Jens Dibbern
University of Bern, Institut of Information Systems, Faculty Member
- Jens Dibbern is a professor and co-director of the Institute of Information Systems at the University of Bern, Switze... moreJens Dibbern is a professor and co-director of the Institute of Information Systems at the University of Bern, Switzerland. His research focuses on IT sourcing, platform ecosystems, enterprise systems use, and distributed collaboration. He received his PhD in Information Systems from the University of Bayreuth and was assistant professor at the University of Mannheim in Germany.edit
While multisourcing offers benefits such as access to best-of-breed resources and enhanced competition, it also presents clients with a new governance challenge, namely the need to ensure that vendors not only deliver their individual... more
While multisourcing offers benefits such as access to best-of-breed resources and enhanced competition, it also presents clients with a new governance challenge, namely the need to ensure that vendors not only deliver their individual contributions but also collaborate to produce a coherent joint outcome. Clients can address this challenge by combining bilateral governance focused on each vendor’s individual performance with collective governance aimed at the vendors’ joint performance. However, it is unclear how the simultaneous application of bilateral and collective governance affects multisourcing performance. Indeed, the literature falls short in systematically differentiating these governance mechanisms and empirically examining their interplay. Drawing on existing work on multisourcing and on the outsourcing governance literature, we argue that bilateral and collective governance direct efforts toward different performance dimensions (individual vs. joint), invoke different m...
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Knowledge processes are critical to outsourced software projects. According to outsourcing research, outsourced software projects succeed if they manage to integrate the client's business knowledge and the vendor's technical... more
Knowledge processes are critical to outsourced software projects. According to outsourcing research, outsourced software projects succeed if they manage to integrate the client's business knowledge and the vendor's technical knowledge. In this paper, we submit that this view may not be wrong, but incomplete in a significant part of outsourced software work, which is software maintenance. Data from six software-maintenance outsourcing transitions indicate that more important than business or technical knowledge can be application knowledge, which vendor engineers acquire over time during practice. Application knowledge was the dominant knowledge during knowledge transfer activities and its acquisition enabled vendor staff to solve maintenance tasks. We discuss implications for widespread assumptions in outsourcing research.
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Based on an embedded multi-case study about a multisourced software development project, this paper aims to explore how and why vendors in a situation of forced coopetition practice cooperation and competition differently. To do so, we... more
Based on an embedded multi-case study about a multisourced software development project, this paper aims to explore how and why vendors in a situation of forced coopetition practice cooperation and competition differently. To do so, we reconstructed the individual case narratives and composed a process model based on our analysis. More specifically, we found that vendors faced with a coopetitive imbalance both consciously and unconsciously balance cooperation and competition on two ways: On the one hand, vendors aspired the highest common denominator and therefore increased either cooperation or competition to match the respective counterpart. On the other hand, vendors aspired the lowest common denominator and therefore reduced either cooperation or competition. Even though both ways have shown their ability to counterbalance cooperation and competition, only the first way has led to promising outcomes for the applying vendors – virtuous cycle, while the second did not – vicious cy...
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Joint idea generation is vital in software development projects requiring team members with different knowledge specializations to exchange and integrate multiple perspectives into ideas to improve the software product. While joint idea... more
Joint idea generation is vital in software development projects requiring team members with different knowledge specializations to exchange and integrate multiple perspectives into ideas to improve the software product. While joint idea generation is generally difficult to achieve, it is even more challenging in offshore-outsourced settings. Our goal was to understand the process of how software prototypes can support joint idea generation over the life of a 16 month offshore-outsourced software development project. Based on an in-depth, ethnographic case study, we reveal three joint idea generation modes building on and stimulating each other: from diverging, to exploring and advancing. These joint idea generation modes were closely interwoven with the software prototype. We find that as the software prototype evolved, new possibilities for engaging in various joint idea generation modes emerged. Our research has important implications for literature and practice.
