, government transparency, citizen engagement, and the interaction between governments, citizens, and businesses. Moreover, it aims to spur inquiry into the need for data analytics capability development across governments, the impact of OGD reuse on open innovation and the need for measuring economic and social values.

Akemi Takeoka Chatfield, University of Wollongong, akemi@uow.edu.au
Adegboyega Ojo, National University of Ireland, Galway, adegboyega.ojo@insight-centre.org
Uuf Brajawidagda, Politeknik Negeri Batam, ub976@uowmail.edu.au
Jeffrey Roy, Dalhousie University, Roy@dal.ca
Christopher G. Reddick, University of Texas at San Antonio, Chris.Reddick@utsa.edu

Mini-Track 2: E-Government: Past, Present, and Future (SIG-EGOV)

E-Government is an emerging paradigm to deliver government services to citizens, businesses, and other stakeholders through the use of Internet and information and communication technologies (ICTs). Over years, e-Government development has transitioned from cataloguing, transaction processing to vertical and horizontal integration in both developed and developing nations. The evolution of e-Government from the informational interfaces of the yester years to the transformational applications of today has in large measures been influenced by many of the contingent environmental factors. The objective of this mini-track is to provide a forum for discussion and presentation of original research highlighting current issues related to technical, organizational, managerial and socio-economic aspects of e-Government adoption, evolution, implementation and impact. We seek to invite papers that address various aspects of e-Government projects from a theoretical, conceptual, or empirical perspective to set the stage for future research direction in e-Government. Both quantitative as well as qualitative studies on e-Government from developed and developing countries perspectives are encouraged.

Vikas Jain, The University of Tampa, vjain@ut.edu

Mini-Track 3: From Implementation to Adoption: Challenges to Successful E-Government Diffusion

Since the mid 1990s ICT has played an important role in incrementally changing and shifting traditional and bureaucratic government models into the current e-government model where information and transactions are delivered to citizens’ in a more efficient and transparent manner. E-government has now evolved from offering information and transactional systems to more integrated offerings in most countries. In particular, rapidly evolving ICTs have offered the context for public institutions to transform their services and incorporate more transparency, inclusiveness, efficiency, availability and access. Although, nearly two decades have passed since e-government efforts began, and much research has been undertaken in the field, adoption and diffusion still remains a major challenge for many governments. From a demand perspective, extensive efforts are required to increase citizens’ awareness about the transformation of the delivery of government services and their online availability. In order to prevent digital divide in terms of using e-government services, it is also necessary that citizens from all segments of society are equipped with basic ICT skills as well as private and or public access to high speed internet connections. The above-mentioned issues may seem obvious; nonetheless, we believe that they are critical challenges to various governments’ plans for diffusion as well as citizens’ adoption of e-government services. Subsequently, there are also many technical, organizational, managerial and socio-economic challenges for successful implementation and adoption of e-government, which needs attention from various stakeholders including researchers and policy makers. The aim of this mini-track is to provide a common platform for discussion and presentation of original research highlighting issues related with technical, organizational, managerial, socioeconomic and policy related aspects of e-government implementation and adoption from both the government and citizen’s perspective.

Vishanth Weerakkody, Brunel University, Vishanth.Weerakkody@brunel.ac.uk
Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi, University of Wales Swansea, UK, ykdwivedi@gmail.com
Marijn Janssen, Delft University of Technology, m.f.w.h.a.janssen@tudelft.nl
Lemuria Carter, Virginia Commonwealth University, Ldcarter@vcu.edu

Mini-Track 4: Open Government and Policy-Making in the Digital Age

Over time, more and more data is becoming available. Further, data can be combined, analyzed and processed for all sorts of purposes in the field. Traditional policy-making and surveillance functions are changing due to the use of ‘Big Data’ analytics, new social computational techniques and stakeholders’ involvement. Data can be used for predictive analytics to improve policy-making. Furthermore the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data can be used for monitoring, surveillance and other purposes to improve policy-making. Yet what constitutes open government and how transparency and accountability can be achieved and the full potential of policy-making in the digital age still remains under explored and lacking in proven results. Topics likely to be of interest in this mini-track include (but are not limited to): Transparency and accountability; Policy-making, decision-making; Open Government Data and services; Linked Open Data; Collaboration, public-private partnerships; Socio-technical infrastructures; Measuring and benchmarking; Smart surveillance; Internet of Things; Big Data analytics; Citizen engagement; Open data portals and infrastructures; Open data policy and guide; Good and Better governance; Data and information quality; Value of data, public values; Open data and public sector innovation; Data impact on society.

Naci Karkin, Pamukkale University, nkirgin@pau.edu.tr
Laurence Brooks, De Montfort University, laurence.brooks@dmu.ac.uk
Marijn Janssen, Delft University of Technology, m.f.w.h.a.janssen@tudelft.nl

Mini-Track 5: Social Media in the Public Sector: Challenges and Opportunities (SIGEGOV)

The advent of social media, which was once predominantly a trend amongst the younger generation, has now exploded into a phenomenon that is widely accepted by all parts of society. Existing literature highlights that social media has the potential for public institutions to create real transformative opportunities concerning key issues such as transparency, accountability, communication and collaboration, and to promote civic engagement. However, it is far more than simply introducing or making use of new technologies, as the social media phenomenon in the public sector has opened up a new set of challenges and opportunities at the same time. The objective of this mini track is to invite work discussing the opportunities and challenges that arise with the use of social media in the public sector. In addition to empirical studies, theoretical and conceptual papers will also be given fair consideration.

Dr Nripendra P. Rana, Swansea University, UK, nrananp@gmail.com
Emma L. Slade, Swansea University, UK, emmalslade@hotmail.co.uk
Kawaljeet K. Kapoor, Brunel University, kawaljeet.kapoor@brunel.ac.uk

Mini-Track 6: Smart Cities: Opportunities and Challenges

Smart city initiatives are emerging as a key strategy to tackle the problems generated by the urban population growth and rapid development. Innovative concepts are evolving as novel approaches to holistic management of cities’ physical, socio-economic, environmental, transportation and political assets across all urban domains, typically supported by ICT. There is now a need for new paradigms for cities’ governance, knowledge creation and economic development, supported by technology, in every aspect of human life. This mini-track invites both theoretical and empirical work that frames smart city initiatives and explores its impact from a social, economic, technical or organizational perspective. Relevant areas of focus may include but are not limited to topics such as smart grids and the Internet of Things, Big Data and collective intelligence for cities, ubiquitous sensing and public mobility etc. Selected papers will be fast tracked into a special issue for the Journal of Enterprise Information Management.

Uthayasankar Sivarajah, Brunel University, sankar.sivarajah@brunel.ac.uk
Zahir Irani, University of Bradford, z.irani@bradford.ac.uk

Track Chairs
Renée Pratt, University of Massachusetts Amherst, rpratt@isenberg.umass.edu
Randy V. Bradleym, University of Tennessee, rbradley@utk.edu

Track Description
The introduction, use and maintenance of enterprise systems (ES) require a significant investment of organizational energy and resources. As such, ES represent the largest IS investment an organization is likely to make. Many organizations are now upgrading, replacing, or extending their original ES. Early versions of ES provided back office functionality that integrated a range of internal business processes, whereas modern ES have evolved to include support for a variety of front office and inter-organizational activities and processes, such as customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM). The design of such large integrated systems represents a major technical challenge, requiring new ways of thinking about business processes, system development, and enterprise architecture.

Because of both their size and their integrated nature, ES are difficult to implement, and are associated with a variety of organizational changes. Organizations expect, but unfortunately do not always realize, significant benefits from their sizable investments in ES. Because of the importance of ES in organizations, educators continue to explore approaches for introducing ES into IS and other business curricula. As such this track will investigate issues to pertaining large-scale systems adoption, implementation, and integration, academic and practice-based case studies on ES best practices, interdisciplinary concerns with specialized ES in areas such as healthcare and supply chain management, emerging delivery models, and enterprise and business architecture.

Mini-Track 1: Enterprise Systems DevOps and Operations Management

After adopting an Enterprise Systems (ES), organizations struggle to obtain the benefits that were sought when choosing the system. As part of the Information Technologies Operation Management (ITOM)’s challenges, this minitrack aims to discuss all related difficulties that organizations might face over the ES’s lifecycle (development, implementation, testing, runtime, upgrade, maintenance, etc.). One of these is the developers – managers communications. Another, is the management of change (e.g. requirements engineering, end user involvement and training, user support, testing, etc.). Both, vendor’s as well as customer’s perspectives need to be taken into account. This minitrack kindly invites full research submissions as well as research in progress papers.

Klaus Turowski, Otto-von-Guericke University – Magdeburg, Klaus.turowski@ovgu.de
Naoum Jamous, Otto-von-Guericke University – Magdeburg, naoum.jamous@ovgu.de

Mini-Track 2: Enterprise Systems in the Digital Era: Managerial and Technological Challenges

Due to this immersive digitization of everyday life and the fast changes in the industrial environment (i.e. Industry 4.0/Industrial Internet) enterprises face numerous challenges which in turn require effective coordination of internal but also intercorporate business processes. It has never been more important for enterprises to be able to rely on IT‐enabled capabilities as well as to count on a deep understanding of information technology in general and in digital innovation in particular. However, benefitting from these chances calls for new management approaches. This minitrack aims to discuss different aspects of digital transformation and the respective transformation of traditional enterprise software systems along with the resulting, changing requirements towards enterprise structures and cultures as well as related project and IT management topics. We intend to discuss both managerial and technological problems as well as their effect on future developments of enterprise software with interested researchers, software developers and user groups.

Christian Leyh, Technische Universität Dresden, christian.leyh@tu‐dresden.de
Peter Fettke, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), and Saarland University, peter.fettke@iwi.dfki.de
Susanne Strahringer, Technische Universität Dresden, susanne.strahringer@tu‐dresden.de

Mini-Track 3: Enterprise Architecture and Organizational Success

Enterprise Architecting (EA) is the process of developing enterprise Information Technology architecture – both its description and its implementation. An EA description focuses on a holistic and integrated view of the why, where, and who uses IT systems and how and what they are used for within an organization.  An enterprise architect (and his/her team) develops the strategy and enables the decisions for designing, developing, and deploying IT systems to support the business operations as well as to assess, select, and integrate the technology into the organization’s infrastructure. Alignment between business and IT has remained one of the top issues for CIOs and IS managers.

Frank Armour, American University, farmour@american.edu
J. Alberto Espinosa, American University, alberto@american.edu
Stephen Kaisler, SHK & Associates, skaisler1@comcast.net
William DeLone, American University, wdelone@american.edu
Peter Loos, Saarland University, Germany, loos@iwi.uni-sb.de

Mini-Track 4: SIGEntSys: Enterprise System Adoption and Business Models

Enterprise systems (ES) are extremely complex software packages designed for integrating data flow across an entire company, having emerged from earlier MRP, MRP II and ERP systems. Over time, ES have expanded to include more and more areas of an organization’s operations, and have extended beyond organizational boundaries to support interorganizational activities. Today’s enterprise systems are expected to support modern organizations that operate in dynamic and turbulent business environments, compete in global markets, face mergers and takeovers, and participate in business alliances and joint ventures. This mini-track invites papers that examine various aspects related to the determinants of ES success and business models. Both empirical and theoretical papers are invited. The general research questions addressed in this mini-track can be formulated as follows: What are the mechanisms determining successful ES adoption? What are the underlying business models of companies delivering successfully adaptable ES? What kinds of new business models exist?

Carsten Brockmann, Capgemini, carsten.brockmann@capgemini.com
Przemysław Lech, University of Gdansk, przemyslaw.lech@ug.edu.pl
Piotr Soja, Cracow University of Economics, eisoja@cyf-kr.edu.pl

Track Chairs
Pnina Fichman, Indiana University Bloomington, fichman@indiana.edu
G. Harindranath, Royal Holloway University of London, G.Harindranath@rhul.ac.uk
Edward W.N. Bernroider, Vienna University of Economics and Business, edward.bernroider@wu.ac.at
Monideepa Tarafdar, Lancaster University, m.tarafdar@lancaster.ac.uk

Track Description
Globalization has historically been tied to technological innovation, and the present era of a networked information society is no different. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have provided the infrastructure for multinational businesses, created new cultural connections irrespective of geographic boundaries and distances, and allowed an increasingly mobile global population to be connected to their friends, families, and cultures no matter where they are. The issues surrounding global, international, and cross cultural issues in Information Systems (IS) attracted much scholarly attention and have been explored under myriad contexts.

The track welcomes submissions that relate to all aspects of global IS, or IS research situated in a global, international or cross-cultural context. The track is open to all methodological approaches and perspectives. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
– Cross-national and cross-cultural comparisons of IT adoption, use and development (e.g. ERP diffusion and impacts compared between different economies)
– Globally distributed teams and multinational organizations (e.g. the adoption and use of social media by cross-national virtual teams)
– IT adoption and investment at the national level (e.g. IT infrastructure sophistication and national-level IT policies across countries)
– Cross-national legislation and regulation (e.g. implications of different regulations governing Green IT in the EU vs. US or Asian countries)
– Impacts of cultural values (e.g. on systems use, adoption or development)
– Research on global IT sourcing strategies (e.g. cloud sourcing)
– Social computing impacts on multinational organizations and teams (e.g. product pricing strategies)
– Global knowledge management (e.g. different knowledge-sharing cultures and practices in multi-national corporations)
– Global information governance (e.g. sustainable strategies for standardization and harmonization in evolving business networks)
– Security in information systems that span multiple countries (e.g. natural and man-made threats, reliability, availability etc.)

Mini-Track 1: Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management in Global Information Systems    

In learning from the past & charting the future of global information systems, the key question is what are the best and/or next practices in building a collaborative enterprise using global information systems?  While global organizations recognize that information and knowledge are vital to their operation, they do not know the best way to identify, value, cost, manage and realize the benefits of their intellectual assets. This is probably due to a knowledge gap between theory and practice.  Consequently, technology is often seen as solutions to the problem, rather than an increased focus on the content (data, information and knowledge). As more countries join the ranks of the industrialized nations, the sophistication of the global market and number of global competitors that have eliminated any advantage to a simple presence in international markets. The focus of this mini-track will be on understanding the fundamental conditions of the industry and bridging this knowledge gap in Global Information Systems.

Mahesh S. Raisinghani, TWU Executive MBA Program, mraisinghani@twu.edu

Mini-Track 2: Cultural and Value Related Aspects in Information Systems

The interrelation of social aspects, such as culture and values, with information systems (IS) has become an important research area, particularly, since IS projects continue to struggle due to cultural phenomena such as change resistance. Research in this area is manifold and includes culture and values of IS stakeholders (designers, programmers, managers, users) on different levels, such as organizational, managerial, and societal levels. Cross-cultural studies comparing design, development, and use of IS in different countries cover only some facets of culture and values in IS. This mini-track focuses on the cultural and value related aspects of IS and the societal, organizational, and managerial issues in this context. It aims at achieving a deeper understanding of topics such as culture and values integrated in IS, cultural contexts and the IS life cycle, and stakeholder group cultures and IS management beyond pure cross-cultural aspects.

Barbara Krumay, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, bkrumay@wu.ac.at
Theresa Schmiedel, University of Liechtenstein, theresa.schmiedel@uni.li

Mini-Track 3: Issues in Global Systems Implementation    

Over the past several decades, organizations have increasingly become more globalized in their operations. For these organizations, it is imperative for them to deploy systems that span multiple countries and continents. Implementation of such systems is fraught with challenges. Focus of mainstream IS research on systems implementations is on single organization/country implementations. The context of global implementation of systems varies from single country implementations. Organizations implementing systems across multiple countries have to deal with variances in the availability of skilled workforce, infrastructure, culture, data privacy policies, laws and regulations. Moreover, the widespread use of cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service has given rise to the involvement of service providers and application/data hosting beyond the boundaries of the home country. This mini-track invites research in the areas of global information systems development, implementation and usage to provide an increased understanding of the issues salient to global information systems implementations.

