Research based Term Paper

THE RESEARCH PROJECT - GUIDELINES

Video + Term Paper + Reflection

1. Goal - Scope

Researching a single country, state, or region; the working title will be:

Understanding the relationship between the local and global digital economy and its social impact in [country/region]. 

2. Deliverables: Term-paper plus video presentation

Term-paper: Paper May Not Exceed Ten Pages Including References. A 1-page Personal Learning Reflection must be included as an appendix. Appendices are not included in the page count limit.

Video presentation: The video presentation can give a concise overview of the subject matter and impact of your term-paper in a short video format (4-minute duration).
You are expected to create your own original narration and/or spoken audio content, similarly you should utilise as much of your own visual/graphical material as possible. You can of course utilise various elements sourced elsewhere (subject to licence) as background or linking pieces, e.g. diagrams, music etc. if needed as content or for artistic balance. Grade deduction if the presentation/video has text-to-speech narration or uses 'canned animation.' While not being graded separately from the term-paper, no video results in losing half the available mark for the research project.

3. Starting the research project...

• Interpret the working title? 
• Phrase the statement as a question and consider how to answer the question.
• Write a short literature review to critique aspects of the history, situation, processes etc of a particular sourcing context. 

Can you find primary/secondary economic/social data in the following broad categories?

• a) Services Sector in general but particularly ICT, ITO and BPO activity (any/all if possible) within the country over time. (aggregate data). For some countries you may only be able to gather aggregate services import/export data and that is fine. The limitation won't be your fault. However you will discover that some countries do provide detailed breakdowns at the level of BPO, ITO, ICT as services or product exports or both (refer to the examples of the previous student projects for inspiration).
• b) The relative measures of social good and humanitarian values (your choice, e.g. educational attainment, educational participation, unemployment rates etc.), within the country over time. (aggregate data). The measures of societal impact should be relevant to your country's case context; for example it is probably not relevant to consider life expectancy in a mature developed country like the UK, however employment/unemployment, educational attainment etc. is likely to be highly relevant.
• Impact Sourcing: You may consider expanding your research, perhaps contact actors in the field, conduct interviews or other modes for gathering empirical data. More involved research questioning would depend on the kind of access you gain and the types of evidence you find. Extending your scope might include some or all of the following:
• What (if any) actual social enterprises (or businesses with an overriding social mission) are there and how are they doing? Social enterprises of most interest (although you might relax the criteria just to get evidence) in this instance would be those in which locals provide service/products -- ideally digital and or digitally mediated -- to distant clients.
•  Researching the wider financial welfare effect of having any kind of local business, even the effects of individuals, sole traders' business activity through involvement in microsourcing for example. The welfare effect is the economics term for eventual outcomes of profit accumulation. It assumes profits will filter back into the economy, may also be construed negatively, that social costs of unethical business may be carried by the wider community.
• There may be evidence of impact in terms of what might be called social capital, civic community activity etc. This could be the kind of social cohesion that Robert Putnam talks about.
• Find trustworthy accessible primary and secondary data sources addressing questions like:
• What portion of the country/region activity is traded globally? 
• How is/are globally traded services activity measured? 
• Is ICT sector evident in traded services measures in this country/region? 
• Has the level of educational attainment changed over time? 
• Can you track digital industry and entrepreneurial activity over time?
• Is activity in local digital-rich industries increasing?
• Can you find primary/secondary data on educational participation, attainment etc. and workplace activity, participation, salary growth etc.? 
• Is FDI (foreign direct investment) data available?
• Is FDI related to digital-entrepreneurial activity? 
• Is FDI associated with educational attainment? 

4. General points on writing...

This term paper is written in an academic style, presenting background reading, research methods, research, analysis, theorising etc.

  

You must use the scientific conference template for the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS - being held in Paphos, Cyprus - https://ecis2024.eu/). Choose between either the LaTeX or Word template - copies of both are available on Google Drive, links below.

• Word template (https://drive.google.com/)
• LaTeX template (https://drive.google.com/)
• Papers should be submitted in Brightspace as a ".pdf" file.

Most important! Please ensure that any direct use of 3rd party material (particularly internal documentation) is presented within quotation marks or boxed or otherwise marked in some way and with the appropriate citation/identification.

A small number of selected figures/graphs to support analysis may be included in the body text. However more extensive figures/graphs can be included in the appendix (no page count limit within reason). 

If you deem it necessary, provide only a limited number of indicative samples of original source data tables in the text. You can include more extensive tables in the appendix if needed. However unless they are a concise format, do not include full copies of large data sets in the appendix. We will assume that you have stored copies in your private working folder that could be inspected (in theory) if required.

5. Structure of a typical journal style paper - not all sections may be needed

Title
The title and abstract should both capture the essence of the study.

Abstract 

Introduction / Literature (positioning)
Give a brief introduction to the literature and positioning for the study.

Research Design / Methods / Context
Outline your research design, and method.

Data / Findings
Tell the story, provide the evidence, findings, account or narrative.

Analysis / Discussion
Analysis and discussion allow you to draw out the significance of what you have discovered. This is where you can apply/trial various analytical models or produce your own interpretation of the data, in order to better understand the evidence.