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Software robots tend to increasingly take over organizational processes. However, little is known about principles of building and implementing as opposed to using robotic systems, such as bots for process automation (RPA) and chatbots.... more
Software robots tend to increasingly take over organizational processes. However, little is known about principles of building and implementing as opposed to using robotic systems, such as bots for process automation (RPA) and chatbots. Therefore, based on an empirically illustrated theoretical conceptualization of routine automation and affordance actualization, this paper develops a framework that guides how different types of software robots can be built and implemented through transforming a human-executed routine into a robot-automated routine by applying specific implementation guidelines.
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Innovation ecosystems are becoming increasingly important for the co-creation and modification of digital innovation by different and often competing organizational actors. However, how innovation ecosystems emerge between such... more
Innovation ecosystems are becoming increasingly important for the co-creation and modification of digital innovation by different and often competing organizational actors. However, how innovation ecosystems emerge between such organizational actors is yet unknown. This article addresses this gap by exploring how central organizational actors create innovation ecosystems, and how and why these innovation ecosystems emerge over time and through the interplay of all involved organizational actors that pursue both common (i.e., cooperate) and own goals (i.e., compete). To answer these questions, we opted for a single-case study of a large software development project, initiated by a major logistics company and implemented in collaboration with its independent IT department, six software vendors, and some field experts. This unique constellation with different coopeting (i.e., simultaneously cooperating and competing) organizational actors is particularly well suited to answer our research questions. Our results show that central organizational actors can create the basic structure and procedures of an innovation ecosystem. However, for an innovation ecosystem to progress in its emergence, central organizational actors need to stabilize the basic structure, while all other organizational actors need to help refine the basic procedures. The better adapted the structure and the procedures, the better organizational actors can exploit them to materialize coherent and customer-oriented digital innovation. We present our findings as a three-phase process model of innovation ecosystem emergence, in which innovation agency is distributed and redistributed among the organizational actors. Our findings have important implications for the literature on innovation ecosystems, the coopetition paradox, and digital innovation.
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Successful IT business transformations require a departure from silo thinking in individual projects to a broader perspective in holistic, process-oriented programs. Such programs face latent paradoxical tensions that can become salient... more
Successful IT business transformations require a departure from silo thinking in individual projects to a broader perspective in holistic, process-oriented programs. Such programs face latent paradoxical tensions that can become salient throughout their (re-) design and execution. Prior research suggests ambidextrous leadership by the program management team to resolve such salient paradoxical tensions. However, little is known about whether such unilateral and top-down approaches can restore sustainable equilibria or even trigger follow-up tensions between program-level objectives and project-level needs. Therefore, this study explores whether and how ambidextrous leadership to resolve strategic tensions can trigger follow-up tensions and how such follow-up tensions can be addressed to restore sustainable equilibria. To this end, we conducted an ethnographic study in an IT transformation program at a large Central European telecommunications company. We find that ambidextrous leade...
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With the increasing potential to automate business processes using software robots, companies face the challenge of scaling the implementation of such robotic systems in order to enable their efficient evolution. The implementation of... more
With the increasing potential to automate business processes using software robots, companies face the challenge of scaling the implementation of such robotic systems in order to enable their efficient evolution. The implementation of software robots is based on the often time consuming work carried out by the project team, which often leads to higher than expected costs and time delays. This can be made more efficient by scaling the extension of the robot’s functionalities. However, scaling can only take place once one has understood what can be scaled, how it can be scaled, and to what extent. Routine theoretical concepts help us better understand the extent to which processes previously carried out by humans can be transformed and transferred to robots. We build on literature on routine dynamics as well as digital scaling to understand the mechanisms required to scale the implementation of software robots. Therefore, based on an empirically illustrated theoretical conceptualization of scaling the software robot implementation, we elaborate in this chapter how routines evolve and dynamically influence each other in order to explain how scaling can be approached when implementing software robots. In doing so, we rely on data from two case studies. In one case study a chatbot was contextually expanded over time. In the second case study a series of robotic process automation (RPA) robots were implemented
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The term “ubiquitous technology ” refers to any technology that extends common objects with data processing capabilities, e.g. RFID systems, wireless sensor networks or networked embedded systems. In this study, we uncover the mechanisms... more
The term “ubiquitous technology ” refers to any technology that extends common objects with data processing capabilities, e.g. RFID systems, wireless sensor networks or networked embedded systems. In this study, we uncover the mechanisms by which these technologies contribute to an increased business process performance. We apply the theory of task-technology fit to establish a model of the impact of ubiquitous technologies on business process performance. Based on expert interviews in a large standard software company, the potential of ubiquitous technologies for enhancing performance in a number of generic business processes is explored. Furthermore, we illustrate how our findings can be applied to identify value-creating ubiquitous computing applications in companies.