Anil Singh, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, anil.singh@utrgv.edu
Aakash Taneja, Stockton University, aakash.taneja@stockton.edu
George Mangalaraj, Western Illinois University, G-Mangalaraj@wiu.edu

Track Chairs
Savanid (Nui) Vatanasakdakul, Macquarie University, savanid.vatanasakdakul@mq.edu.au
Chadi Aoun, Carnegie Mellon University, chadi@cmu.edu
Pratyush Bharati, University of Massachusetts, Boston, pratyush.bharati@umb.edu

Track Description
Sustainability and climate change are global issues, with many cultural, organizational, technical, social, regulatory, economic, and individual dimensions. Just as computer‐based information systems have been a driving force for societal progress, Green IS can be a driving force for strategic sustainable solutions in organizations and communities.

Green IS enables the transformative power of information systems to support the multiple dimensions of sustainability. It addresses the world’s greatest challenges including shrinking access to nonrenewable resources, decreased energy and food security, and environmental degradation due to climate change. IS can play a pivotal role in enabling sustainable solutions, which greatly increase the effectiveness and efficiency of modern communities and enterprises. Consequently, IS research can contribute in such transformation towards a multidimensional perspective to sustainability.

This track is open to any type of research within scope of Green IS and Sustainability research as well as those that adapt research and industry experience into teaching cases and modules.

– Managing Green IT/IS systems
– Governance and strategy in Green IS and Sustainability
– Green Business Process Management
– Decision support for logistics and supply chain processes
– IS‐enabled collaborative processes for mobilization towards sustainability
– IS‐enabled multidisciplinary collaborations for sustainability
– IS‐enabled smart cities and sustainable communities
– Designing and implementing systems for the Smart Grid
– End user acceptance and adoption of smart grid technologies
– Green HCI – Changing human attitudes and behaviors through information
– Energy informatics – analyzing, designing, and implementing processes to increase the efficiency of energy demand and supply systems
– Resource informatics – designing and implementing systems to manage metals, minerals, water, forests, etc.
– Designing and implementing systems that measure and validate the impact of sustainable business practices and policies
– Critical competencies and curricula for Green IS graduates and professionals
– IS‐enabled sustainability of educational campuses and institutions
– IS to support carbon management, accounting and reporting
– Sustainable development in transitional and developing countries
– Global and cultural issues in Green IS and Sustainability

Mini-Track 1: Information Systems for Sustainable Business Strategies, Activities, and Supply Chains

Information Systems enable organizations to develop and promote sustainable strategies, business practices, and supply chain processes that focus on all aspects of the triple bottom line: Profit, People, and Planet. This mini-track is for research investigating the role IS plays in enabling these sustainable business strategies and practices, especially those that address sustainability not only within individual firms but also reach across firm boundaries. Research focused on IS to coordinate sustainability efforts within a firm and among supply chain partners is encouraged regardless of method. Inter-disciplinary research is particularly welcome.

Daniel Rush, University of Northern Colorado, daniel.rush@unco.edu
Viet Dao, Shippensburg University, VTDao@ship.edu

Mini-Track 2: Sustainability, Organizations, and Green Information Systems  

Information systems (IS) help connect and configure the disparate system of human activities into an integrated and interlocking whole. Society, and its organizations, endeavoring for environmental sustainability can employ information technologies to not just redesign and refocus their production networks but also to create new knowledge and to innovate. Green IS technology offers strategic solution to the problem of increasing costs of maintaining information systems by helping organizations better integrate business, operations, and assets priorities and aligning these with the organizational mission and goals. Green IS is an important tool to reduce the carbon footprints of organizations and to protect the environment by minimizing the hazardous impact of IT. This mini-track invites research submissions, both theoretical and empirical, on sustainability and green IS issues in organizations.

Ganesh P. Sahu, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, gsahu@mnnit.ac.in
Babita Gupta, California State University Monterey Bay, bgupta@csumb.edu
Arunabha Mukhopadhyay, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, India, arunabha@iiml.ac.in

Mini-Track 3: Models for Sustainable Transformation

Sustainable management aspires towards balancing and integrating social, economic and environmental dimensions. Existing roadmaps, frameworks and systems do not comprehensively support sustainable transformation nor do they allow decision makers to explore interrelationships and influences between the sustainability dimensions. This leads to silo based decision making where vision and strategies are not mapped to execution, and sustainability modelling and reporting processes are uncoordinated. This is true at the micro level in the life of individuals and families and at the macro level in organizations, supply chains and societies as a whole. The purpose of this minitrack is to explore concepts, models, processes, frameworks, architectures, roadmaps, and systems that will enable individuals, families, organizations, supply chains, and ultimately society to become more sustainable. In particular the focus of the minitrack is to explore qualitative, quantitative, optimization, and/or simulation models of sustainable transformation. We seek papers on approaches that enable us to support, share, measure, benchmark, model, quantify, qualify sustainability goals, practices, performances, and indicators. We welcome conceptual, theoretical, and empirical papers that enrich our understanding of this. All methodological approaches are welcome.

David Sundaram, University of Auckland, d.sundaram@auckland.ac.nz
Daud Ahmed, Manukau Institute of Technology, Daud.Ahmed@manukau.ac.nz
Gabrielle Peko, University of Auckland, g.peko@auckland.ac.nz

Track Chairs
Richard Klein, Florida International University, rklein@fiu.edu
Sweta Sneha, Kennesaw State University, ssneha@kenessaw.edu

Track Description
The Healthcare Informatics and Health Information Technology (HIT) track seeks to promote research into ground breaking technology innovations and applications within the healthcare sector, while incorporating interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches beyond the traditional information systems (IS) and health information technology (HIT) disciplines. Information systems and technology (IT) innovations offer significant potential to transform the delivery of care, to improve the quality and efficiency of the healthcare system, to enhance interactions between patients/caregivers and providers, and to enable greater access to the latest advancements in treatments, among other accomplishments and outcomes. Academic efforts within the Healthcare Technology and Systems track should demonstrate novel work within the IS discipline as well as reference perspectives including computer science, economics,  organizational behaviour, public policy, public health, software/electrical engineering, management, and strategy, among others. Completed research and research-in-progress topics might include, opportunities and challenges faced within the current healthcare sector; advances in healthcare information technologies (HIT), electronic health (e-health), telemedicine, and mobile health (m-health), among other innovative technological applications; as well as healthcare industry-specific issues related to traditional IS research concerns, including adoption and diffusion, systems design and implementation, and IS success.

Mini-Track 1: Electronic Resources for the Aging Society

All developed economies face the challenge of aging societies. Not only is the percentage of the elderly within the population growing, they are also getting older then generations before. This trend puts tremendous pressure on social and healthcare systems around the world. Electronic resources (wearables, apps, websites, virtual discussion groups, social media etc.) provide a perspective to enable seniors to life longer in self-contained circumstances then today. The minitrack addresses these challenges and opportunities by providing a forum to share high quality research on all aspects of electronic resources which benefit the aging society. We welcome empirical and conceptual work as well as design science papers. All research which adds to our understanding how electronic resources are accepted and used by seniors and what benefit they provide is in scope of the minitrack. We explicitly welcome papers dealing with policy implications and resulting recommendations.

Heiko Gewald, Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences, heiko.gewald@hs-neu-ulm.de
Wendy Currie, Audencia Business School, wcurrie@audencia.com
Doug Vogel, eHealth Research Institute, Harbin Institute of Technology, vogel.doug@gmail.com

Mini-Track 2: Healthcare Analytics

The healthcare industry is experiencing fundamental transformation. Clinical challenges, aging populations, and cost overrun have significantly complicated the healthcare delivery in the United States and around the world. And there is increasing pressure on healthcare providers and payers (including the governments) to provide more with less—reducing costs and improving coordination and outcomes—all while being more patient centric with added complexity of care. And it is commonly believed that this industry transformation and complexity of care will only increase in the coming years, for instance with services like personalized medicine and mobile health. With the accumulation of data in the vast deployment of HIT, it is expected that Big Data can help healthcare providers and policy makers navigate this treacherous territory. Analytics can provide the basis on which better decisions can be made to move towards a healthcare system that addresses the combined objectives of lower costs, safe care, effective clinical outcomes, and high patient satisfaction. The need to build analytics competencies among practitioners and researchers is apparent. Given the importance and the challenges of Healthcare Analytics, this mini-track provides a platform for researchers and practitioners to submit original studies on the topic.

C. Derrick Huang, Florida Atlantic University, dhuang@fau.edu
Ravi S. Behara, Florida Atlantic University, rbehara@fau.edu
Jahyun Goo, Florida Atlantic University, jgoo@fau.edu
Chul Woo Yoo, Florida Atlantic University, yooc@fau.edu

Mini-Track 3: Information Technology for Global Health

As global interconnectedness increases, the impact of health problems are not efficiently addressed from a purely national standpoint. Therefore, a concerted effort among governments, and other institutions, in efforts that span national boundaries, is the new emerging approach to deal with these issues. This approach, known as Global Health, entails the use of a multidimensional strategies to address transnational health issues, specifically including HIV/AIDS, rural healthcare service delivery, and other health issues affecting the world population. This minitrack explores emerging trends for applying innovative Health IT solutions to improve general population and community healthcare across the globe, including low-cost, mobile and other emerging technological applications oriented towards healthcare. Such solutions will provide a multinational perspective on the benefits of mobile health and other emerging information technologies and describe different examples and applications implemented. This minitrack will consider empirical research, reviews of current literature, theory, methodology, and relevant position papers.

Joseph Tan, McMaster University, tanjosep@mcmaster.ca
Kaushik Ghosh, Lamar University, kghosh@lamar.edu
Michael S. Dohan, Lakehead University, msdohan@lakeheadu.ca

Mini-Track 4: Medical Apps and Mobile Health (mHealth) Solutions for Health and Wellness Management

Healthcare systems globally are contending with the monumental challenge of providing quality care to an aging populace as well as facilitating the monitoring and management of exponentially increasing chronic disease such as diabetes, obesity and cancer. This is made more difficult in an environment of increasing healthcare costs (approximately 17% of GDP in US) with limited human resources. Mobile Health (mHealth), and Medical Apps open the door to the possibility of pervasive anytime, anywhere, for anyone delivery of healthcare services. The objective of this mini-track is to identify appropriate, efficient and sustainable solutions to effect superior wellness management and healthcare delivery by soliciting work-in-progress and completed research papers covering technical, organizational, behavioral, economical, and/or managerial perspectives on mobile Apps and mHealth solutions Further, key areas such as barriers and facilitators including policy, compliance to standards, privacy and security requirements are essential considerations.

Nilmini Wickramasinghe, Epworth HealthCare & Deakin University, nilmini.work@gmail.com
Ton Spil, University of Twente, a.a.m.spil@utwente.nl
Doug Vogel, Harbin Institute of Technology, isdoug@hit.edu.cn

Mini-Track 5: Health Information Privacy And Security

The type and number of organizations that handle health data is multifarious and growing. To complicate matters further, the use of technologies such as internet-connected medical devices and telemedicine is also on the rise. Furthermore, handlers of health data face a wide variety of complex regulatory compliance issues. For these reasons, the protection of health information is distinctive and merits a focused research effort. This mini-track aims to highlight a wide range of research focused on the protection of health information. Research and results from this mini-track will bring light to unique data protection issues in healthcare. This mini-track encourages interdisciplinary research, a wide variety of approaches, and both completed and in-progress research papers.

Nancy Martin, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, nlmartin@siu.edu
David T. Green, Governors State University, dgreen@govst.edu

Mini-Track 6: Role of Technology in Improving Healthcare Delivery Processes

Healthcare organizations redesign processes and implement various forms of information technology (IT) to increase productivity, lower costs, and improve quality of care. Unfortunately, large health IT investments often do not achieve the expected levels of improvement. Recognizing that significant improvements require more than just deploying IT, this minitrack seeks papers that investigate the role of information systems (IS) and IT in improving healthcare delivery as well as opportunities and challenges for IT-enabled change. The minitrack is open to papers on challenges and benefits from improved healthcare delivery over a variety of healthcare settings (e.g., hospitals, ambulatory clinics, or in the home). It is also open to multiple research methods including qualitative, quantitative, and design science approaches. We are especially interested in interdisciplinary approaches, combining for example IT, process design, as well as managerial and policy initiatives. Because the national context affects health care delivery choices, we are also interested in multi-national studies.

Jim Ryan, Auburn University at Montgomery, jryan@aum.edu
Carmen Lewis, Troy University, cclewis@troy.edu
Yajiong (Lucky) Xue, East Carolina University, xuey@ecu.edu

Track Chairs
Jim Denford, Royal Military College of Canada, jim.denford@rmc.ca
Mike Eom, University of Portland, eom@up.edu

Track Description
The Human Capital in IS track is aimed at fostering a forum for IS scholars engaging in a range of human capital related research including  IS leadership, professional services and career development/training. Specific objectives of the track are to allow members to share their research, engage in exchange of  perspectives, and encourage future collaborations. The track is sponsored by the AIS Special Interest Group  on IS Leadership (SIGLEAD) with this track presenting as a theme on IS Leadership that has been hosted at AMCIS since 2003.

Though articles on human capital abound in the practitioner press, much less attention has been devoted to the topic from an academic perspective. IS professionals – whether leaders at the CIO level, IS project and line staff or external professional service providers – are the human dimension of the discipline and therefore issues surrounding IS practice are of enduring concern to IS academics and practitioners alike. Mini-tracks will be sought to cover the range of the track interest and authors will be encouraged to submit both conceptual and empirical papers that employ a variety of quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

Mini-Track 1: IS Leadership Development

Though articles on IS Leadership Development abound in the practitioner press, much less attention has been devoted to the topic from an academic perspective. IS Leadership Development sets directions, creates commitment, and adapts the IS unit to fit a changing environment. It is, thus, an enduring concern to IS academics and practitioners alike. It is an issue that should face organizations for many years because leadership has been a persistent concern of all societies and organizations. The mini-track seeks to explore the various dimensions, theoretical bases, and perspectives on IS Leadership Development and to advance the state of scholarship on the issue. Authors are encouraged to submit both conceptual and empirical papers that employ a variety of quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

Jennifer E. Gerow, Virginia Military Institute, gerowje@vmi.edu

Mini-Track 2: IS Career Development

The IT profession is a critical driving force for today’s organizations. Despite this importance, IT professionals at various levels of the organization are constantly facing challenges in their efforts to realize IT value. The objective of this mini-track is to help us, academics and practitioners, further explore these issues and aim at better understanding the relationship between the IT professional and the organization. This mini-track welcomes research that address the issues above and emerging ones within the IS/IT workforce, talent management, career streams, professional developments, work/family balance of IS professionals, as well as ethical, societal, and legal issues related to managing IT professionals, among others. Research on attracting students to the IT profession, global talent management, and developing a more diverse IT professional workforce are also welcomed. Possible topics include IT/IS professional identity, workforce Issues, diversity in the IT profession, global talent management, training and career issues, amongst others.

Paola Gonzalez, Dalhousie University, paola.gonzalez@dal.ca

Mini-Track 3: IS Professional Services

IS consultancy and professional services are important forces in the IT industry today. From consulting to outsourcing to off-shoring to in-sourcing, there are a variety of mechanisms that combine internal IS personnel with external augmentation. The objective of this mini-track is to allow academics and practitioners to look at the issues surrounding the use of consultants and other service providers to IT organizations. The mini-track welcomes emerging and completed research on issues including service providers or advisors to the CIO or small business owner; in-sourcing, out-sourcing, off-shoring, near-shoring and reshoring decisions and impacts; relationship management between IS departments, consultants and service-provision partners; impacts of migration of services and managed services arrangement; and contract and service-level arrangement issues within professional services, amongst others.