Conclusions
Conclusions summarise the findings concisely, often in a page. This is a overall synthesis distilling your analysis and its relevance to theory and the literature.

Bibliography/References
The bibliography/reference section is crucial to get right as it is the index to prior research and literature that you have referred to previously.

Appendices (if needed)
Use appendices to provide additional detail if necessary. Usually data samples, or intermediate representations, for example a sample of the data analysis process, coding frames, stages in the coding and summary or intermediate categories from data.

6. Grading

Grading will consider the following criteria:

1. The research project is clearly explained.
2. Critical positioning in literature.
3. Empirical work, data and evidence presented.
4. Overall quality of the document as a finished product.
5. Contributions are clear.

A brief explanation of letter grade descriptors is provided below.

Modular (letter) grades.

A+/A

• The report is suitable for submitting to conference, journal, or executive with little revision.
• There is a compelling logic to the report that reveals clear insight and understanding of the issues.
• Analytical techniques used are appropriate and correctly deployed.
• The analysis is convincing, complete and enables creative insight.
• The report is written in a clear, lucid, thoughtful and integrated manner-with complete grammatical accuracy and appropriate transitions.
• The report is complete and covers all important topics.
• Appropriate significance is attached to the information presented.
• Research gathered is summarised in some way, research and analytical methods described and discussed, evidence linked to argument and conclusions.

A-/B+

• The report may be suitable for submitting to conference, journal, or executive if sections are revised and improved.
• There is a clear logic to the report that reveals insight.
• Analytical techniques used are appropriate and correctly deployed.
• The analysis is convincing, complete and enables clear insight.
• The report is written in a clear, lucid, and thoughtful manner-with a high degree of grammatical accuracy.
• The report is complete and covers all important topics.
• Appropriate significance is attached to the information presented.

B/B-

• The report may be suitable as a discussion draft for further development or refinement.
• There is a clear logic to the report.
• Analytical techniques are deployed appropriately.
• The analysis is clear and the authors draw clear, but not comprehensive conclusions for their analyses.
• The report is written in a clear, lucid and thoughtful manner, with a good degree of grammatical accuracy.
• The report is substantially complete, but an important aspect of the topic is not addressed.
• The report may have used or presented some information in a way that was inappropriate. 

C

• The report may be suitable as a preliminary draft but needs substantial revision in a number of areas to develop further.
• The basic structure of the report is well organised but may need rebalancing.
• The content of the report may be partial, incomplete or unfinished with important aspects not addressed.
• The report used information that was substantially irrelevant, inappropriate or inappropriately deployed.
• The report’s analysis is incomplete and authors fail to draw relevant conclusions.
• The report may contain many errors in expression, grammar, spelling.

D/E

• The report may appear to be preliminary, speculative, and/or substantially incomplete.
• Whatever information provided is used inappropriately.
• The structure of the report may be inappropriate or need substantial reorganisation and/or rebalancing.
• There may be little analysis, evidence may not be founded, the findings may be inconclusive.
• The report appears to frequently use information that is substantially irrelevant, inappropriate or inappropriately deployed.
• The report may be poorly written, organised and presented.
• Frequent errors of grammatical expression.

7. Personal Reflection

(included as a 1 page section in the appendix.)

The aim of a personal reflection is to give the student an opportunity to relate a personal understanding of the course. To highlight not just the described learning outcomes but also draw attention to challenges and areas of difficulty. Think of it as a statement of what you determine to be the key learnings and contribution of the course. It can be critical, highlighting gaps etc. Ultimately it is a personal statement of your own (perhaps new or changed) perspective on the subject, new understandings, difficulties, and insights.

Grading criteria:

The Personal Reflection is authentic, critical, supported by evidence and descriptive, conveying your own personal learning insights.

• A single page, approximately 500 words.
• Is it original? Is it your own work? (this is a basic requirement)
• Are the insights and learning described authentic? Does it honestly communicate your personal learning on taking this class?
• Is it critical? Critique isn't a bad thing. It challenges your own and others, even the subject itself. Consider prior understandings, misunderstanding, new knowledge, or changes in understanding?
• Are statements supported with examples? For example, comments or reflections on the homework tasks, the project, themes and subject matter?
• Core concepts? At the very best the reflection offers a compelling account of the significance of some of the key ideas arising in the course.

Using problem-based cases for self-directed learning

TLDR? Apply the following response structure for case analysis. The 6 points represent the milestones of the skills and developmental process for problem based learning: analytical, self-audit, self-critique, self-plan, synthesis, closure.

Process as follows:

1. Identify up to three (max) challenges/problems evident in this case.
2. State knowledge/skills you currently possess relevant to these challenges/problems.
3. Identify up to three (max) personal knowledge gaps related to any aspect of this case.
4. Provide evidence of key learning sources you identified to address your personal knowledge gaps.
5. Propose strategic/remedial actions that may address the three (max) challenges/problems evident in this case.

Structure for a learning process centred on case studies.

How do you read a case and engage with it as a problem-based learning exercise for self-directed learning?

When a learner asks "why?" Often the last thing they want or need is for the answer to be given to them. What we as teachers should enable, is not to provide answers to questions, but to facilitate learning through personal discovery. So when someone asks "why?", a good answer might be "I don't know, but I think I might know how to start the process of finding an answer".

Let's say you are reading a case study but you aren't sure how to deal with it. On the one hand perhaps the case study presents basic statements as facts, or perhaps the case presents so much rich context that it is difficult to see the underlying challenges. It is confusing. Sometimes the problems are well sign-posted, sometimes not. PBL, problem-based cases and self-directed learning offer a way to personalise your own learning, encouraging you to explore, extrapolate and investigate wider issues under your own initiative, an investigation that addresses your personal knowledge-gaps and enables you to further your own learning objectives.

One of the goals of case based learning is to have readers react, question, go out and research, and eventually recommend some change or solution. But crucially, the reader should be looking at the challenges 'in general', the wider issues affecting similar initiatives in today's environment. Furthermore recommendations will be based on research, readings, applicable theory, and evidence; usually evidence you will have gathered yourself (aka research).

Consider case analysis as a process in which the learner poses or structures the problem, explores and shapes solutions to the problem. A reflective turn on the "case as a process" raises the circumstance where the "problems" that the case raises can be construed as personal knowledge gaps. Problem solving drives the underlying personal process of learning.

In order to put some shape on this as a process consider the following "moves":

• Diagnose: Identify the problems(s)
• Discover: Independently research the problem area(s)
• Develop: Propose a response or responses, recommendations to resolve, improve etc.

Remember that recommendations and resolutions based on abstract rules will not necessarily fit actual situations therefore 'expert', rather than simply proficient, determinations will account for both the general issues and those that are context dependent.


The method: in brief.

1. Quickly 'first read' the case/paper/whatever. You will skip some sentences and words. The goal is to read the whole thing in a single sitting, without taking notes, just to get the first impression.

2. After the 'first read' write a sentence or paragraph from memory. This is your initial impression after first reading. Don't go back to re-read parts or seek clarity yet.

3. 'Second read' is also quick but you now underline/circle or write a list of concepts, jargon, terms, identities that are new or confuse, or are unknown to you. These are your personal knowledge gaps. Some of these you will resolve during homework time.

4. 'Third read' you can focus on sections or impressions; come up with a minimum of at least 3 initial diagnosis (continue during homework time). Encourage a variety of analyses, otherwise everyone focuses on perhaps one big superficial criticism like 'the business strategy is broken for these reasons and needs to change'.

5. Homework, self-directed and self-paced learning; address the personal knowledge gaps, work on diagnosis, work on prescribing more than one potential remedy to the problems.

The following are similar structured processes for reading and case analysis. You will probably have your own approach or adapt and modify the steps to suit the your own style and conditions.

Schwartz et al. (2001) outline a typical sequence of learning-centred activities for case analysis.

• First encounter a problem ‘cold’, without doing any preparatory study in the area of the problem.
• Interact with each other to explore their existing knowledge as it relates to the problem.
• Form and test hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms that might account for the problem (up to their current levels of knowledge).
• Identify further knowledge gaps or learning needs for making progress with the problem.
• Undertake self-study between group meetings group to satisfy identified learning needs.
• Return to the group to integrate the newly gained knowledge and apply it to the problem.
• Repeat steps 3 to 6 as necessary.
• Reflect on the process and on the content that has been learnt.

The Seven Jump or Maastricht process offers a similar template for structuring small-group case learning (Grave et al., 1996).

• Clarify unknown terms or concepts in the problem description.
• Define the problem(s). List the phenomena or events to be explained.
• Analyse the problem(s). Step 1. Brainstorm. Try to produce as many different explanations for the phenomena as you [can] think of. Use prior knowledge and common sense.
• Analyse the problem(s). Step 2. Discuss. Criticize the explanations proposed and try to produce a coherent description of the processes that, according to what you think, underlie the phenomena or events.
• Formulate learning issues for self-directed learning.
• Fill the gaps in your knowledge through self-study.
• Share your findings with your group and try to integrate the knowledge acquired into a comprehensive explanation for the phenomena or events. Check whether you know enough now.

The MacMaster ‘triple jump’ describes three main stages for student-driven problem investigation: initial analysis, independent research, and synthesis. Each stage consists of a series of activities (not necessarily taking place in sequence).

• Initial analysis: identify problems, explore extant knowledge, hypothesise, identify knowledge gaps
• Independent research: research knowledge gaps
• Synthesis: present findings – relating them to the problem(s), integrate learning from others, generate a synthesis, self-assessment of learning process, repeat ‘triple jump’ if needed.

You can also try one or more of the following methods to capture and order your analyses, diagnoses, recommendations etc.

Discover the issues...

• Create an Empathy Map (from a key actor's perspective: the person, what they see, say, do, feel, hear, think)
• Brainstorm
• Anti-problem (state the antithesis to the problem and resolve it)
• Context Map (depict rich context)
• History Map (depict the past)
• Low-Tech Social Network (sketch relationships between actors)
• Storycard the Problem(s)
• Draw the Problem(s) (graphical system depiction or representation)

Having identified problems...