Joseph Taylor, California State University, Sacramento, joseph.taylor@csus.edu‎

Track Chairs
Miguel I. Aguirre-Urreta, Texas Tech University, miguel.aguirre-urreta@ttu.edu
Greg Moody, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, gregory.moody@unlv.edu
Dezhi Wu, Southern Utah University, wu@suu.edu

Track Description
The AMCIS 2017 HCI Track will provide a forum for AIS members to present, discuss and explore a wide range of issues related to Human-Computer Interaction and Information Systems. Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is an interdisciplinary area that has attracted researchers, educators, and practitioners from several disciplines. It essentially deals with the design, evaluation, adoption, and use of information technology, with a common focus on improved user performance and experience. New and exciting research opportunities are emerging, including issues and challenges concerning people’s interactions with various information technologies that can be examined from an organizational, managerial, psychological, social, or cultural perspective. This track welcomes papers that aim at advancing our understanding of human‐computer interaction at the individual, work group, organization, or society levels. Submissions may use any type of research method. The best papers from the track will be offered a fast-track publication opportunity in the AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction journal.”

Mini-Track 1: Cognitive and Affective HCI

Understanding the cognitive and affective processes in system use can lead to innovative systems. This minitrack aims to provide a forum for research on detection, integration, design, impact, visualization, privacy, and usage of cognition and affect in information systems. Cognition and affect can be detected and integrated into information systems by capturing information from eye tracking, EEG, video cameras, microphones, and other human interaction sensors. Potential topics include, but are not limited to the following: Affective or cognitive state detection; Classification or prediction; Visualization; Barriers to effective user experience; Social and political impact case studies; Credibility assessment; Platforms, tools, and technologies; Better HCI methods and models, Innovative HCI opportunities, Mobile factors, and Dynamic HCI affordances.

Nathan W. Twyman, Missouri University of Science and Technology, nathantwyman@mst.edu
Aaron C. Elkins, San Diego State University, aelkins@mail.sdsu.edu
Jeffrey Gainer Proudfoot, Bentley University, jproudfoot@bentley.edu
Justin Giboney, University at Albany, jgiboney@albany.edu

Mini-Track 2: Interface Design, Evaluation and Impact

This mini-track is an outlet for human-computer interaction (HCI) papers that research interface design, evaluation, and impact. It supports a wide-ranging set of research topics, methods, and perspectives in the HCI area. Possible topics include user interface design and evaluation for B2B, B2C, C2C e-commerce, m-commerce, and social media sites, business software including ERP, Internet of Things, big data dashboard, and healthcare, virtual worlds and games. User task analysis, usability testing, the analysis of the impacts of interfaces on the attitudes, behaviors, performance, or productivity of individuals, organizations, and society are also the topics of this mini-track. Authors are encouraged to investigate new issues related to and apply new approaches of considering HCI in light of emerging technologies and technology trends. A number of papers have been published at the premier IS journals in the past. Excellent conference submissions have been considered for fast-track options at journals publishing HCI research.

Younghwa “Gabe” Lee, Miami University, gabelee@miamioh.edu
Andrew N. K. Chen, University of Kansas, andrewchen@ku.edu
Anna L. McNab, Niagara University, amcnab@niagara.edu

Mini-Track 3: IS, Food Industry and Consumer Behavior

This minitrack examines the nature and implications of use of IT in food industry. With growing concerns for food safety, service quality and information sharing in food industry, the impact of information systems and human-computer interaction in the context is receiving great attention. The fact that food industry is related to health issues as well as regular consumption satisfaction makes distinctive phenomena such as organic food purchase, consumers’ willingness to pay price premium, intensive information search, etc. This minitrack aims to extend our understanding of IS in food industry, human-computer interaction, and consumer behavior to enhance the theoretical foundation for research, offer guidance to practitioners and share important empirical findings with consumers. This minitrack welcomes conceptual and empirical research papers investigating this emerging phenomena using various theories and methodologies.

Chul Woo Yoo, Florida Atlantic University, yooc@fau.edu
Jahyun Goo, Florida Atlantic University, jgoo@fau.edu
C. Derrick Huang, Florida Atlantic University, dhuang@fau.edu
Ravi S. Behara, Florida Atlantic University, rbehara@fau.edu

Mini-Track 4: Understanding and Fostering Trust in Information Systems

The Minitrack will provide a forum for AIS members to present, discuss and explore a wide range of issues related to all aspects of trust and distrust in information systems. It welcomes papers that aim at advancing our understanding of conceptualizations of trust in information systems at various levels (e.g., individual, group, organizational, societal) and from various perspectives (e.g., cultural, design, ethical). Papers that enhance discovery and identification of the moderating role of context and task on trust and IT relationships are also welcome. Evolutions of trust research that consider perspectives of risk and privacy issues are particularly relevant. We welcome not only empirical research papers but also conceptual, analytical and theoretical papers that could impact our understanding pertaining to the above concepts in one or more ways – theoretical, managerial, and social.

Gaurav Bansal, University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, bansalg@uwgb.edu
Sherrie Yi X. Komiak, Memorial University of Newfoundland, skomiak@mun.ca
Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Missouri University of Science and Technology, nahf@mst.edu

Track Chairs
Narcyz Roztocki, State University of New York at New Paltz and Kozminski University, roztockn@newpaltz.edu
Renata Gabryelczyk, University of Warsaw, r.gabryelczyk@wne.uw.edu.pl
Janice Sipior, Villanova University, janice.sipior@villanova.edu

Track Description
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have a major impact on economic and societal development. Though developing, emerging, and transitional economies play an increasingly important role in the global market, mainstream information systems research continues to focus on the relatively small group of countries with highly developed economies. The business, social, and legal environments of less developed economies often mandate that ICT implementation and management apply different practices and models from those conceived and tested in highly developed countries. The intention of this track is to encourage more research and publications on ICT focused on developing and emerging markets and communities.

Thus, this track serves as a forum for research on the appropriate use and diffusion of information and communication technologies and associated management practices in the distinctive environments of developing, emerging, and transitional economies.

Mini-Track 1: Managing ICT for Development Field Research: Challenges, Opportunities, & Solutions

A large number of ICT for development (ICT4D) projects across the world cannot meet their objectives. One cause of the failures of ICT4D projects is related to the shortcomings in field research. Field research primarily involves data collection, and often attempts to understand someone else’s experience. The high failure rates of ICT4D projects call for fundamentally new ways to tackle the challenges experienced by researchers and practitioners when planning and conducting ICT4D field research in the developing and developed world. This minitrack invites researchers and practitioners to share and analyze their success stories, failures, mistakes, and advice, which would gather momentum for a global discussion on better managing ICT4D field research, furthering the larger goal of socioeconomic and human development of marginalized communities across the world.

Devendra Potnis, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, dpotnis@utk.edu

Mini-Track 2: ICT issues in the Arab and Middle Eastern Countries

Over the last few decades much of the Information Systems (IS) research has been focused on developed countries. While more recently there has been a noticeable increase in the number of IS studies in developing countries, these studies have mainly been specific to East Asian and Pacific countries. IS research in the context of Middle Eastern countries has been overlooked. Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt to name a few, have witnessed a tremendous growth in ICT development but research has been limited. These countries have different social, economical and cultural context compared to East Asian and other developing and developed countries. Better understanding adoption of ICT and the issues faced by these countries in the process of implementation would help practitioners in the Middle East and be a valuable contribution to the IS field. Therefore, the objective of this mini-track is to invite IS professionals and academics doing research on ICT in Middle Eastern countries submit their work.

Mazen Ali, University of Bahrain, mali@uob.edu.bh
Yousef Salim AlHinai, Sultan Qaboos University, yalhinai@squ.edu.om
Fayez Alqahtani, King Saud University, fhalqahtani@ksu.edu.sa

Mini-Track 3: ICT Collaboration in Cross-Organizational, International, and Global Settings

With growing integration of corporations, public authorities, non-profit organizations, project teams, and individuals in cross-organizational, international and global settings, ICT collaboration is getting increasingly relevant. ICT in cross-organizational, international, and global collaboration can facilitate collaboration and enable improved cross-organizational processes in many contexts, e.g., supply chains, product development, or project management. On the other hand, ICT can also be a goal of cross-organizational collaboration, e.g. if interorganizational systems or standards are implemented. Cross-organizational, international, and global collaboration is characterized by high complexity and challenged by contingencies such as different levels of ICT infrastructure, differences in business processes, cultural differences, legal regulations or the economic environment. This mini-track invites conceptual and empirical research that contributes to a clearer understanding of ICT collaboration processes, their challenges, success factors, and benefits in cross-organizational, international, or global settings. All methodological approaches, including case studies, surveys, literature reviews, design science etc. are welcome.

Maria Madlberger, Webster Vienna Private University, maria.madlberger@webster.ac.at

Mini-Track 4: Crime and Corruption in Information Technology Management in Developing, Emerging, and Transition Economies

Information Systems research has significant potential in studying how Information Systems and Technology are implemented and used in developing countries. Existing research has examined the host of major challenges developing countries face with implementing Information Technologies. Of the challenges, crime and corruption are major themes that affect the success, reliability, security, and overall effectiveness of IT. How corruption affects security is a critical aspect of IT in developing countries that can make or break a system. There is a scarcity of research in the area of how crime and corruption in IT in developing countries affects security. This minitrack would seek research that explores the relationship between crime, corruption, and security in IT in developing countries.

Michael Lapke, University of Mary Washington, mlapke@umw.edu
Mukesh Srivastava, University of Mary Washington, msrivast@umw.edu
Alain Claude Tambe Ebot, University of Jyvaskyla, alain.c.tambe-ebot@jyu.fi
Christopher G. Reddick, University of Texas at San Antonio, chris_reddick@utsa.edu

Mini-Track 5: Impact of ICT in Development in Developing Regions

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are important enablers of the socio-economic development in developing regions. Most studies on ICT in developing regions have focused on context but ignored the impact of ICT on development. Small and medium enterprise (SMEs) as well as microenterprises are employing ICT in developing regions. These organizations are the agents of development in these regions because they provide employment and help alleviate poverty and improve social economic well-being of citizens. Recently Andoh-Baidoo (2016) presented a framework useful for organizational level study on ICT and development in developing economies. The objective of this mini-track is to provide a forum to interested researchers for presenting and discussing research that examines ICT application and impact on developing regions with focus on small and medium enterprises as well as microenterprises.

Francis Kofi Andoh-Baidoo, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, francis.andohbaidoo@utrgv.edu
David Asamoah, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, dasamoah.ksb@knust.edu.gh

Mini-Track 6: Leveraging Information Technology for Innovative Competitiveness in Emerging Markets

The objectives of this mini-track focus on leveraging information technology opportunities for innovations to increase business competitiveness in emerging markets to encourage more research on this topic by providing platform to share research results, create new partnerships and get new ideas for further research. Topics of interest can include but are not limited to the following: ICT innovations for Customer relationship management; E-governance challenges for innovations; ICT innovations in IT governance; Innovative capability in human capital of IS development; Innovative application of IT in education and healthcare; Innovations for ICT Social media; Innovative ICT strategy as a tool for Business model design; Integration IT in Enterprise resource planning systems; New IT tools for delivering marketing innovations; Cybersecurity agenda as a basis for innovations; Open innovation IT solutions; IT as a driving force of Business Intelligence innovations; Big data capabilities as a  competitive advantage for innovations; IT solutions for alternative innovative trading systems.

Jolanta Kowal, University of Wrocław, jolakowal@gmail.com
Juho Mäkiö, Hochschule Emden/Leer, juho.maekioe@hs-emden-leer.de

Mini-Track 7: Commercializing Research for Socioeconomic Development

Many governments, foundations and universities invest heavily in research activities. Likewise many university professors spend most of their career actively engaged in research activities. Much of this research has the potential to impact society and economic development outside academia. However most of these ideas never make it beyond the university into real world applications where they could contribute to economic growth and impact society. We believe improved results can be realized through a focused effort to transfer impactful research to the broader community, through technology commercialization efforts in partnership with the private sector. This may involve creating new university affiliated startup companies or licensing these research discoveries to existing companies to improve societal and economic development. This mini-track invites papers aimed at understanding or improving research commercialization. Possible topics include: Technology Transfer and Commercialization Policies; Impact of Technology Commercialization; Tutorials for how to better commercialize research; Models for Technology Commercialization; Information Systems as a global tool for Technology Transfer; Other topics related to technology commercialization.

Joseph A. Cazier, Appalachian State University, cazierja@appstate.edu
Kelly B. Sexton, North Carolina State University, kbsexton@ncsu.edu

Mini-Track 8: ICT-based Business Models for Socioeconomic Development in Transition and Developing/Emerging Economies

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have an important impact on socioeconomic development. The third industrial revolution based on digital technologies has brought an exponential increase in productivity and the growth of GDP per capita at the end of 20th century. The proliferation of Internet and mobile devices has accelerated a digital evolution and it serves as a growth catalyst. New business models applied by innovative companies are based on: openness, peering, sharing, transparency and acting globally. They support  phenomenon of the sharing economy with the following diversified amenities: on-demand access to goods and services, efficient utilization of unused assets, leading to a multiplier effect such as increased employment and the rise of micro-entrepreneurship. What is more they create new opportunities for consumption because they increase transparency in social and economic interaction. In this way they build social capital which is the basis for developing cooperative communities.

Jan Polowczyk, Poznan University of Economics and Business, jan.polowczyk@ue.poznan.pl

Mini-Track 9: ICT Innovation & Development

The adoption of ICT innovation in developing countries is predominantly viewed as a positive and progressive action.  It is considered to have potential to significantly impact critical challenges in areas such as health, energy and commerce, thereby leading to the development of more stable, equitable and sustainable societies. However, the implications associated with ICT innovation adoption are often more nuanced. For example, there is also evidence of parallel complex, systemic and unpredictable ways in which ICT innovation can impact a developing society, many of which are socio-political in nature and which, if managed correctly, have potential to provide long term economic and social benefits. Surprisingly, they have received little attention to date. This track examines the impact of ICT innovation on the development of emerging countries, the socio-political and ethical implications that must be considered, associated challenges and potential solutions.

Regina Connolly, Dublin City University, Regina.Connolly@dcu.ie
Laurence Brooks, DeMontfort University, laurence.brooks@dmu.ac.uk

Mini-Track 10: ICT and Global Development in Developing Economies

ICT represents endless opportunities for advancement in terms of the improvement of organisational processes and the delivery of products and services across all industries. However, while ICTs can greatly benefit developing economies, the potential of ICT remains relatively unrealised in resource-poor settings and developing countries. Moreover, a dearth of empirical evidence exists which examines the actual impact of ICT in these countries. ICT implementation in developing countries faces numerous unique challenges such as logistical and infrastructural challenges, cultural differences, technical literacy and more. This minitrack invites submissions focused on ICT in developing countries across various areas including health, government, education, and e-commerce.  This minitrack expects to spark discussion on the many opportunities for ICT in these countries to further develop research projects, inform future research, aid in the development of theory in this area, all of which will cultivate in the advancement of ICT and IS research in this area.

Grace Kenny, University College Cork, grace.kenny@ucc.ie
Tawfiq Alashoor, Georgia State University, talashoor1@gsu.edu
Yvonne O’Connor, University College Cork, y.oconnor@ucc.ie

Mini-Track 11: Innovation, entrepreneurship, and ICTs for sustainable development

While information and communication technology (ICT) is generally used to replace human labor, increase efficiency and improve products and/or services in developed economies, in developing economies ICT is generally used to compensate for a lack of infrastructure and to develop new products and/or services for a rapidly expanding citizenry and customer base. To use ICT in this manner requires innovation and entrepreneuship to develop and diffuse among individuals, groups, organizations, industry sectors and societies.  Innovation, entrepreneurship and ICTs will also play important roles in the achievement of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs). In alignment with the conference theme ‘A Tradition of Innovation,’ this mini-track welcomes submissions from researchers and practitioners that share research results or professional insights with regard to how innovation, entrepreneurship and ICTs can be used for sustainable development purposes in developing, emerging, or transitional economies. The track is open to all methodological approaches and perspectives.

Shana Ponelis, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, ponelis@uwm.edu

Mini-Track 12: Topics in ICT for Development: General Minitrack

The minitrack will cover issues connected with ICTs in global development but which do not fit exactly in any of the other minitracks. The papers submitted to this minitrack should be relevant to the track “ICTs in Global Development (SIGGlobDev)” and should be characterized by at least one of the following features: covering/signalling new/emerging ideas and thought-provoking research; presenting cross disciplinary research; the authors are co-chairing one of the other minitracks (and, thus, unable to submit there).