• Stakeholder Analysis
• The 4 Cs or the 4 Ds or the 5 Whys (components, characteristics, challenges, characters; or discover, design, damage, deliver; or ask why 5 times)
• The SQUID (sequential question and insight diagram)
• Root cause analysis (cause-reason fishbone diagram)

References:

• GRAVE, W. S., BOSHUIZEN, H. P. A. & SCHMIDT, H. G. (1996) Problem based learning: Cognitive and metacognitive processes during problem analysis. Instructional Science, 24, 321-341.
• SCHWARTZ, P., MENNIN, S. & WEBB, G. (Eds.) (2001) Problem-Based Learning: Case studies, experience and practice, London, Routledge.

Term-Paper presentation peer-assessment...

Consider using the following criteria for peer-assessing the presentation.

Criteria 1: Motivation

0 = Unclear what drove this research or why it may be important.
1 = Motivation: You can clearly identify 'why' they studied this particular problem and 'why' it may be important.
2 = Clear motivation, plus they clearly identified the problems(s) by initial analysis and/or presented extant knowledge, current hypotheses, and identified gaps in knowledge.

Critera 2: Data

0 = Unclear what research data was gathered or why what was done is relevant.
1 = Data through discovery: They have shown that they have independently researched the problem area(s)
2 = Discovery is evident AND the research data gathered convincingly addresses the problem area, that is, the kind of data gathered is likely to yield insights that may address the problem area.

Criteria 3: Analysis

0 = Unclear how findings or recommendations were arrived at.
1 = Findings are analysed cogently and convincingly; convincing arguments for arriving at findings.
2 = Findings AND responses developed in context of prior knowledge. Synthesis built on findings – clearly addresses the problem(s) and integrates learning from others.

Criteria 4: Engagement/Impact

0 = Very difficult to comprehend, understand, read, hear, etc. I would not watch this presentation again.
1 = A competent presentation, well organised with suitable and meaningful appropriate content.
2 = A really excellent and convincing presentation that conveys clear messages, for example effectively using images, dialogue, humour, shock etc. I would watch it again and encourage others to watch it.

---

Alternative presentation assessment rubric 

Threshold requirement: Originality and own work; Others' ideas graphics and quotes properly cited, acknowledged and referenced (No Plagarism!).
Equal weighting applied to the following:

1. Argument demonstrates analytical skills. I was convinced by the evidence and the argument.
2. Message and conclusions give evidence of reflective thinking and deep engagement with an advanced research topic. I received a clear convincing take-away message.
3. Overall impression: Is piece competent and polished? Has producer showcased their domain knowledge and professionalism.

How ICT sourcing and development affects social development

Working Group 9.4 from the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a scholarly forum for dealing with the issues ICT impacting social development.

The IFIP 9.4 Working Croup has a series of scholarly conferences that seek critical perspectives on processes of growth and development, inclusiveness and social transformation through the impacts of global ICT and BPO sourcing.
http://2017.ifipwg94.net/tracks/track-09-global-sourcing-and-development/
(also see
Submission deadline: November 15, 2016

Mt Merapi, the most active volcano in Indonesia (image source Wikipedia)

Our interest is in how ICT sourcing and globally distributed software development activity is implicated in local social development in the regions from which these activities are sourced. Going one step further we assert that the research object of a 'national' need and response is too abstract, that we need to understand the local rather than national context if meaningful engagement in development is to occur. This is because the more abstract the concepts the more easily does organisational and social action dissipate, thus loosing its efficacy and meaning. Worse, they may be subverted as resources by and for other actors and power interests (Cooke, B, 2004). Postcolonial critics of international development drawing upon 'subaltern studies' have exposed global, regional, and national inequalities. Subalterns reveal workers subjectivities in situ, from the local's perspective rather than the development or governmental agency.

One strand of theorising how inequalities arise against people's best intentions is through the unintended consequence of language games in public discourse. Organisation and management theorists assert that the use of spatial signifiers produces actual idealogical realities in the field of international development. That is, spatial labels produce the categories they refer to. This is an old trick from the days of colonialisation, to label the other (the developing or underdeveloped world) in contrast to the West, or the Northern Hemisphere or developed economies etc. The consequence is to justify and legitimise various national, governmental, organisational and managerial interventions in international development (Gupta, 1998).


References and further reading:
Cooke, B. (2004) ‘Managing the (Third) World’, Organization 11(5): 603-629.
Gupta, A. (1998) Postcolonial Developments: Agriculture in the Making of Modern India, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

also see 43-CMS-2017-Stream-Proposal-Global-South-reconfigured-1.pdf

Research articles and areas

You will find articles in academic journals via the UCD Library pages, making sure you are logged into UCD Connect first so that the University's journal access permission is activated.

Two sites worth looking at for both themes and research paper template (look for submission guidelines).

• ECIS 2016 http://www.ecis2016.eu/en/RESEARCH-PAPERS.html
• ICIS 2016 http://icis2016.aisnet.org/call-dates/tracks/

The AIS hosts a digital library, publicly searchable. The AIS library is available at
http://aisel.aisnet.org/ (access is restricted to members of the AIS)

The 11th Global Sourcing Workshop

An invitation from Ilan Oshri via lists.aisnet.org, posted on 4 Apr 2016.

Following the success of the past Global Sourcing Workshops, we are pleased to release this Call for Papers for the 11th Global Sourcing Workshop which will be held February 22-25, 2017 in La Thuile, Italy.

The workshop will aim to explore how new and emerging forms of outsourcing and offshoring challenge sourcing practices and theories, and consequently identify new directions for research and practice. This workshop aims to bring together viewpoints from various disciplines, including IB, Strategy, OM, OB and IS on global sourcing of IT, Business Services and Innovation. We also focus on teaching aspects related to outsourcing and offshoring with fast track for publishing high quality teaching cases in Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases<http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jittc/index.html>.

Paper Track

We invite research articles, work in progress and ‘focus on practice’ papers that investigate topics relating to global outsourcing and offshoring. In particular, the workshop will endeavour to present the views from client, supplier and advisory viewpoints, from strategic, operational and social perspectives. Some of the specific themes that are of interest in this workshop are:

• New and emerging sourcing models including cloud-services, crowdsourcing, Robotics Process Automation & impact sourcing
• Sourcing decision making
• Sourcing configurations (multi-sourcing, bundle services, etc.)
• Supplier and client capabilities and competences
• Contractual and relational governance
• Captive (in-house) and shared service centres
• Backsourcing/re-shoring
• Knowledge-intensive services and innovation in outsourcing/offshoring
• Cultural and social aspects of sourcing practice
• Emerging topics and concepts in sourcing

We are interested in papers that are both conceptual and empirically-based.

Teaching Cases Track

We are interested in teaching cases on outsourcing and offshoring which we would consider for publication in Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases<http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jittc/index.html> (JITTC).
Please note that a small conference venue has been reserved with guaranteed attendance restricted to those having papers accepted for presentation. Participants need to book early to secure reserved accommodation at the conference location or other rooms nearby. See full details on our website: http://www.globalsourcing.org.uk/workshop
Since 2010 we have been publishing selected papers as book chapters in Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing<http://www.springer.com/series/7911> (by Springer<http://www.springer.com>). It is likely that we will publish another book based on the papers from this Workshop. Furthermore, selected papers will be invited to submit a revised version of their paper to be considered for publication in Journal of Information Technology<http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jit/index.html> and high quality teaching cases in JITTC<http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jittc/index.html>.

Important Dates:

• September 9th 2016 – Deadline to submit extended abstracts/teaching proposals to the Workshop on Global Sourcing (please note that we welcome early submission of abstracts and will aim to send the decision within 3 weeks).
• Paper Track: Extended abstracts should be between 600-800 words and should include contact details of all authors.
• Teaching Track: Proposals for teaching cases should be between 600-800 words and include the teaching case outline and learning objectives. For teaching cases, the submission of full teaching case and teaching notes will be required.
• September 23rd 2016 - Notification of accepted extended abstracts/teaching proposals
• November 1st 2016 - Registration deadline. (Registration fees will be £250 (British pounds) per person which include a reception and 2 dinners.)
• December 16th 2016 – Deadline to submit full papers/teaching cases to the Workshop on Global Sourcing
• February 1st 2017 – Reviews sent to authors
• February 22-25, 2017 – Workshop on Global Sourcing, La Thuile, Italy

All submissions should be sent in MS Word format to: theglobalsourcingworkshop@gmail.com<mailto:theglobalsourcingworkshop@gmail.com>
with 'Abstract submission GSW 2017' as the subject of the e-mail.
For preparation of full papers please follow Guidelines for Authors posted on the Workshop site: http://www.globalsourcing.org.uk/workshop/guidelines/

Workshop Organizers:
Julia Kotlarsky, Ilan Oshri and Leslie Willcocks

Information about La Thuile: http://www.lathuile.it/

Prepare research papers "as if" to submit to ICIS 2016

Exercise: Prepare your paper as if for submitting it for review at ICIS 2016
What track would you consider matching your paper with?

This year's conference theme is “Digital Innovation at the Crossroads.”

See  (see http://icis2016.aisnet.org/). See social updates at #icis2016 on Twitter
The document template (link here).

Submission guidelines here

http://icis2016.aisnet.org/call-dates/submission-guidelines/
If you are unclear about how to format your paper review the "Formatting Checklist" (link here)
http://icis2016.aisnet.org/call-dates/submission-guidelines/formatting-checklist/

The thematic tracks are:

• Conference Theme Track: Digital Innovation at the Crossroads
• Crowdsourcing, Crowdfunding, Blockchain and the Sharing Economy
• Data Science and Business Analytics
• E-Business and E-Government
• Economics and Value of IS
• General IS Topics
• Human Behavior in IS
• Human-Computer Interaction
• IS Curriculum and Education
• IS Design and Business Process Management
• IS in Healthcare
• IS in Organizations and Society
• IS Security and Privacy
• IS Strategy, Governance, and Sourcing
• IT Implementation, Adoption, and Use
• Managing IS Projects and IS Development
• Methodological and Philosophical Foundations of IS
• Panels
• Practice-oriented Research
• Social Media and Digital Collaboration
• Sustainability and Societal Impacts of IS

What's in a one page research idea?

After reading the proposal and talking about it we should be able to answer the following questions.