Grażyna Paliwoda-Pękosz, Cracow University of Economics, paliwodg@uek.krakow.pl
Dimitris Karagiannis, University of Vienna, dimitris.karagiannis@univie.ac.at
Paulo Rupino da Cunha, University of Coimbra, rupino@dei.uc.pt
Piotr Soja, Cracow University of Economics, sojap@uek.krakow.pl

Track Chairs
Sanjay Goel, University at Albany, goel@albany.edu
Dave Biros, Oklahoma State University, david.biros@okstate.edu
Herbert J. Mattord, Kennesaw State University, hmattord@kennesaw.edu
Jordan Shropshire, University of South Alabama, jshropshire@southalabama.edu

Track Description
Cyber Security remains a key challenge for organizations despite massive investments over the last two decades. While technological advancements have been made to improve cyber defence, human vulnerabilities have become the weakest link in security. High profile events such as defections, espionage, and massive data breaches have led the public to question their own expectations of privacy. While there is an abundance of practices and techniques for employing cyber security, many hard problems remain unanswered.

The purpose of this track is to provide a forum for theoretical developments, empirical research findings, case studies, methodologies, artifacts, and other high-quality manuscripts.  Sponsored by SIGSec, we seek to address important questions arising from emerging developments in information security, such as: What is the influence of security education, training, and awareness (SETA) programs on policy compliance?  How do system defenders share information to mitigate vulnerabilities and exploits? Does pervasive data collection deter privacy-conscious individuals? How do fear appeals influence decision making? Do regulations and policies influence employee security behaviors and organizational security postures?

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

1. Behavioral Issues in Information Security
2. Privacy Issues in Social Media
3. Security education, training and awareness (SETA) programs
4. Methodological issues within Cyber Security Research
5. Digital forensics
6. Detecting and mitigating insider threats
7. Security and privacy metrics
8. Security policy compliance research
9. Risk assessment and management
10. Trust in security and privacy enhancing systems

Mini-Track 1: Digital Crime and Information Systems Security

Digital crime is costing businesses billions of dollars every year. Besides the heavy toll in resources, recent reports indicate that it can take up to 46 days for companies to fully resolve security incidents. Criminals build on the global reach, anonymity and convenience of ICT and social media to identify and exploit various socio-organizational and technical vulnerabilities. Digital crime is an inherently diverse activity; it covers a wide spectrum between computer-assisted (existing, but digitalized) and computer-enabled (completely novel) types of crime, and spans physical and virtual borders. This mini-track invites the submission of papers that address a variety of issues pertaining to the prevention, detection and response to digital crimes, including criminological and crime science approaches. Interdisciplinary research that examines the causes, forensic investigation processes, or wider economic and societal impact of digital crimes, among other topics, is particularly welcome. The best papers from this minitrack will be offered a fast-track publication opportunity in the Journal of Information System Security (JISSec).

Spiro Samonas, California State University, Long Beach, Spiro.samonas@csulb.edu
Dionysios Demetis, Hull University Business School, d.demetis@hull.ac.uk

Mini-Track 2: Emerging Issues in Information Security

The Internet was once considered separate from the world of reality where virtual was separate from physical and there was clear delineation between the activities in cyberspace and those that were carried out in the “real” world of brick and mortar enterprises. Now, organizations are leveraging the vast resources that are available through the Internet, the World Wide Web and other network enabled technologies to find and stay connected to customers. Concurrent with the marriage between cyberspace and the brick and mortar world, telephony and information technologies are converging. Smartphones have resulted in greater need for access to personal information databases, which has allowed data protection issues to take center stage. Holding personal information without adequate safeguards may lead to a disaster. This can potentially be compounded by the ever-expanding mobile eco-system. Incidents have shown that organizations lose goodwill, to the point of bankruptcy, for having failed to address information systems security, assurance, and privacy issues.

Humayun Zafar, Kennesaw State University, hzafar@kennesaw.edu

Mini-Track 3: IS Security and Privacy in Developing, Emerging, and Transition Economies

Today, organizations need to build secure channels for information sharing to be able to engage in profitable global collaborations. Developing, emerging, and transition economies play an increasingly important role in such collaborations, but existing research puts little attention to the distinctive IS security and privacy issues in these environments. The different business, social, and legal environments of less developed economies might raise other IS security and privacy challenges and require new theoretical models and management practices than those known from the research to date. The purpose of this mini-track is to provide a forum to present and discuss theoretical models, methodologies, and empirical cases concerning the distinctive IS security and privacy issues in the context of developing, emerging, and transition economies. Comparative studies highlighting differences and similarities regarding IS security and privacy management and practices in less and highly developed economies are also welcome.

Ella Kolkowska, Orebro University, ella.kolkowska@oru.se
Romilla Syed, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Romilla.Syed@umb.edu
Miranda Kajtazi, Lund University, miranda.kajtazi@ics.lu.se

Mini-Track 4: Information Security Governance, Compliance, and Risk Management

Information security control systems are most effective when framed within an organization that has structured governance and mature implementations to manage risk and assure compliance with internal and external mandates for security and privacy of information. Given all control systems seek to modify human behaviour in the use of systems, behavioural research is often the focus of academic work in this area. Widely recognized as Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (or GRC), this area of study within the broader privacy and information security landscape seeks to address the increasing importance of activities associated with fulfilling directives for stakeholder alignment, interoperation of security governance with corporate governance, trends in governance approaches such as convergence of security functionality, issues in information security leadership, development in risk management models and practices, as well as issues of compliance to regulatory or ethical obligations.

Herbert J. Mattord, Kennesaw State University, hmattord@kennesaw.edu
Michael E. Whitman, Kennesaw State University, mwhitman@kennesaw.edu

Mini-Track 5: Security and Privacy for the Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of Things (IoT) represents the connection of physical objects with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, allowing these objects to collect and exchange data. Such “things” are becoming a global trend spanning into various fields and industries. This minitrack encourages research on today’s challenges and opportunities relating to the security and privacy for IoT. Further, it addresses new approaches and strategies to improve the capabilities of securing cyber-physical systems. Research may focus on risks and vulnerabilities of IoT, privacy concerns related to IoT, the intersection of big data and security of cyber-physical systems for different industries (smart grids, mobile health, smart cities, etc.), or technical and legal issues related to securing cyber-physical systems. The best papers from this minitrack will be offered a fast-track publication opportunity in the Journal of Information System Security (JISSec).

Miloslava Plachkinova, University of Tampa, mplachkinova@ut.edu
Christopher Maurer, University of Tampa, cmaurer@ut.edu

Track Chairs
Asli Akbulut, Grand Valley State University, akbuluta@gvsu.edu
Mary Granger, George Washington University, granger@gwu.edu
Geoffrey Dick, Northern Arizona University, gfdick@aim.com

Track Description
Information systems (IS) educators face a number of challenges in the current environment, including dealing with declining enrolments, preparing students for the changes in the profession and updating curriculum to integrate new ideas and technologies. These challenges make sharing IS education-related knowledge and practices especially critical. Therefore, it is critical that leading conferences, such as AMCIS, include a strong IS education track. As the official AIS special interest group on education, SIGED is uniquely positioned to organize an IS education track.

This track provides an opportunity for IS educators and researchers to exchange ideas, techniques, and applications through a combination of workshops, panels and paper presentations.  Parallel to the 2017 Conference theme, “A tradition of Innovation” the focus is on innovation and quality advances in IS and MIS instruction and curriculum. Different submission topics are welcome, ranging from papers aimed at improving the teaching of specific courses to “big picture” papers intended to address broad topics.  Submissions using information systems technology to advance education in other disciplines are also welcome.

Suggested Topics
– Information technology in Education
– Virtual learning environments
– Mobile education
– Pedagogical and curricular innovations in IS education
– Gamification
– Assessment of IS Courses and Curricula – SIGPAA
– The importance of IS education in functional areas
– Social issues related to IS education
– Ethical issues in the IS curriculum
– Women and minorities in IS programs
– Improving enrolments in IS programs
– Teaching cases

Mini-Track 1: General IS Education Mini-Track (SIGED)

The purpose of the General IS Education Mini-track is to host high quality research papers on IS Curriculum and Education topics that have not been covered in other SIGED mini-tracks. The mini-track encourages submissions that particularly focus on innovation and quality advances in IS/MIS Education. Teaching cases as well as different types of submissions including empirical, theoretical, qualitative and quantitative research papers are welcome. Potential topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following: Virtual learning environments; Online/hybrid teaching, MOOCs, flipped classrooms; Continuous improvement in IS education; Pedagogical and curricular innovations in IS education and their impact; Student engagement in IS education; Mobile education; Use of social media in IS education; Emerging technologies and IS education; Ethical and social issues related to IS education; The importance of IS education in functional areas; Improving IS/MIS Enrolments; Underrepresentation of women and minorities in IS/MIS majors.

Asli Akbulut, Grand Valley State University, akbuluta@gvsu.edu
Mary Granger, George Washington University, granger@gwu.edu
Geoffrey Dick, Northern Arizona University, gfdick@aim.com

Mini-Track 2: Innovation in IS Education: Creative Approaches to Today’s Opportunities and Challenges

In today’s technology- and data-centric global world, the role of the IS educator is both exciting and challenging. We are helping students to be prepared to deal with competitive pressures, global issues, and complex problems. These challenges coupled with ever-changing technologies, evolution of systems, generational differences, and gaps between curriculum outcomes and industry requirements, make this a challenging time to be an IS educator or an administrator responsible for IS education. Every challenge does, however, also provide an opportunity for those who are able to adapt and innovate.  Our proposed mini-track will provide an opportunity for conference attendees to explore a variety of innovative topics that will assist in tackling these challenges and contributing to the successful development of IS professionals.

Rhonda A. Syler, University of Arkansas, rsyler@walton.uark.edu
Heikki Topi, Bentley University, htopi@bentley.edu

Mini-Track 3: Technology Enhanced Collaborative Learning

Information and Telecommunication Technologies (ITT) continue to play a significant role in facilitating collaboration among individuals and organizations around the globe. In particular, the use of collaborative systems for teaching and learning between both faculty-students and students-students has increased considerably. The focus of this mini-track is to explore theoretical and practical ways to incorporate learning technologies into teaching and learning, to foster engagement, and to improve the overall educational environment. Possible research topics include, but are not limited to: adoption and diffusion, effective and mindful use of learning technologies, models of collaborative learning, collaborative tools and technologies, usability and user satisfaction, support and training structures, the role of learning technologies and human educators in teaching and learning, value added impacts of using learning technologies, efficient measurement and management of learning technologies, outcome measures, sharing economy and online teaching, and state-of-the-art practices.

Rassule Hadidi, University of Illinois Springfield, rhadi1@uis.edu

Mini-Track 4: Nifty Assignments

We all have nifty and useful assignments and projects that help us engage students and make courses more interesting and useful to students. This mini-track is the place to introduce and share your assignments and projects with your peers and get feedback. This mini-track will include assignments such as: Intro to MIS, Database Systems, Systems Analysis and Design, Programming, Project Management, ERP, Data Mining, Security, Big Data, Data Communications, etc.

Stephen Larson, Slippery Rock University of PA, Stephen.larson@sru.edu
David Gomillion, Northern Michigan University, dgomilli@nmu.edu
Jennifer Nightingale, Slippery Rock University of PA, Jennifer.nightingale@sru.edu

Mini-Track 5: Usage of Simulations, Educational Games and Gamification in Education

Simulations and games have existed even before the introduction of computers. However, the potentials and drawbacks of using them in education are still not fully understood. The research performed in the field is also complex, the complexities being related to simulations/game/gamification activity design or the complex social and cultural context in which they are used. The purpose of this mini track is to advance research, and to provide a forum that will allow a deeper understanding and knowledge sharing about the relevant issues, opportunities and solutions pertaining to the the usage of simulations, educational games and gamification. It provides an opportunity for educators and researchers engaged to exchange ideas about their experiences and outcomes obtained from integrating serious games, simulations, and gamification in educational settings.

Andreea Molnar, University of Portsmouth, andreea.molnar@port.ac.uk
Jorge Martins, The University of Sheffield, jorge.martins@sheffield.ac.uk

Track Chairs
Dawn Owens, The University of Texas at Dallas, dawn.owens@utdallas.edu
Alanah Mitchell, Drake University, alanah.mitchell@drake.edu

Track Description
Unfortunately, information technology (IT) projects have become notorious for high failure rates or having significant cost or budget overruns. Both research and anecdotal evidence suggests that many IT projects struggle to meet functionality and quality targets. Research has identified multiple reasons for these challenges in IT projects, such as: project escalation, poor risk management, failure to manage user expectations, poor software development or project management processes, or inability to learn from past mistakes and successes. The insights gained from research in this area are often highly relevant to practice and can offer new contributions to existing theory.  As a research community, there is still much to be learned and discussed about improving success rates for IT projects.

Mini-Track 1: Agile Project Management

Agile methodologies strive to reduce the cost of change throughout the software development process and improve development quality and timeliness. Though success stories with the adoption of agile methodologies exist, managers struggle with maintaining agile methodologies in the long-term. Agile methodologies rely heavily on teams and teamwork. Therefore, management must develop a better understanding of factors that agile teams drive project success. These may include selecting appropriate team personnel; developing effective team communication processes; creating an open work environment; ensuring correct decisions are made; implementing appropriate controls; encouraging continuous customer communication; and establishing evaluation and reward systems for individual and team performance. A further difficulty is managing a potentially diverse range of agile projects at the portfolio level. Agile project portfolio management provides opportunities that a traditional project portfolio would not allow, such as more transparent metrics, frequent management review meetings, and a quicker readjustment of project priorities and resources.

Meghann L. Drury-Grogan, Fordham University, mdrury@fordham.edu
Mali Senapathi, Auckland University of Technology, mali.senapathi@aut.ac.nz

Mini-Track 2: Educating IT Project Management Students

Projects are often the vehicle used to implement organizational strategies and IT professionals with competence in the management of projects are a key to their success. This is particularly true in project-oriented industries. Educating and developing IT students into capable IT project managers is a challenge within the framework of most CS, IS and CIS curricula. Employers expect students to possess sound technical skills but also foundational knowledge of communications, team management, stakeholder engagement and leadership in the project environment. This mini-track will focus on the education of IT PM students using current paradigms such as agile project management and research into areas such as IT PM curriculum design. Emphasis will be placed on aligning learning outcomes with workforce demands, e-learning or online education, and developing teaching resources that can enhance education to produce students who can deliver successful projects.

Vijay Kanabar, Boston University, kanabar@bu.edu
Art Thomas, Syracuse University, apthomas@syr.edu
Carla Messikomer, Project Management Institute, carla.messikomer@pmi.org

Mini-Track 3: General Topics in IT Project Management

IT projects continue to suffer from significant delays, cost overruns, and improper functionality, despite the various methods that have been developed to improve their management.  As a result, continued study aimed at improving management and ultimately the results of IT projects, is needed. This mini-track will serve as a place where authors can submit their work that may not precisely fit into other IT project management areas of study.

Michael A. Chilton, Kansas State University, mchilton@ksu.edu

Mini-Track 4: IT Project Success

The challenge of successfully accomplishing information technology (IT) projects is still prevailing. In both research and practice, many efforts have been made to identify factors that help to avoid failure and to ensure success. Additionally, a central aspect of IT project success research deals with its measurement. This minitrack seeks high quality research papers that investigate the linkage of IT project success factors and success criteria. We call for studies explaining how (well-known) success factors contribute to specific IT project success criteria. In this regard, we welcome both conceptual and empirical papers that employ a variety of quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

Bjoern Michalik, University of Cologne, michalik@wiso.uni-koeln.de
Dirk Basten, University of Cologne, basten@wiso.uni-koeln.de

Mini-Track 5: Scaling IT Projects: Enabling the Next Generation of Agile Project Management

Contemporary project management is heavily influenced by practice-led research where emergent methods are promoted as the next generation of agile and anecdotal evidence used to support claims that a specific method is a highly effective means of enhancing agility and scale. This presents a corresponding pair of challenges. Firstly, practice-led research tends to be restricted to textbook versions of these methods, which differ significantly to how scaling projects are enacted in practice. Secondly, poor understanding of adaptability and extension of methods in practice and the absence of rigorous research has contributed to shortcomings in extant literature. We seek papers that attempt to scale agile methods in terms of:
– applying them to areas where they were not originally intended e.g. distributed or regulated environments;
– extending the original methods and components of methods e.g. new ways of being ‘agile’ or ‘lean’;
– using methods at project portfolio or organisational level.