• Do we know what you propose investigating? (a one sentence statement, often the title)
• Motivation, why is it interesting? (might be something puzzling at work or a question you have)
• What sources of data do you think will you use? (speculation is ok)
• What kind of data do you expect to gather and how will the data be gathered? (speculation is ok)
• In what theory, knowledge area, discipline do you start from? (provide some references to theory)

Basic structure as follows:

TITLE (a couple of words, a phrase or a short sentence)
ABSTRACT (- around 300 words - a very short 'story' from which answers to the questions above can be inferred )
REFERENCES (3 TO 8)

1. Justify your idea using at least three academic references (not magazine articles, web posts or news items).
2. Justify the most important statements using citation (see note above).
3. Do not include spurious references in the bibliography, that is, only include a reference if you have cited it in the text.
4. For an abstract: three references is about right, more than ten is too many. None is too few.
5. An abstract should fit on a single page (including title, author's name and references).

Research topic challenge: Who can give me access?

The student groups have to identify their own topics. Not an easy task!

I recommend you read through the case and research papers in the 'READINGS' folder and widen your investigation to other outsourcing research articles to start getting ideas and be inspired.

Consider addressing a couple of prerequisites first.

1. Access. Who can give me access to an organisation or many organisations?

2. Data. What am I going to ask or discover, what kind of data do I think I can gather?

Then brainstorm, capture, structure, write.

Question: Why is there no template?
I would like this to be taken as an opportunity for you to create something of real value, your own research project, an exercise that you can define and conduct independently. In the first instance you should attempt to create your own research output, built with your own creative energy and enthusiasm, something that is yours, that is substantial and original.
However, to say that there is no template is incorrect. Research nearly always conforms to a limited range of presentation genres. The guidelines document (link) is merely one of the most general formats

I look forward to reading through your ideas.

How to do really well with this subject

Read the readings. Go to the library and read the books.

The term paper is your project, you do the field research, you analyse, interpret, write up and create!

Target your writing towards ECIS, one of the main IS conferences. Word or LaTeX templates can be downloaded from https://goo.gl/TcN31Z

The following high quality, general conferences may be good sources for searching for similar research.

• IFIP Working Group Conferences (esp. 8.2, 8.4, 8.6, 9.4) 
• Academy of Management Conference 
• ICIS 
• EGOS
• other local conferences like the Irish Academy of Management annual conference, UKAIS etc.

The following journals are potentially good quality sources for relevant related research. Register with a relevant journal to receive notifications of new publications; for example: Palgrave e-alerts (European Journal of Information Systems).

• MIS Quarterly 
• Information Systems Research 
• Communications of The ACM 
• Information & Organization 
• European Journal of Information Systems 
• Journal of Information Technology 
• Information Systems Journal 
• Journal of Strategic Information Systems 
• Journal of Management Information Systems 
• IT & People 
• Scandinavian Journal of IS 
• The Information Society 
• Communications of the AIS 
• Information and Management

Themes in Managing Global Sourcing

This site covers material for dealing with the following challenges...

• How should one manage sourcing relationships? (and how does this vary according to the mode?)
• Relationship development - Important stages of sourcing relationships.
• Formulating sourcing contracts and service level agreements.
• Relationship governance structures and practices.
• Risk management.
• Facilitating effective communication and learning in context of cultural diversity and distributed work.
• The enabling role of ICT across organisational boundaries.
• Identifying and addressing emerging relationship problems.
• What are the emergent trends in sourcing relationships that are likely to be important in the future?

Responsible Sourcing and Ethics of Digital Supply

A potential general theme is offered as a starting point for your Term-Paper.

Consideration of the ethics of digital sourcing highlights the issues of leadership, the person, connections, responsibility and responsible sourcing for technology services and business processes.
Topics of interest include:

• Issues of global, geographical separation, and teams
• Hybrid organisations
• Cultural clash and compatibility
• New trends, impact of emerging forms of organisation and technology
• Impact sourcing for social change
• Waste and value, sustainability
• Social responsibility

Research papers in this field could address areas such as:

• Raising awareness of issues surrounding the global sourcing of IT and Business Process capability.
• Study the role of NGOs in Ireland and the challenges they face in developing countries in raising the level of key human development indicators.
• Develop new ideas broadly aligned with the theme of sustainable responsible sourcing.
• Literature reviews.
• Desk research analysing aggregate social/economic indicators.
• Reversals in directionality of innovation; from developing countries into developed economies.
• Develop case studies of sourcing enterprises from the perspective of:
• suppliers
• clients
• consumers
• regulators
• mediators
• NGOs
• venture capital or other investment organisations
• government development agencies
• public services
• Option of general cases or research into any one or more of the main themes from the global offshore and outsourcing literature including:
• Sourcing models and decisions
• Country attractiveness
• Supplier capabilities and strategies
• Knowledge
• The client perspective
• The IT outsourcing lifecycle
• Governance and regulation
• Distributed teams

Research Exercise: Interview questions: Reflecting on open sourcing the thing we do/did!'

Context:

• Did you have an idea of what 'success' or 'failure' would look like?
• Why OS or community sourcing?
• Was a pre-existing OS community seen to be relevant?
• Who used the OS version of the product?
• Where was the OS product used?
• Why did they use the OS product?
• Are they still using it?