Denis Dennehy, National University of Ireland Galway, denis.dennehy@nuigalway.ie
Kieran Conboy, National University of Ireland Galway, kieran.conboy@nuigalway.ie
Mairead O’Connor, National University of Ireland Galway, m.oconnor67@nuigalway.ie

Track Chairs
Jongwoo (Jonathan) Kim, University of Massachusetts Boston, jonathan.kim@umb.edu
Lan Cao, Old Dominion University, lcao@odu.edu
Kannan Mohan, Baruch College, City University of New York, kannan.mohan@baruch.cuny.edu

Track Description
Organizations have recognized the importance of the need to swiftly sense and respond to changes in the marketplace. Organizations resort to different approaches to developing organizational agility based on several contextual conditions. Agility can span from operational to strategic in that organizations can focus specifically on streamlining their operations or consider agility at the strategic level focusing on game-changing opportunities. Depending on their focus, organizations need to adapt their approach to agility. This track explores relationship between IT and organizational agility. How does IT play an instrumental role in enabling organizational agility? How does IT shape various business processes in shaping organizational agility? How is agility differentiated across various business processes? What can we learn from specific pockets of literature such as those on agile software development agility, lean development, etc. to develop insights into the relationship between organizational agility and IT?

This track is open various types of research including those that use quantitative, qualitative, and theoretical approaches to examining IT-enabled organizational agility.

Topics for this track include, but are not limited to the following:
– Agility and IT governance
– Agile software development methods
– Business process agility
– Theoretical lenses for examining agility and IT
– Complexity and agility
– Agility and competition
– Agility and culture
– Agility in addressing sustainability issues
– Agility and sourcing strategies
– Agility and business performance/capabilities
– IT diffusion and business agility
– Web 2.0 and business agility
– IT and supply chain agility
– Business intelligence and agility

Mini-Track 1: Emerging Technology and Organizational Agility    

The rapid advancement of information technologies has changed the way businesses operate. The pressing need has driven businesses to adopt new technologies such as clouding computing, business intelligence, and big data to enhance their organizational agility. Cloud computing, a new computing model that assigns the computing requests to a great number of distributed computers and service providers, has become a viable alternative for many organizations to access IT resources when needed. As the amount and variety of available data grows, business intelligence and analytics become crucial for organizations to sense and respond to market competition and changing demands. However, the understanding of the impact of these information technologies is limited. This minitrack seeks studies that focus on the investigation of the impact of cutting-edge information technologies on organizational agility. How should a business implement these new technologies and leverage the benefits? How new technologies help transform a business into an agile organization?

Peng Xu, University of Massachusetts Boston, peng.xu@umb.edu 
One-Ki (Daniel) Lee, University of Massachusetts Boston, daniel.lee@umb.edu

Mini-Track 2: IT-enabled Organizational Agility and Security 

We live in a turbulent volatile world today. In this context Prahalad (2009) aptly describes this hypercompetitive environment, “In Volatile Times, Agility Rules.” Organizations aspire to be agile in this highly unstable market. IT has enabled organizational agility by helping adapt to changing conditions (Lucas Jr. and Olson 1994), building digital options (Sambamurthy,  Bharadwaj et al. 2003), etc. While there has been a great focus on increasing organizational agility with IT enablement, we are not sure whether there have been compromises on security practices while the firm tries to be more agile (Baskerville 2004). Organization agility makes the organization more flexible while security practices follow strict rules and processes. The objective of this minitrack is to invite research articles which investigate the interplay between organizational agility through IT enablement and security practices which may have been compromised because of the focus on agility.

References:
Baskerville, R. (2004). “Agile Security for Information Warfare: A call for research.” ECIS 2004 Proceedings: 13.
Lucas Jr., H. C. and M. Olson (1994). “The Impact of Information Technology on Organizational Flexibility.” Journal of Organizational Computing & Electronic Commerce 4(2): 155-176.
Prahalad, C. K. (2009). “In Volatile Times, Agility Rules.” BusinessWeek(4147): 80-80.
Sambamurthy, V., A. Bharadwaj, et al. (2003). “Shaping Agility through Digital Options: Reconceptualizing the Role of Information Technology in Contemporary Firms.” MIS Quarterly 27(2): 237.

Sumantra Sarkar, SUNY – Binghamton, ssarkar@binghamton.edu

Mini-Track 3: Strategic Agility through Innovative Knowledge Management    

As enterprises continue facing harsh business challenges, they require accelerating strategic agility. Strategic agility helps enterprises achieve innovation, productivity improvement, integration of acquisitions, strategic change, and cultural change (Kotter 2014). Innovative knowledge management enables enterprises to accomplish the important strategic agility. This minitrack explores (1) novel knowledge management approaches and (2) effective enterprise structures that can support enterprises to achieve strategic agility and innovation by facilitating interactive scholarly movements and raising significant issues on innovative knowledge management methodology, its requirements, and organizational practices, both from theoretic and applied perspectives.

EunHee Park, Old Dominion University, epark@odu.edu 
Tianjie Deng, University of Denver, Tianjie.Deng@du.edu

Track Chairs
Joe Feller, University College Cork, jfeller@afis.ucc.ie
Matt Germonprez, University of Nebraska at Omaha, mgermonprez@unomaha.edu
Matt Levy, San Francisco State University, mlevy@hpu.edu
Lorraine Morgan, National University of Ireland, Galway, lorraine.morgan@nuigalway.ie

Track Description
The track seeks research papers in all things related to “openness” and the sharing of information in organizations and society. Papers in this track will be those that share new ideas about theoretical and empirical research on the wide range of phenomena emerging at the intersection of Information Systems on the one hand, and various forms of legal, technological, organizational, and societal openness, on the other.

Relevant topics for papers include: New modes of knowledge creation embedded in open source and open content licensing, radical inclusivity of the crowd to share knowledge, effort and value, the tearing down of traditional organizational boundaries to enable new forms of innovation, or the reinvention of commons or open spaces to share information related to education, science, and democratic participation. Openness continues to be a disruptive and transformative force that demands the rigorous and considered investigation of the Information Systems community. This track provides a forum to further our understanding of these disruptive ideas.

Mini-Track 1: Breakthroughs in Openness in Science, Research, and Pedagogy

Openness has the potential to disrupt and transform academic work in many known and unknown ways. Open approaches to scholarship have taken many new forms, including open data sets, publishing, peer review, evaluation of scholarly research, and the all-encompassing idea of Open Science. However, what we do not know are the effects, positive or negative, of such ideas. For an academic field to advance, there must be a free and open exchange of ideas in order to foster ‘democratic discourse (Mingers and Walsham, 2010), and a ‘deliberative democracy’ which include the characteristics of openness, participation, truthfulness, and non-privilege (Apel, 2001; Habermas, 1996). This mini-track invites research papers, research-in-progress, and panel proposals on all topics related to openness in scientific discovery, the practice and evaluation of research and pedagogical practice. We are interested in the production, use, evaluation and impacts of openness in scholarship in its many forms – quantitative, qualitative, theoretical, literature review, case study, scientometric and other research approaches are welcome.

Lorraine Morgan, NUI Galway, lorraine.morgan@nuigalway.ie
Jim Love, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, james.love@ololcollege.edu
Michael Cuellar, Georgia Southern University, mcuellar@georgiasouthern.edu

Mini-Track 2: Breakthroughs in Openness in Organizations and Society

Contemporary discourse has fostered new forms of openness spanning the technological, legal, socio-cultural, and economic systems in modern organizations and across society. This includes advances in open source software, open source hardware, open content, open data, and open design, and even the ‘industrialization’ of the maker’s movement and how openness has shaped the funding of new innovation. These phenomena have crossed the boundaries of the specialist communities from which they emerged and have expanded into a wide number of communities and sub-cultures (makers, gamers, virtual world builders, social media prosumers, etc.). This mini-track invites conceptual and empirical research that will contribute to our understanding of openness in these contexts as it relates to the systems and technology that the individual, collaborative, and collective production and sharing of complex knowledge goods and creative works.

Matt Germonprez, University of Nebraska Omaha, mgermonprez@unomaha.edu
Joe Feller, Cork University Business School, University College Cork, jfeller@ucc.ie

Track Chairs
Frank Ulbrich, University of the Fraser Valley, frank.ulbrich@ufv.ca
Paul Drews, University of Lüneburg, Germany, paul.drews@leuphana.de
João Porto de Albuquerque, University of Warwick, j.porto@warwick.ac.uk

Track Description
By adopting, adapting, or developing IS, organizations undergo a considerable transformation often referred to as “digital transformation”. As a result, business processes, business models, work systems, and end-user workplaces are perpetually analyzed, rethought, and changed. Rather than an organization’s IS  function, today, customers and IS users are increasingly driving this transformation.

In addition, systems in organizations are interconnected to form inter-organizational information systems. The complex landscape of IS in current organizations thus renews the importance of analyzing the interplay between IS and organizations from a sociotechnical perspective.

Moreover, the emerging focus—especially in the U.S.—that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science suggests even greater involvement of customers and users on digital transformation in the future.

This year, we especially invite research papers and teaching cases to be submitted on topics related to organizational transformation and IS, business process management, changing workplaces and IS integration, knowledge management and training, end-user computing, and IT consulting and inter-organizational information systems.

Mini-Track 1: Digital Service Innovation Across Boundaries

Digital innovation has prompted organizations to become more process-oriented, customer focused, and to re-organize ways to deliver and capture value through services. A fundamental principle of both process orientation and value co-creation is to span boundaries within and across organizations. In today’s world, such boundaries are becoming increasingly dynamic and therefore pose new challenges to information systems research. On the one hand, inter- and intra-organizational boundaries blur as people engage with each other on digital platforms. On the other hand, new boundaries can also emerge through the use of information systems in the process of creating customer value. Research on how organizations can manage and overcome intra- and inter-organizational boundaries with the help of digital technologies and information systems, as well as studies on related organizational, strategic, and societal implications, is subject of this mini-track. We encourage papers applying a wide variety of methodologies, including empirical, theoretical and design-oriented research. Select minitrack papers can be fast-tracked to the journal Internet Research. Papers should be enhanced and follow several other guidelines.

Jens Poeppelbuss, University of Bremen, Germany, jepo@is.uni-bremen.de
Lars-Olof Johansson, Halmstad University, Sweden, lars-olof.johansson@hh.se
Lauri Wessel, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, lauri.wessel@fu-berlin.de

Mini-Track 2: Innovation and Business Process Management

Much of today’s innovation comes at the intersection of business practice and technology integration. It demands trans-disciplinary systems approaches that engage end-users, bridge silos, and extend organizational boundaries. Although the literature suggests that workers on the frontlines are often the source of solutions not readily evident at management levels, organizational transformation initiatives often fail to engage them in meaningful ways that capitalize on their insights.  Appropriately engaged, end-users can contribute significantly to accurately explaining, documenting, and modelling their understanding of an organization, its business/organizational processes, and relationships with customers, effectively laying the groundwork for innovation and business process redesign. Little research is available on the role of end-users, appropriate approaches for engaging them, or the impact on work itself. This mini-track focuses on innovation and business process management to support organizational transformation, with a particular interest in the role of end users and how to engage them in organizational innovation, and effective techniques for capturing and modelling business processes from an end-user perspective.  All types of empirical and theoretical contributions, including teaching cases, are invited.

Frank Ulbrich, University of the Fraser Valley, frank.ulbrich@ufv.ca

Mini-Track 3: IT Consulting and Organizational Transformation

Over the past decades, the influence of the IT consulting industry on the use and the management of IT in enterprises has increased dramatically. Many enterprises rely on IT consulting services to transform their business and to change the client’s socio-technical configuration and work systems. In consulting projects, consultants often support the organizational transformation of their clients. They are assigned to analyze, propose, and implement IT innovations and to optimize processes. As consulting companies are organized as people-driven professional service organizations, they have to put great efforts into identifying, qualifying and managing the workforce. The current trend of digitalization will affect the organization, processes, methods and tools of IT consulting companies. Despite the prevalence of IT consulting projects in practice, IS research has not covered the field of IT consulting very intensively in the past. This mini-track provides a forum for research on IT consulting projects, the organization of IT consulting firms and consultants supporting organizational transformation.

Paul Drews, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, paul.drews@leuphana.de
Andreas Drechsler, Victoria University of Wellington, andreas.drechsler@vuw.ac.nz

Mini-Track 4: Knowledge Management in an Age of Cloud Computing and Consumer Engagement

This mini-track will focus on the evolving concept of knowledge management within and across organizations and cultures. Today’s anywhere, anytime work environment is made possible by a wide-range of increasingly sophisticated communications and knowledge management technologies. Knowledge management, along with a growing array of collaborative tools and social media, has become increasingly mainstream for maintaining a current, competent workforce. Moreover, today’s needs extend beyond organizational boundaries as enterprises increasingly reach out to engage consumers in an age of self-service as well as collaborate with network partners. Current trends such as big data, analytics, cloud-based computing, Internet of Things, and enhanced decision support (Watson) open new challenges and opportunities for knowledge management.  Fast-paced environments demand just-in-time learning and current information. This mini-track seeks to create a forum for discussion of the latest trends in knowledge management. Possible topics include: consumer engagement and knowledge management, creating a learning culture, fact-based decision making, knowledge management as decision support, patient engagement and patient portals, cloud-based knowledge management, or any other topic related to supporting knowledge sharing and learning in the workplace. Exploratory, theoretical, empirical and descriptive (case studies) papers related to knowledge management and the global workforce are invited.

Elizabeth A. Regan, University of South Carolina, earegan@mailbox.sc.edu

Mini-Track 5: Organizational Transformation in General

SIGOSRA invites research papers and teaching cases to be submitted on topics related to organizational transformation and IS, business process management, changing workplaces and IS integration, knowledge management and training, end-user computing, and IT consulting and inter-organizational information systems. This mini-track brings together research that focuses on organizational transformation but does not fit into any of the other mini-tracks within the SIGOSRA track.

João Porto de Albuquerque, University of Warwick, j.porto@warwick.ac.uk
Paul Drews, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, paul.drews@leuphana.de
Frank Ulbrich, University of the Fraser Valley, frank.ulbrich@ufv.ca

Mini-Track 6: Shadow IT: Threat or Opportunity?

Shadow IT is a widespread phenomenon and includes systems, services, and processes that are not part of the “official” corporate IT. Existing research recognizes negative aspects of the phenomenon such as security, compliance, and efficiency issues but also potential advantages such as faster technical innovation and flexibility. Estimations indicate a large extent of dissemination of the Shadow IT in organizations and trends such as Consumerization and Cloud Computing are reinforcing this. Despite its relevance in businesses, the topic is still an emerging research area and only slowly gaining traction. This minitrack aims to discuss different facets and characteristics of the Shadow IT phenomenon and the resulting transformational challenges and opportunities it generates for the use of IS in organizations.

Markus Westner, OTH Regensburg, markus.westner@oth-regensburg.de
Christopher Rentrop, HTWG Konstanz, rentrop@htwg-konstanz.de
Nils Urbach, University of Bayreuth, nils.urbach@uni-bayreuth.de

Track Chairs
Alan Litchfield, Auckland University of Technology, alan.litchfield@aut.ac.nz
Laurence Brooks, De Montfort University, Leicester, laurence.brooks@dmu.ac.uk
Emmanuel Monod, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics (SUIBE), emmanuel.monod@outlook.com

Track Description
A tension exists between tradition and innovation, between what is fixed and what is transformative. Such tensions are apparent in product and process innovation, and throughout the enterprise. Tensions at the level of individual users, teams and groups, executives, and citizens influence what is now and what is possible. Innovation is both an act of organization and a state of mind; it is an existential stance in which there must exist a state of openness to others. In marketing, cananoutside-in approach be linked to intersubjectivity (Heidegger 1963)? Today, social networks illustrate the influence of social capital, and informative and symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1977).

However, as historicity contributes to authenticity, tradition may remain in innovation. Which begs the question; just as architects, fashion designers, or musicians must keep innovating, are those practices based on design expected do the same? And, as in sociology, the dialog between structure and agency (Mingers, 2001) may be better understood in the relationship between power and identity building (Goffman, 1990).

Seeking to find ways for the field to progress, the Philosophy in Information Systems track provides a forum for scholars who are open to questioning all aspects of Information Systems, whether traditional or innovative, or at the individual, organisational, or societal level. We invite papers that discuss philosophical aspects of the IS field from all IS domains, and from all angles and levels of inquiry.

Bourdieu (1977) Outline of a theory of practice. Routledge
Goffman, E. (1990) The presentation of self. Joey Bass
Heidegger M. (1963) Being and time. State University of New York Press
Mingers, J (2013) Critical realism, MISQ, (27)3

Mini-Track 1: Psychology, social media and innovation

Do we always play a role on social media? Or is there a possibility of being authentic? While the quest of identity building seems to be so important on social media, aren’t the phenomena of embodiment and entanglement an evidence of a risk of identity lost? Is the “dictature of the they” also a risk on social media through conformism? On the organisational viewpoint, if building a “social capital” is a key to success, how to combine it with information retention that remains a source of power? How do these questions help to renew the relationship between structure and agency in sociology? How such a relationship helps to understand the identity building? This mini-track welcomes any kind of philosophical, psychological or sociological approach to the study of tradition and innovation in social media. Questions regarding identity, roles, subjectivity, inter-subjectivity, embodiment, entanglement, power, social capital and authenticity are especially encouraged.

Emmanuel Monod, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics (China), emmanuel.monod@outlook.com

Mini-Track 2: Negotiating the tension between tradition and innovation

The tension between tradition and innovation, between what is fixed and what is transformative is addressed in this minitrack. As a person creates, they are transfixed by their creation. But in the act of creation, the creation lacks the perfection of the emergent idea and so the person desires change and thus innovation ensues. Innovation then, is not change for the sake of it, but rather the introduction of new methods, ideas, or products. It is innovation that brings the person closer to the inspired idea. Innovation reveals the possible and draws out the potential. What then of tradition? In his analysis of the history of ideas, Foucault (1969) says to suspend this category of tradition. Not that there is a problem with tradition itself but that ideas are too important to be relegated to an undifferentiated category. Ideas are tokens of the zeitgeist and call for what may become, whereas tradition seeks to lock tokens into a casket of dogmatic axioms.

Alan Litchfield, Auckland University of Technology, alan.litchfield@aut.ac.nz

Mini-Track 3: Foundations of subfields of IS

This mini-track provides a forum for every subfield in IS to analyze and reexamine the foundations of their subfield in light of exciting developments overtaking the IS field. All our research is based on some philosophical foundations whether we acknowledge them or not. This mini-track provides IS subfields cause to pause and reflect whether or not they have successfully contributed to the progress and stewardship of their domain such that the IS field can truly meet the needs of society. We invite papers that discuss philosophical aspects of the IS field from all IS domains, and from all angles and levels of inquiry. Topics relevant to this track include but not limited to: philosophy of technology; philosophy of information; philosophy of knowledge management; foundations of IS development; philosophy of design science; philosophy of IS education; philosophy of human computer interaction; reexamining “systems” in “information systems,” and rethinking organization science research in IS.

Nik Rushdi Hassan, University of Minnesota Duluth, nhassan@d.umn.edu

Track Chairs
Sue Brown, University of Arizona, suebrown@eller.arizona.edu
Taylor Wells, California State University, Sacramento, taylor.wells@csus.edu

Track Description
Our focus is replications of prior research studies. All topics in IS are open for consideration. Articles will either support the findings of the original article or provide results that do not support the original article (e.g., nonsignificant). Either outcome will advance science. If the original article results are replicated, then the replication provides external third-party validation of the results and a generalization of the original contribution. If the new article fails to replicate the original results, this doesn’t mean the original results are wrong; just that they don’t generalize to the new context, which should trigger additional replications and new follow-on research to understand in what contexts the theory applies and why the original findings are only generalizable to those contexts.

A replication paper should briefly introduce the research area and present the results of the study being replicated before presenting the methods and results of the replication; no hypotheses or theory are needed because those have been presented in depth in the original article. The focus is on the results and a discussion of how they match or differ from the original article.

We seek three types of replications:

1. Exact Replications: These articles are exact copies of the original article in terms of method and context. All measures, treatments statistical analyses, etc. will be identical to those of the original study. The context will also be the same, so if the original study used US undergraduate business students, Mechanical Turk, employees of a Finnish telecom, etc., so too will an exact replication study.

2. Methodological Replications: These articles use exactly the same methods as the original study (i.e.,measures, treatments, statistics etc.) but are conducted in a different context. For example, if the original study used US undergraduate business students, the replication might use US graduate students, undergraduates from Hong Kong, US professionals, and so on.

3. Conceptual Replications: These articles test exactly the same research questions or hypotheses, but use different measures, treatments, and/or analyses. For example, replications might alter the wording of items used to measure key constructs or use different software to implement a treatment in an experiment. Likewise, studies that attempt to test the boundaries of the theory and the strength of a relationship using explained variance and effect sizes are particularly welcomed.

Selected papers will be fast-tracked for publication in AIS Transactions on Replication Research.

Mini-Track 1: Replications of Team and Organizational-level Research    

This minitrack focuses on replications of research at both team and organizational levels. At the team-level, replications should be focused on dyads and teams in virtual teams, virtual worlds, and even online social networks – any context where two or more people leverage technology. Team-level research that have had conflicting or equivocal results include the effects of the following on team interactions, performance, and affect: trust, leadership style, and experience; technology affordances or capabilities; cultural and location/time; team characteristics (e.g., size, history, homogeneity).  At the organizational level, replications should be focused on organizational-level phenomena, utilizing various methodologies and contexts, all of which contribute to rich and diverse research on the role and impacts of information systems in organizations.  Organizational research for replication includes (among others) the effects of the following on information system implementation and use: information technology governance; organization characteristics (e.g., absorptive capacity, incentives); and systems development and implementation approaches.

Robert Fuller, University of Tennessee, rfuller2@utk.edu 
Saonee Sarker, University of Virginia, saonee@virginia.edu

Mini-Track 2: Individual-Level Replication Research    

This minitrack focuses on replications of individual-level research studies. Many individual-level IS studies have formed the basis of deep and broad streams of research. While most have been extended and some replicated in part or wholly, many impactful individual-level articles have never been rigorously retested. Submitters to this minitrack are invited to do just that!  Replications of any form (i.e., exact, methodological, or conceptual) are welcome. Articles may support the original study’s findings or provide results that differ from the original article (e.g., nonsignificant or significant in the opposite direction) because both results add to our understanding of IS phenomenon. Replications differ from traditional articles in that theoretical development is not needed because this has been presented in the original paper. A replication paper briefly introduces the research area and results of the replicated study, details the methods and results of the replication, and discuss the implications of these results.

Taylor Wells, California State University, Sacramento, taylor.wells@csus.edu 
Traci Carte, Kennesaw State University, tcarte@kennesaw.edu

Track Chairs
Don Heath, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, drheath2@gmail.com
Vijayan Sugumaran, Oakland University, sugumara@oakland.edu

Track Description
The purpose of this track is to provide a forum for academics and practitioners to identify and explore the issues, opportunities, and solutions regarding computational ontologies, data driven IS, and intelligence related to business and systems including the social web, intelligent systems design, implementation, integration and deployment. An increasing number of artificial intelligence-based systems are being developed in different application domains employing a variety of tools and technologies. This track is intended to increase cross-fertilization of ideas from these areas, share lessons learned and stimulate areas for further research. The best papers from the track will be offered a fast-track publication opportunity in the International Journal of Intelligent Information Technologies.

Mini-Track 1: Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Systems

Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Systems have been recognized as one of the most important developments in Information Systems. Significant progress has been made over the last few years in the development of computational intelligence techniques such as bio/nature-inspired computing within the artificial intelligence domain. Similarly, there is an upsurge in the application of semantic technologies and multi-agent systems in a variety of fields such as electronic commerce, supply chain management, resource allocation, intelligent manufacturing, mass customization, information retrieval and filtering, decision support, and healthcare. While research on various aspects of intelligent systems and semantic technologies is progressing at a very fast pace, this is only the beginning. There are still a number of issues that have to be explored in terms of the design, implementation and deployment of intelligent applications and multi-agent systems. For example, development of novel techniques for computational intelligence in support of deep learning, formal approaches for designing intelligent systems and agent based applications, ontology based information systems, and organizational impact of intelligent systems & semantic technologies are some of the areas in need of further research.

Vijayan Sugumaran, Oakland University, sugumara@oakland.edu
Stefan Kirn, Universität Hohenheim, stefan.kirn@uni-hohenheim.de

Mini-Track 2: Customer Experience and Organizational Intelligence

Increasingly, organizations are interacting with current and potential customers across a plenitude of IT-mediated “touch points”. Consequently, coordinating strategies will likely dominate management thought in the near and intermediate term as the number and variety of these “touch points” continues to expand. Effective strategies will rely on quality practitioner and academic research on a variety of issues, such as how to: differentiate user experience across points of interaction, increase reach to the consumer, improve conversion rates, sustain consumer loyalty, manage the global and the local experience, etc. The end customer is at the focus, with various technologies, devices and networks facilitating seamless computing, communication, collaboration as well as commerce related functionalities to the end users. This is made possible by embedding data, sensors, controllers, and other devices into the physical and virtual spaces of human beings thereby facilitating seamless interactions and co-engagement between the end customer and the organization.

Don Heath, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, drheath2@gmail.com

Mini-Track 3: Ontologies in Information Systems

Tim Berners-Lee et. al. presented a vision of the Semantic Web in 2001 that captured semantics within computerized systems, thus creating a world full of integrated and intelligent systems. Developments such as Description Logics (DLs) and the semantic web language specifications RDF(S) and OWL2 lead to the concept of an ‘ontology’, which is a term widely used to describe an artefact that captures domain knowledge using standardised, computerized languages so that applications could use and reason over the knowledge base. This mini-track is primarily concerned with the development, adoption use and application of ontologies or any semantic languages such as RDF(s) and OWL, as well as the associated technologies (such as querying, reasoning and reasoners) within information systems. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Ontology-driven information systems; Ontology integration and systems architecture; Meta-data development and applications; Ontology querying and reasoning; Ontology reuse; Ontology engineering; Specialized domain ontologies (e.g. enterprise ontology) as well as upper, domain and application ontologies; Ontology tools and technologies; Ontology-driven systems development and systems development methodologies.

Aurona Gerber, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Aurona.gerber@up.ac.za
Thomas Meyer, University of Cape Town, South Africa, tmeyer@cs.uct.ac.za

Track Chairs
Nanda Kumar, Baruch College, City University of New York, nanda.kumar@baruch.cuny.edu
Marios Koufaris, Baruch College, City University of New York, marios.koufaris@baruch.cuny.edu

Track Description
As the quantity of data captured about and shared by individuals has exploded over the last decade, there has been a resurgence of interest in information technologies – such as social networking platforms, collaborative filtering and reputation management systems – that facilitate social interaction among individuals. With the recognition that Social Computing straddles research at the intersection of social behavior and computing technologies, we would like to encourage papers that approach this topic from a plurality of research methods and perspectives. This track welcomes submissions that explore how these Social Computing technologies have transformed how people work, communicate, and play together.

Mini-Track 1: Decision Making in Online Social Networks: Wisdom and Folly of Crowds    

The usage of social computing (SC) and in particular Online Social Communities and Networks (OSN) have transformed how we make decisions. The wisdom of crowds have become widely popular as a source of data or reference for those seeking advice. It is considered as an eco-system that sources information that influences our everyday decision-making (DM).  The challenges that face users of OSN are information overload and a wide range of online information sources that can complicate decision-making and lead to delays. The other problem is that the most referenced decision-making theories, frameworks, models and concepts were developed in the early 20th century when the influence of online connection and collaboration could not be foreseen. Therefore, it is anachronistic to examine contemporary decision-making practice using more than six decades old models. The objective of this mini track is to understand and build theoretical foundation on how OSN can provide support, influence and change decision-making at the individual, corporate, and societal levels.

Valeria Sadovykh, PwC Singapore and University of Auckland, valeria.a.sadovykh@sg.pwc.com
Wei Zhou, ESCP Europe, wzhou@escpeurope.eu
Asfahaanullah Baig, University of Auckland, mirza@auckland.ac.nz

Mini-Track 2: Social Media Analytics    
As social media becomes a standard communication and collaboration platform, large amounts of data are generated and publically available on various tools such as Twitter, blogs, wikis, reddit and more, as well as internal organizational platforms. As with other forms of big data a key question to address is how this data can be used to learn about individual and social behaviors, how predictions can be made on various indicators based on social media data, and how can we apply these data to impact platform design and organizational performance. For this mini track on social media analytics we are interested in high quality empirical and conceptual work that addresses these and other related questions.

Dorit Nevo, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, nevod@rpi.edu
Yingda Lu, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, luy6@rpi.edu
Lucy Yan, Indiana University, yanlucy@indiana.edu

Mini-Track 3: Social Media within the Organization   
Social media technologies such as wikis, forums, blogs, podcasts and online social networks have changed the communication landscape into one based on user-generated content. Because it is changing the way that people create, store and share information, social media is a topic of great importance to future IS research.Currently, social media research has  focused on public site activities such as Twitter and Facebook. However, some firms have tried to capitalize on the power of these technologies into their internal networks. Because social media has the potential to change work routines and culture within the organization, industry is interested in the operational and strategic issues involved in its implementation. In  this regard, IS research can play a role in building a rich understanding of both the opportunities and challenges presented by social media within the organization. We welcome empirical, theoretical, and conceptual works of any and all methodological approaches.

Kevin Craig, City University of New York, kcraig@baruch.cuny.edu
Shadi Shuraida, City University of New York, Shadi.Shuraida@baruch.cuny.edu

Mini-Track 4: Social Shopping: The Good the Bad and the Ugly  

Decision making (DM) is something that we all do in our daily lives. Regardless of whether the decision is big or small, the decision made will have an impact on our lives. Many of us have encountered struggles when making shopping decisions, having many questions in mind and often seeking answers via various channels. The increased usage of technology today can lead us to using the internet for information, opinions, and the viewing of discussions to make shopping decisions easier. How shopping DM is conducted with the support of online social networks (OSN) has not been explored sufficiently in research. Although the usage of OSN is growing rapidly, there is a poor understanding of how OSNs can provide support, influence and manipulate purchase decisions in general. The objective of this mini-track is to obtain insights and develop theoretical understanding on topics and issues related to the influence of OSN on consumption orientated shopping decisions. We welcome conceptual, theoretical, and empirical papers that enrich our understanding of OSN and how they support and influence shopping decisions. All methodological approaches are welcome.

Gabrielle Peko, University of Auckland, g.peko@auckland.ac.nz
David Sundaram, University of Auckland, d.sundaram@auckland.ac.nz

Track Chairs
Michelle Carter, Washington State University, michelle.carter@wsu.edu
Karen Patten, University of South Carolina, pattenk@sc.edu

Track Description
The Social Technical and Social Inclusion Issues track focuses on information systems (IS) research at the intersection of humans and technology. It provides a venue for scholars of multiple IS research areas to present research related to a broad range of social-technical and social inclusion topics. This includes topics related to the mutual constitution of people and information technologies (IT) in embedded organizational and societal contexts, as well as the part IT plays in enabling or inhibiting individuals and social groups participation in the social structures in which they exist.