Actors/Involvement:

• How did the idea to OS the product/service come about?
• How did the idea to OS 'get off the ground'?
• How was the argument for OS positioned beside proprietary activities, products or services?
• What role did the various actors play (engineering, services, support, executives, board)?
• What did/do you have to do to get an OS product and community working?

Feeling:

• How did/do you 'feel' about being involved on the OS side?
• How did/do you 'feel' about OS and its relationship to the rest of the business?
• How would you characterise other's 'feelings' about OS?
• Who was identified with the OS side and the OS initiative?
• Why do you think they became identified with OS?

Impact:

• What kind of things were necessary for OS to operate (infrastructure, technology, social environment, market, marketing, people etc)?
• Did the OS demand a different approach to product (software) engineering or any other activities?
• What kinds of resistance were encountered?
• What enabled the OS initiative?
• Did anything arising from the OS initiative impact or drive internal or other proprietary activities (product development, support, services, marketing etc)?

Reflections:

• How have things changed as a consequence of the OS work?
• What can go wrong?
• Would you do it again?

But where is the innovation?

"How P&G Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate" by Bruce Brown and Scott Anthony (2011)

This article by Brown & Anthony (2011) illustrates for me one of the difficulties of seeking to identify a strong link between innovation and outsourcing. All of P&G's efforts towards innovation appear to be corporate internalisations of one kind or another and not outsourcing at all.

Likewise the TedTalk by Nirmalya Kumar titled "India's invisible innovation" drills into the common criticism that the net impact of outsourcing to India has not resulted in innovation from India.

A more pessimistic reading of the outsourcing literature might see it as rather devoid of product or service innovation at all. In fact it might appear, if innovation is occurring at all then it seems to take place at the inter-firm competitive level, the level of markets, organisational forms, and business models.

Story telling presentations

You only have 5 minutes to present.
Think like a TedTalk presenter.

Some strategies that may or may not work for you...

• Focus on story telling for the presentation.
• Perhaps focus on illustrating your key findings in some memorable and distinctive way.
• Perhaps try fewer slides
• Perhaps put some of the text into your speech rather than on the slides.
• Perhaps focus on your key findings; they may relate to the case data or they may relate to the method you employed, or you may wish to cover both.

Research project tips

Some tips for your research project when gathering data.

• Remember to keep your eyes open to implications of digital, virtual, digitally mediated processes.
• Innovation also takes many forms, a business process, an understanding, a perspective, or something you discover by looking a contrasts or finding something you didn't expect to see.
• Changes are particularly illuminating particularly if unexpected. But so too are continuities and stability, particularly if they're unexpected too (like avoiding or resisting change or "innovation" for some reason).

Prepare research papers "as if" to submit to ICIS 2015

Exercise: Prepare a first draft using whatever you have (in shared folder here)
Pointers on structure and grading criteria here.

ICIS 2015 call for papers is online (see http://icis2015.aisnet.org).

The 2015 conference theme is “Exploring the Information Frontier.”
Research tracks include:

• Conference Theme Track: Exploring the Information Frontier
• Breakout Ideas in IS
• Decision Analytics and Support
• E-Business and E-Government
• Economics and Value of IS
• General IS Topics
• Human Behavior in IS
• Human-Computer Interaction
• IS Curriculum and Education
• IS Design and Business Process Management
• IS Governance and Control
• IS in Healthcare
• IS Security and Privacy
• IS Strategy and Organizational Impacts
• IS Theory Development and Use
• IT Adoption and Use
• Managing IS Projects and IS Development
• Methodological and Philosophical Foundations of IS
• Panels
• Practice-oriented Research
• Social Media and Digital Collaborations
• Sustainability and Societal Impacts of IS

Conference Co Program Chairs are: Cathy Urquhart, Armin Heinzl and Traci Carte

Between the lines of the TCS story

TATA : From reference site to reference site

(1983?) 1984-1985: Projects with TKS for SNB: organisation size - 326: 13 member internal IT team.
TCS Delhi's first true offshoring project was through a partnership with Pierre Page's Teknosoft (TKS) on a joint development for the Swiss National Bank (SNB). This was SNB's largest technology project at that time. The SNB is Switzerland's central bank, acting in a banking regulation and policy role with responsibility for money supply, reserves, currency exchange, price stability and regulation of payment and securities settlement systems (link).

"Working with the Swiss presented us with our first experience of working with a demanding customer. Milestones for both sides were set, but there was no pressure on TCS to complete the project by a predetermined 'go live' date. Instead the bank trusted us as experts to define the schedule, after which they held us to it stringently."(Ramadorai, 2011: 60)

1989: SEGA: fixed price contract, 300 person-year, 3 year turnkey project.
TCS's winning of the Swiss SegaInterSettle (SEGA) project in 1989 was seen as the next defining moment for the burgeoning business of delivering offshore software and IT services. TCS, partnering with Teknosoft (TKS) competed for the business directly against Andersen Consulting. The pricing of the two bids ended up being quite similar (Ramadorai, 2011: 61). Andersen's strategy was to have its offshore development teams in Manila, the Philippines. TCS planned to offshore from India (Madras) but TCS had limited domain knowledge in 'depositories' so they sent a team on-site for 3 months in advance to understand the customer's requirements in order to prepare the bid.