This track creates an area for interested researchers to establish platforms for future work leading to comprehensive research streams dealing with information systems and social, ethical, political, and cultural aspects from the individual, organizational, or societal focus. The track also addresses the needs of under-represented producers or consumers of information systems and technology within the IT field. In doing so, it helps foster awareness of issues related to diversity and social exclusion and provides an opportunity to focus related research into emergent research streams, which often spin-off to become new tracks.

The Social Technical and Social Inclusion Issues track solicits research papers (conceptual, theoretical, and empirical) as well as case studies, research-in-progress, and best practices / lessons learned.

Mini-Track 1: Inclusion of the Differently-Abled in the Information Society

This mini-track invites research papers (conceptual, theoretical, and empirical), research-in-progress, case studies and best practices on Information Systems (IS) use by the differently-abled (DA). DA includes the blind & visually-impaired, the elderly, the hearing-impaired and the dyslexic. They are atypical users who interact with IS differently. Often, they face systemic and functional barriers in effective use of IS. Moreover, they are an under-studied population in the IS discipline. We draw the attention of the AIS community to the broad theme of IS and DA users to make IS more inclusive. The long-term goal is to leverage the unique skill-sets of DA users to develop an inclusive information society. Relevant topics include Information Systems Accessibility & Usability; Universal Access to IS Education; E-learning of DA; Social/ Mobile Computing through Assistive-Technology; Healthcare IS for the Da; Public Policy and/or Legal Implications of Accessibility and Usability.

Rakesh Babu, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, babu@uwm.edu

Mini-Track 2: Online Networks and Community Building

Online networks of choice, which are groups that require voluntary identification and participation, have become important locations of identity, communication, information exchange and community building.  Particularly useful among communities that are geographically remote, online networks manage to foster a shared identity through cultural exchange, sharing of resources and shared values. Typical patterns of social interaction, ethical and moral priorities in such exchange of ideas, the influence of diversity (or lack of diversity) among group members all may influence the way in which these networks succeed in creating community and building a feeling of shared identity. The aim of this mini-track is to promote theoretical and empirical research addressing the role of online networks in community building, regardless of the purpose of the network. We seek innovative contributions from scholars who engage in analysis of participation in online groups such as self-help groups, hobby groups, groups of demographic unity etc.

Arti Mann, University of Houston Clear Lake, Mann@uhcl.edu
Rucha Ambikar, Bemidji State University, rambikar@bemidjistate.edu

Mini-Track 3: Organizational and Social Dynamics in Information Technology

Social issues related to information technology represents one of the most often discussed underpinnings in information systems research throughout the tenure of the IT field. Social issues are those research topics most aligned with the human factor in terms of information technology planning, development, implementation and utilization. This mini-track includes all aspects of behavioural and social aspects that are impacted by information technologies within and among organizations or institutions. This would include the conceptualization of specific social issues and their associated constructs, empirical validation of social models, and case studies illustrating socialization success and failures.  Major topics may include: (1) Human Interaction issues in an IT-enabled organizational change context, (2) Organizational culture and identity, and (3) Management of IT professionals.

Dragos Vieru, Teluq University, dragos.vieru@teluq.ca
Michael Knight, Texas A&M University – Kingsville, michael.knight@tamuk.edu

Mini-Track 4: Social Inclusion

We welcome relevant theoretical, empirical, and intervention research, in either completed research or emergent research forum (research-in-progress) format, that relates to the mission of SIG Social Inclusion (SIGSI). The purpose of SIGSI is to promote research, pedagogy, and outreach on all aspects of social inclusion in the field of Information Systems (IS). The goal of such efforts is to stimulate greater diversity of thought and personnel in AIS and the IS field overall, and participation of all our members in a more socially-aware and inclusive discipline. Social inclusion research includes topics such as the gender gap in the IS field, gender minorities, intersectionality of identities (such as ethnicity, gender and socio-economic class), socioeconomic divisions that impact access to or use of technology, the digital divide, underserved groups in the information society, and a range of topics related to human diversity, and the “haves” and “have nots” in the information society.

Jaime Windeler, University of Cincinnati, Jaime.Windeler@uc.edu

Mini-Track 5: Social Theory in Information Systems Research

STIR’17 solicits papers that make use of social theory in information systems research drawing upon such approaches as sociotechnical theory, critical theory, social informatics, organizational theory, cultural anthropology, sociology and others. We want to highlight research that uses these approaches to critically examine the constitution of ICT, and their roles in organizations and society. We are particularly interested in research that makes use of social theory to address the main theme of the conference, A Tradition of Innovation, meaning work that is innovative in terms of multi- and trans-disciplinary uses of social theory and methodologies to study the impacts of new and emerging technologies on people in their organizational and social lives. We are interested in questions about how we interact with ICTs in our work and social lives in ways that help and hinder the move towards more useful, productive, and happier lives.

Howard Rosenbaum, Indiana University, hrosenba@indiana.edu
Pnina Fichman, Indiana University, fichman@indiana.edu

Mini-Track 6: Socio-Technical Challenges in Smart City Development

It is increasingly recognized by governors, information systems researchers and industrial practitioners that, although the smart city concept is driven by advanced information technologies, its success can be highly influenced by a wide range of socio-technical factors and challenges.  However, an extensive review of the current literature suggested that the majority of smart city studies focused mainly on the technical and engineering aspects, such as smart city IT architecture, operational algorithms, engineering models, prototype designs, and smart testbeds.  In contrast, there is a significant scarcity of studies to explore potential social, cultural, political, ethical, managerial, organizational, and human aspects related to the design, development, deployment and usage of smart technologies, systems and services in different societal and city contexts.  This minitrack thus aims to serve as a forum to bridge this knowledge gap, as well as to offer a socio-technical angle and an information systems perspective to complement the very technical view in the current smart city research agenda.

Guochao Alex Peng, Sun Yat-Sen University, alexchaox@hotmail.com
Miguel Nunes, Sun Yat-Sen University, miguelnunes@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Mini-Track 7: The Embedded Digital Environment: Individual and the New Socio Technical Ecosystems

In today’s digital world, facilitated by innovative and mobile platforms, individuals are faced with a more dynamic and complex environment when interacting with sociotechnical systems. It is through these interactions that an ecosystem is created where individuals and various sociotechnical systems they are connecting to are symbiotically influenced by one another. Such ecosystem imposes changes on the sociotechnical systems all the while it is gradually changing people’s daily life as well as whole societies. As such, people are living in an embedded digital environment, which dramatically impacts their individual capabilities offered by customizability of the systems they use. Therefore, the study of social technical and social inclusion issues cannot be fully understood without a thorough examination of the dynamics of the interdependent interaction between individual and the system. This mini-track provides a forum for presenting research in this new and exciting area of social technical environment.

Hamid Nemati, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, nemati@uncg.edu
Weian Wang, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, w_wang5@uncg.edu

Track Chairs
Indira Guzman, Trident University, Indira.guzman@trident.edu
Jose Antonio Robres-Flores, ESAN (Peru), jrobles@esan.edu.pe
Carlo Bellini, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, carlo.bellini@pq.cnpq.br

Track Description
The AMCIS 2017 Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin America track promotes IS/IT/MIS research in and about Latin America. Latin America makes up a large part of the Americas and its population speaks primarily Spanish or Portuguese. This track opens a space for rigorous and high-quality research that is written in  Spanish or Portuguese while also accepting papers in English that bring together IS/IT/MIS research and Latin America.

Mini-Track 1: LACAIS – Portuguese    

As a leading economy in Latin America and as part of the BRICS block, Brazil emerged as an important player in the world. Since the information systems (IS) are known to be integral to modern businesses, public administration and social dynamics, it is straightforward to assume that the IS sector in Brazil has a stake in the development of the country. Nevertheless, the severe multi-order crisis Brazil is facing in the last few years may have had an impact on its IS sector as well. This minitrack is intended to serve as a venue for researchers in Brazil to share their findings on these and other issues, with the benefit of being able to submit their papers in Portuguese.

Carlo Gabriel Porto Bellini, UFPB, Brazil, carlo.bellini@pq.cnpq.br

Mini-Track 2: MIS/IT/IS RESEARCH IN LATIN AMERICA – English     

The AMCIS 2017 Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin America track promotes IS/IT/MIS research in and about Latin America. While the other minitracks will accept submissions in Spanish and Portuguese, this mini-track opens a space for rigorous and high-quality research that is written in English and brings together IS/IT/MIS research and Latin America. Any IS/IT/MIS paper written in English that relates to Latin America is a reasonable submission for this Mini-Track. Authors of the best papers will be invited to extend their papers for publication in the journal Revista Latinoamericana y del Caribe de la Asociación de Sistemas de Información (RELCASI) – a double-blind peer-reviewed journal of the AIS.

Indira Guzman, Trident University, indira.guzman@trident.edu

Mini-Track 3: LACAIS – Spanish     

Latin America is becoming an important economic region and makes up a large part of the Americas.  Its population speaks primarily Spanish or Portuguese. AMCIS is a conference in English for the Americas. To bridge the gap, this mini-track opens up a space for all types of high-quality and rigorous IS/IT/MIS research written in Spanish in and about Latin America. Accepted manuscripts will be published in Spanish. In addition, a copy of the title and abstract will be in English. Conference presentations may be in English or Spanish based on the authors criteria. The best papers will be invited for a fast track of the Revista Latinoamericana y del Caribe de la Asociación de Sistemas de Información (RELCASI) – a double-blind peer-reviewed journal of the AIS.

Jose Antonio Robles-Flores, ESAN Graduate School of Business, jrobles@esan.edu.pe

Track Chairs
Jack D. Becker, University of North Texas, becker@unt.edu
M. Adam Mahmood, University of Texas-El Paso, mmahmood@utep.edu
Daniel Peak, University of North Texas, peak@unt.edu

Track Description
With the increasing success of strategic and competitive information systems in generating business value and gaining competitive advantage, businesses are more and more interested in the successful design, development, deployment, and use of these systems. Submissions to the Strategic and Competitive Use of Information Technology (SCUIT) track may include complete papers and research-in-progress, and can be conceptual, theoretical, design, empirical, or case studies.  Any research that focuses on the strategic and competitive use of IT/IS will find a home in this track.

Mini-Track 1: IT Governance and Enterprise Architecture   

IT governance (ITG) drives the IT plan, support, and services delivered to the contemporary corporation. ITG can foster stronger relationships between IT and business, as it is a means to establish transparent mechanisms that can drive and monitor the alignment of business and IT as well as the desirable behaviors related to IT use. The ITG approach within  each firm should include: (a) ways that the company board manages IT; (b) decisions related to IT investments and ROI; (c) effective use of IT resources; (d) decision rights specification and the definitions of roles and responsibilities; (e) meeting of the stakeholder requirements; (f) identification of the best IT methods and practices for meeting organizational goals; and (g) IT alignment with corporate governance objectives.

Edimara M. Luciano, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), eluciano@pucrs.br
Matthias Goeken, University of Applied Sciences of Deutsche Bundesbank, Germany, matthias.goeken@bundesbank.de
Carsten Felden, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany,  carsten.felden@bwl.tu-freiberg.de

Mini-Track 2: Strategic Use of IT and IS in Non-Profit Organizations or Social Enterprises 

Many organizations operate with a primary mission to serve the common good. Non-profit organizations, such as charities, seek to make an impact on the root causes of social problems in communities, and social enterprises aim to improve human well-being through traditional business methods and commercial strategies. Both non-profits and social enterprises, however, have constraints that have an impact on technology adoption, diffusion, and utilization in terms of these organizations’ achieving their strategic goals. There is a significant opportunity to examine and improve how these types of organizations harness the power of information technology (IT) and systems (IS) and to accelerate social impact. Thus, it is essential to focus on IT/IS utilization within non-profit and social enterprise organizations to continue to develop a more in-depth understanding of the strategic use and impact of IT/IS within these organizations.

Richelle L. Oakley, Savannah State University, oakleyr@savannahstate.edu

Mini-Track 3: Renewed Focus on Strategic IT Service Management (ITSM) Deliverables    

ITSM is a customer-focused approach to delivering IT in the contemporary corporation. ITSM can strengthen customer relationships, enhance customer understanding of the services provided, and consistently deliver customer value. Although ITSM is not new (its roots go back the Information Technology Infrastructure Library [ITIL] in the 1980s), it is regaining  importance as CIOs struggle to increase the relevance of IT to both its internal and external customers. ITSM-oriented leaders generally employ a framework that defines the relationships of IT technical resources to the services demanded by their users as well as defines the actual business services that they provide. Rigorously employed service terminology (ITIL, Version 3) clarifies the service to both the customer and the service provider, delineating service offerings, service features, providers, limitations, exclusions, eligibility, duration, cost, and service levels. This mini-track also focuses on theoretical approaches to providing strategic IT services, alignment of IT service deliverables with the corporate strategic plan, and best practices.

Ahmad Alibabaei, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, A.Alibabaei@sbmu.ac.ir

Mini-Track 4: IT-Enabled Information Management Capability (IMC)

While Information Technology (IT) is a relevant factor in firm success, firms’ ability to manage information and knowledge is becoming of greater salience in shaping firm performance and innovation.  The ubiquitous availability of data demands that firms understand IT beyond the technology perspective and view the management of information and knowledge as an opportunity to gain competitive advantage. The strategic use of information has enabled firms such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Facebook to implement new business models, which have deeply impacted the structures of their industries. Hence, IS scholars have continued to explore how IT influences organizational capabilities. Despite the significant progress on answering this question, few scholars have joined the conversation of capabilities and have commenced to assess IT as a capability and its influence on organizational outcomes. This mini-track solicits research manuscripts that examine the link between IT-enabled capabilities, firm performance, and innovation.

Bidyut Hazarika, Western Michigan University, bidyut.hazarika@wmich.edu
Mariana Andrade, Nanyang Technological University, mariana@ntu.edu.sg

Mini-Track 5: Impact of IT on Strategic Innovation & Firm Performance    

The role of strategic innovation as a driver of competitive advantage is well established. Information Technology (IT) is a vital element in facilitating innovations in strategy, business models and management practice. Thus, IT-enabled strategies, IT-enabled capabilities and associated information capabilities have emerged as business imperatives to foster strategic innovation and resultant performance gains.  This mini-track solicits studies that examine nuances associated with leveraging IT for strategic innovation and  competitive advantage. Although the focus is on studies at the firm level, studies at the individual, team, group, or industry levels are also welcome. Papers in this mini-track would explore how IT enables any for several innovative strategies for firm performance.

Abhishek Kathuria, The University of Hong Kong, kathuria@hku.edu
Jiban Khuntia, University of Colorado Denver, jiban.khuntia@ucdenver.edu
Terence Saldanha, Washington State University, terence.saldanha@wsu.edu

Mini-Track 6: Strategic Impact of Digitized Products

Digitized products are a growing class of innovations that use digital, IT-based components (artifacts) in physical products. In today’s ‘digital era’, firms frequently update their knowledge (big data analyses, ‘smarter’ products) and organizational structures (agile, open) to develop such digital innovations. Yet, we know little about the interrelations between recombining knowledge and organizational capabilities, and their strategic impact. Although the literature highlights the increased dynamics that follow along with digitized products (e.g., the spans between releases shrink or implementations apply agile methodologies), little research has focused on how firms position themselves to achieve a competitive advantage with digital innovations. It is hence an aim to identify the strategic impact of digitizing a firms’ products but also to disclose how firms navigate from their traditional waters into a digital environment.

Sebastian Duerr, University of Bamberg and German Graduate School of Management & Law, Germany, sebastian.duerr@uni-bamberg.de

Mini-Track 7: Strategic Impact of IT Operations Management 

Organizations today have complex, heterogeneous, and dynamic IT system landscapes that support their business processes. The ITSM concept is supporting managing these landscapes. Operations management (OM) is “the process whereby resources, flowing within a defined system, are combined and transformed by a controlled manner to add value in accordance with policies communicated by management.” The ITIL sets the IT-operations management (ITOM) objectives for monitoring and controlling IT services and the IT infrastructure. Its processes  execute day-to-day routine tasks related to the operation of infrastructure  components and applications. Gartner, Inc.© divides ITOM market into 10 major segments (DBMS, application management, IT services desk and IT help desk, etc.). Standardization, agility, industrialization, and sustainability are some of the main challenges that ITOM researchers and practitioners face. This mini-track focuses on integrating these issues with the traditional areas of interest in the field to reach a systematic ITOM approach.

Naoum Jamous, Otto-von-Guericke University – Magdeburg, naoum.jamous@ovgu.de

Mini-Track 8: Strategic IT Risk Management in Organizations    

Businesses around the world are increasingly concerned with the strategic aspects of risks beyond those related to security. Given the advent of new technologies that are dependent on an interconnected global cyberspace, these risks, such as WikiLeaks, are no longer geographically contained. The possibility that events will interfere with the achievement of a  firm’s objectives demands appropriate risk management, which encompasses the assessment of financial and operational exposure, data integrity, and data access as well as the development of containment strategies. Information security management systems (ISMS) aim to provide an organization with a coherent set of policies, processes, and systems to manage information asset risks, thereby ensuring acceptable levels of information security risk. This mini-track solicits research that explores diverse phenomena in connection with ISMS, including their economic and organizational impact and security effectiveness.

Fernando Parra, University of Texas at El Paso, parra@utep.edu
Laura Hall, University of Texas at El Paso, lhall@utep.edu
Parand Mansouri-Rad, California State University, Chico, pmansouri-rad@csuchico.edu

Mini-Track 9: General: All Other Strategic Uses of IT/IS Topics    

Any studies related to the strategic and competitive uses of IT and IS that are not easily classified into one of the above mini-tracks will find a potential home here. This mini-track welcomes both theoretical and practice-oriented studies at the firm, individual, team, group, or industry level. This general category mini-track serves as a venue for the widest possible range of research methodologies, including empirical, case study, conceptual, and/or simulation.

Mo Adam Mahmood, University of Texas at El Paso, mmahmood@utep.edu
Jack D. Becker, University of North Texas, Denton, becker@unt.edu
Daniel Peak, University of North Texas, Denton, Daniel.Peak@unt.edu

Track Chairs
Binny Samuel, University of Cincinnati, binny.samuel@uc.edu
Roman Lukyanenko, Edward School of Business, lukyanenko@edwards.usask.ca
Arturo Castellanos, Baruch College, City University of New York, arturo.castellanos@baruch.cuny.edu

Track Description
Systems analysis involves examining business problems (opportunities) and identifying possible solutions, whereas systems design includes the identification, specification and implementation of an information technology solution. The combined field of Systems Analysis and Design deals with all issues related to the  development of systems and as such is of central importance to the Information Systems discipline.  The SAND track provides a forum for discussing research related to systems development methodologies and the methods used and activities occurring throughout the systems development life cycle (SDLC). This  includes requirements determination, modeling techniques and languages, agile systems development practices, empirical evaluation of analysis and design methods, user involvement in systems development, open source development, design of systems architecture, and other technical and organizational issues in systems development.  Some of these topics include:

– Systems Analysis and Design: Methodologies and Processes
– Systems Analysis and Design: Modeling Methods, Techniques, and Languages
– Systems Analysis and Design: Requirements Elicitation, Modeling, and Validation
– Analysis and Design for Service-Oriented Enterprises
– Contemporary Issues in Agile Development
– Strategic Software Management: Issues, Experiences, and Theory
– Technical and Managerial Issues in Open Source Development
– User Participation in Information Systems Development
– Impact of Systems Analysis and Design on IS use (e.g., adoption, information quality, etc.)

Mini-Track 1: Contemporary Issues in Agile Development

Agile methodologies have seen increased acceptance among software developers. This brings to the fore a number of research issues—adoption and/or adaptation of agile methods, agile project management, social aspects of agile development, distributed agile development, scalability of agile methodologies, and enterprise agility, to name but a few. The incorporation of myriad practices, particularly those advocated by lean principles, has only rendered the term “agility” more nebulous. Prospective research topics include lean and agile practices and their synergies/differences, and the role of agile/lean principles in facilitating flexible enterprise architectures. Considering the rapid growth of agile development practices, the Project Management Institute (PMI) recently introduced a new certification program focused on agile project management. This is expected to further consolidate and spread the use of agile development. Finally, although agile methodology appears to be a natural fit for Business Analytics projects, which are inherently iterative and exploratory, there is not much empirical research on their efficacy on such projects. This mini-track will provide a forum for researchers to address fundamental issues regarding agile development practices as well as contemporary topics raised by its widespread acceptance and use.

Suggested Topics include Agile project management versus traditional project management; Agile methods in Business Analytics/Dashboarding applications; Knowledge Management in agile development; “Agile methods in theory” versus “agile methods in practice”; Decision-making and governance issues in agile development; Self-organizing principles and practices of agile teams; Integrating human-computer interaction (HCI) concepts with agile development; Economics of agile development; Role of agile methods in large-scale, mission critical systems; Scalability of agile projects; Agile development in regulated environments; Distributed agile development – challenges, risks, and opportunities; Lean practices in agile development; Synergies/differences between lean principles and agility; Ability of agile practices to deal with project disruptions; Theoretical foundations of agile methodologies; and Agile in Open Source Software (OSS) development.

Sridhar Nerur, University of Texas Arlington, snerur@uta.edu
VenuGopal Balijepally, Oakland University, balijepa@oakland.edu

Mini-Track 2: Innovations in SA&D Processes

The objective of this mini-track is to bring together work on various organizational processes during each phase of the systems development lifecycle.  These include, but are not limited to, innovations in organizational processes, work process analysis, distributed teams, global aspects of team collaboration, and innovations in software development processes. Researchers can present the technical, empirical, cognitive, pedagogical, theoretical, and applied aspects of processes related to Systems Analysis and Design, highlighting the continuing fundamental position of systems analysis and design in the IS discipline.  Papers may cover topics including exploration and exploitation in software development, issues in managing globally distributed projects, and improving project management practices to address success dimensions such as scope, schedule, costs, and quality as well as co-creation of value for the customer. Suggested topics include but are not limited to: Innovations in SA&D processes; Processes of Economic Analysis of IS Development; Requirements; Determination Processes in SA&D; Cognitive Issues in SA&D; Work Processes in SA&D; Teams and Teamwork in SA&D; Software and Component Reuse and Development; Organizational Implementation Issues concerning Business Information Systems.

Solomon Antony, Murray State University, santony@murraystate.edu
Akhilesh Bajaj, University of Tulsa, akhilesh-bajaj@utulsa.edu
Dinesh Batra, Florida International University, batra@fiu.edu

Mini-Track 3: Modeling Languages, Methodologies, Methods, Techniques, and Tools

This mini-track recognizes the importance role modeling languages, methodologies, methods, techniques, and tools plays in the systems development process as well as a continuing thematic relevance to systems developers, modelers, and theorists.  The mini-track highlights the ongoing growth and creativity in this field. Having been a successful AMCIS and SIGSAND component since 2003, the mini-track provides a forum for researchers, educators, and practitioners working in the areas of systems analysis and design, method engineering, and modeling language development, use, modification, and assessment. This mini-track also serves as an outlet for studies in theory development, design science, and behavioral science. An objective is to work toward a more standardized set of concepts which would in turn benefit researchers, educators, and practitioners in this field. We welcome both technical and empirical pieces, and are open to all aspect of research methods (e.g., survey, experimentation, case studies, action research, etc.).

John Erickson, University of Nebraska at Omaha, johnerickson@unomaha.edu
Xin Tan, Fairleigh Dickinson University, xtan@fdu.edu
Keng Siau Missouri, University of Science and Technology, siauk@mst.edu

Track Chairs
Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Missouri University of Science and Technology, nahf@mst.edu
Shu Schiller, Wright State University, shu.schiller@wright.edu
Gert-Jan de Vreede, University of South Florida, gdevreede@usf.edu

Track Description
The goal of the Virtual Communities and Collaboration track is to disseminate research and extend our knowledge and understanding of virtual communities and collaboration. Collaboration is a fundamental part of organizations and organizational partnerships. Following a continuing trend toward globalization, virtual communities and collaboration are an increasingly important part of organizations. Virtual communities are collective groups of individuals who utilize computer-mediated environments to interact and pursue mutual goals. They can be found in virtual worlds, social media and crowdsourcing sites, among others. Organizations and teams can use computer-mediated environments to improve their processes and outcomes, yet collaboration technologies do not foster value-creation by themselves. Researchers and practitioners need to address behavioral, social, cognitive, and technical issues. Research areas range from design issues in collaboration systems, sense of community and engagement in virtual communities, to impact of virtual communities and collaboration in domains as diverse as business, education, and government. This track aims to solicit contributions from a range of epistemological and methodological perspectives to extend our understanding of virtual communities and collaboration to enhance the theoretical foundations for research, share important empirical findings related to these venues, and provide guidance to practitioners.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

– The design, development, deployment, use, and evaluation of virtual communities in business and educational settings
– Individual and group behaviors in virtual communities and collaboration
– Collaboration among and interplay between virtual communities, and the impact of these environments on participants and communities
– Individual and group behaviors, processes, and governance mechanisms in virtual communities and collaboration
– The role of individual attitudes and characteristics on behaviors, processes and outcomes in virtual communities and collaboration
– Ethics, privacy, security, and trust issues in virtual communities and collaboration
– Intra- and inter-organizational communication and collaboration and cultural issues in virtual communities associated with social media, crowdsourcing and virtual worlds
– Business and economic models of virtual communities associated with crowdsourcing, social media, and virtual worlds
– Power and political issues related to individual, group, organizational, and societal behaviors in virtual communities and collaborations
– Organizational and societal impacts of social networking in virtual communities and collaboration
– Applications of virtual communities and collaboration in different social/cultural settings and business domains
– Novel and innovative applications of virtual communities and collaboration
– Social analytics and big data analytics of virtual communities and collaboration
– Business implications of virtual reality and augmented reality
– Methodological and measurement advances in virtual communities and collaboration

Mini-Track 1: Distributed Group Decision-Making    

Emerging issues like big data, data analytics, visual analytics, data mining, e-government and e-health are giving new meaning to distributed decision making. In addition, recent outbreak of Ebola epidemic, missing Malaysian flight 17, are only some of the examples of swift virtual teams requiring collaboration. Coordination among individuals with varying skills is becoming common. Teams must quickly adapt to the changing environment be it face-to-face, mobile or in the cloud. Agile teams adapt and deliver quickly and provide maximum customer satisfaction. Can distributed teams be agile and adaptable? This mini-track examines the emerging issues related to team configuration and performance in distributed environment. Research related to emerging issues like diversity, cohesiveness, agility and adaptability related to group collaboration across semi or unstructured tasks is still emerging. The mini track will address these issues as well as the underlying theories of group dynamics, coordination and communications in distributed environments.

A. K. Aggarwal, University of Baltimore, aaggarwal@ubalt.edu
Doug Vogel, Harbin Institute of Technology, vogel.doug@gmail.com
Yuko Murayama, Tsuda University, murayama@tsuda.ac.jp

Mini-Track 2: Sharing Economy    

Sharing is ingrained in the fabric of society and efficient access to goods and services constitutes a major force driving much of the economic activity today. With greater connectivity brought about by the proliferation of internetworking technologies, it has become much easier for individuals to circumvent spatial and temporal barriers during interactions, thereby giving rise to a novel Sharing Economy that is structured around the disintermediation of conventional channels of commerce in the exchange of both tangible and intangible resources. This mini-track provides a forum for the exchange of research ideas and business practices related to sharing economy. It aims to sensitize both academics and practitioners to the latest trends and developments in the sharing economy in order to determine how value can be created and appropriated within this novel economic environment powered primarily by technology.

Eric T. K. Lim, University of New South Wales, e.t.lim@unsw.edu.au
Chee-Wee Tan, Copenhagen Business School, cta.itm@cbs.dk
Bo Sophia Xiao, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, boxiao@hawaii.edu
Albert Fei Liu, Copenhagen Business School, afl.itm@cbs.dk

Mini-Track 3: Behavioral and Design Issues in Virtual Communities    

Behavioral-science and design-science are two primary paradigms in information systems research. In the context of virtual communities, behavioral research investigates the implications of collaboration technology on individuals and teams, whereas design-science research investigates the construction and evaluation of innovative artifacts to support virtual communities. Mixed research addressing both behavioral and design science issues can be particularly interesting for understanding online organizational work and evaluating different approaches to support virtual communities. This minitrack welcomes research on online virtual communities from a behavioral perspective, a design perspective, or a mixed perspective, that aims to offer both theoretical and practical contributions. Topics of interest include but are not limited to trust, acceptance, adoption, diffusion, cross-cultural perspectives, privacy, satisfaction, modeling techniques and approaches for collaborative systems, design approaches, evaluation methods, and technological examples.

Xusen Cheng, University of International Business and Economics, xusen.cheng@uibe.edu.cn
Xiangbin Yang, Harbin Institute of Technology, xbyan@hit.edu.cn
Anil Bilgihan, Florida Atlantic University, abilgihan@fau.edu

Mini-Track 4: Business Value of Virtual Communities    

The interactive web environment of virtual communities is generating noteworthy interest among individuals and businesses alike. Some of the virtual communities provide an outlet for individuals to express themselves while some other provide a platform to share useful information. Beyond catering the needs of its members, virtual communities are also evolving towards business needs, such as recruiting for potential employees or conduct economic transactions. It cannot be denied that virtual communities hold a lot of potential but there is a need to examine the kind of business opportunities being enabled by virtual communities. The objective of this mini-track is to provide a forum for discussion and presentation of original research, highlighting value and opportunities associated with virtual communities. We seek papers that address value proposition of virtual communities from a theoretical, conceptual, or empirical perspective. Both quantitative and qualitative studies on virtual communities are welcome.

Vikas Jain, University of Tampa, vjain@ut.edu

Mini-Track 5: Service Innovation in Virtual Communities    

Grounded in service-dominant logic perspective, service innovation refers to the exchange and application of specialized competences (knowledge and skills) to create novel resources that are beneficial to actors inside and outside of organizations. As such, service innovation incorporates various partners from service providers to service consumers as active participants in its process. As such, information technology, in particular virtual communities and collaboration (VCC) technologies, can play a poignant role in the service innovation process. VCC technologies enable organizations to interact and collaborate with external actors such as consumers and other business partners to improve their business processes, products and services, and value propositions. Although VCC technologies are giving rise to new forms of service innovations, their implications and impacts for businesses have yet to be clarified in the research findings. To that end, this mini track focuses on the use of VCC technologies in service innovation and their business impacts.

Hamed Qahri-Saremi, DePaul University, hqahrisa@depaul.edu
Reza Vaezi, Kennesaw State University, svaezi@kennesaw.edu
Babak Abedin, University of Technology Sydney, Australia, Babak.abedin@uts.edu.au

Mini-Track 6: Virtual Communities and Social Media in Health Care    

Virtual environments provide new platforms for individuals to acquire and share information regarding health concerns, new channels to educate the public on various topics such as healthcare crises, and opportunities to garner information to identify emerging issues such as flu epidemics.  Virtual communities can provide an additional means for patients to support one another facing similar health issues.  Healthcare providers are utilizing virtual environments to connect with patients and consult with other providers, while healthcare organizations are creating new ways to manage and improve healthcare operations.    However, concerns also arise such as patient privacy and information accuracy. Hence, this minitrack seeks to explore the opportunities as well as the issues associated with virtual communities in health care.  We encourage paper submissions that study the development, use, and assessment of virtual communities and social media in healthcare, which can be from the perspectives of patient, healthcare provider, and healthcare organization.

Brenda Eschenbrenner, University of Nebraska at Kearney, eschenbrenbl@unk.edu
Xiaofeng Chen, Western Washington University, Xiaofeng.Chen@wwu.edu