SegaInterSettle (SEGA) required the development of a second generation real-time settlement system; a crucial piece of infrastructure for the Swiss financial system. It would be used to clear and settle bonds, equities.

"The settlement Communication System went live as planned in October 1993 and handled 4.6 million transactions in its first year of operations. It was a pace-setting and visionary project for the industry. Today, almost twenty years later, it continues to run flawlessly and remains one of the most sophisticated systems in the world in terms of technology, functionality and its architecture which was way ahead of its time." (Ramadorai, 2011: 62).

Storyboarding ideas

Why should I care about what you've got to say?
Storyboarding is a technique I can use to help craft my message (Reynolds, 2008). Going about the business of presenting ideas has to be seen as a process. It's a creative process that rarely proceeds in linear, sequential fashion from initial concept through to completed work. The problem with software tools like PowerPoint is just that, they are tools, part of my equipment but not the source of my inspiration nor necessarily the subject matter. That said the tools are great aides for producing 'the work' but I need to include all the equipment I'm going to use because it's all part of the process and therefore necessary and relevant: sticky notes, whiteboard, back-of-a-napkin, sheets of paper, and software tools.

Foremost I should know what my message is. In this case, I want to convince others that storyboarding is a great way of structuring a persuasive narrative. I also want to link this to the idea that the media I use is merely an adjunct to the the narrative, even when I capture and distill my story in a close-ended format like film. What I mean is by this is that the narrative still needs me (and you the audience) to interpret it.

Garr Reynolds describes 'crafting the story' as a process, a process that takes place over a number of steps (Reynolds, 2008). I'll use the phrase 'categories' rather than steps. The process of crafting the story starts from a 'core message after which we branch into a mixed sequence of activities that I'll paraphrase from Reynolds as follows:

• Brainstorming
• Grouping & identifying the core
• Layout and organising
• Dry run and re-organising

Implicit in the process is its iterative, non-linear nature.

Let's look at "The Learner's Journey in Practice" by Brian Sawyer to illustrate the narrative of a story and an approach to structuring it. Sawyer presents a case of storyboarding with a colleague (Michael Milton) to outline the detail of a book chapter. They structure the chapter around a learner's learning process. They start from a basic linear narrative ploy, learning as a journey with a beginning, middle, and end. The learner they envisage needs to cover a number of major points and the major points are interspersed with supporting subtopics. They then create a scenario, a "learner's journey", to overlay the storyline. Sawyer then uses the idea of an actual reader undergoing his or her own learning experience; feeling the peaks and troughs of accomplishment, the 'oh crap' valleys and the 'I rule' moments. The scenario becomes a narrative tool to refine the chapter content, order, and presentation.

Sawyer's linear story is just one way of depicting what Reynolds calls layout. But how does the scenario work? The story is the simple linear sequence but the narrative is what they construct around the bare facts of the story. The narrative sketches how someone (a generic audience) encounters the facts as they are presented or made available 'in order'. Perhaps most important and implied but not explicit is that the rough notes, the storyline and the narrative structure are also necessary tools and technique for communicating ideas these. In the first instance Sawyer might be working alone but still putting ideas down and re-engaging with them, reorganising them. This process of capturing, organising, reorganising is a simple compelling account of what goes into presenting ideas but a lot of work has taken place prior to this stage; the goal of the book, deciding what the chapters should cover, how the chapters relate to each other etc.

RESOURCES
Quick and Easy Video with a Flip Cam (dspace.ndlr.ie)
A Guide to Student-Generated Videos(www.studentgenerated.com)
MINO HD FLIP CAMERA USER GUIDE (dspace.ndlr.ie)
The following tutorials from UCD's School of Information and Library Studies (SILS) may be of interest (note that JayCut, the Blackboard Wiki, and other systems they describe are no longer available).

• ep1 Planning and organizing a video essay (dspace.ndlr.ie) 
• ep2 Creating and Capturing Video Content with Flip Cams (dspace.ndlr.ie) 
• ep4 Presenting your video essay (dspace.ndlr.ie)

Footnote:
Storyboarding is also used as a user-design technique for systems development. For examples see The Importance of Storyboarding Your iPhone App by Josh Clark and Storyboard technique for software projects by Adam Musial-Bright.

REFERENCES
Reynolds, G. (2008) Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, Berkeley, CA, New Riders.
Sawyer, B. (2009) The Learner's Journey in Practice. (blogs.oreilly.com)

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Here's my pitch for you to 'storyboard' and some tips on how to do it.

Storyboarding from Allen Higgins on Vimeo.

10 outsourcing trends to watch

These are posed as current trends, moves that are taking place now or soon (CIO.com)
My take on the 10 trends, I'm being selective here, as follows in terms of value added...

1. Getting to grips with inter-supplier cooperation (this is hard but strategic if you can do it)
2. More hybrid entities (JVs, partnerships, captives)
3. Return to insourcing (because location still important)
4. Clients regain ownership of integration (because you can't outsource responsibility)
5. Infrastructure, operations, devOps, goes to India (standardised hardware, cloud, and operations)
6. Cloud becomes a commodity market (bad for differentiation strategy based on cloud)
7. Consulting becomes a commodity market (bad for consultancy firms, price pressure)
8. The rise of new machines (new tech keeps our inner geek happy)