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Die Softwarebranche ist ein zentraler Wachstumsmotor fur hochentwickelte Volkswirtschaften wie die Schweiz. Dennoch wissen wir nur sehr wenig uber die nationale Softwareindustrie. Der Swiss Software Industry Survey (SSIS) verfolgt das... more
Die Softwarebranche ist ein zentraler Wachstumsmotor fur hochentwickelte Volkswirtschaften wie die Schweiz. Dennoch wissen wir nur sehr wenig uber die nationale Softwareindustrie. Der Swiss Software Industry Survey (SSIS) verfolgt das Ziel, diese Lucke zu schliessen. Der Swiss Software Industry Survey (SSIS) wird durch das Institut fur Wirtschaftsinformatik der Universitat Bern im Rahmen eines europaischen Hochschulprojektes durchgefuhrt und von inside-it, ICTswitzerland, Swiss Made Software, Simsa, AlpICT, Topsoft, und Sieber & Partners unterstutzt. Geleitet wird der SSIS durch Prof. Dr. Jens Dibbern und Dr. Thomas Huber und ist Grundlage fur die die Dissertation von Thomas Hurni. Gleichzeitig lost der SSIS den bereits bekannten Swiss Software Industry Index (SSII) des Berner Beratungsunternehmens Dr. Pascal Sieber & Partners AG ab.
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Given the centrality of control for achieving success in outsourced software projects, past research has identified key exogenous factors that determine the choice of controls. This view of exogenously driven control choice is based on a... more
Given the centrality of control for achieving success in outsourced software projects, past research has identified key exogenous factors that determine the choice of controls. This view of exogenously driven control choice is based on a number of assumptions; particularly, clients and vendors are seen as separate cognitive entities that combat opportunistic threats under environmental uncertainty by one-off choices or infrequent revisions of controls. In this paper we complement this perspective by acknowledging that an outsourced software project may be characterized as a collective, evolving process faced with the challenge of coping with cognitive limitations of both client and vendor through a continuous process of learning. We argue that if viewed in this way, controls are less subject of a deliberate choice but rather are subject of endogenously driven change, i.e. controls evolve in close interaction with the evolving software project. Accordingly, we suggest a complementary...
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The trend towards digital transformation has brought about a number of emerging challenges for information systems outsourcing. Organizations have to understand how to digitally innovate through IS outsourcing, how to govern outsourced... more
The trend towards digital transformation has brought about a number of emerging challenges for information systems outsourcing. Organizations have to understand how to digitally innovate through IS outsourcing, how to govern outsourced digitalization projects, how to cope with complex multi vendor and micro-services arrangements, how to manage data sourcing and data partnerships, including issues of cybersecurity, and how to cope with the increasing demands of internationalization and new sourcing models, such as crowdsourcing, cloud sourcing and robotic process automation. This introductory chapter summarizes these challenges as three entangled or intermingled waves of change. It shows how recent research addresses these waves of change as a basis for organizations to learn how to successfully ride the waves.
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Die Softwarebranche ist ein zentraler Wachstumsmotor fur hochentwickelte Volkswirtschaften wie die Schweiz. Dennoch wissen wir nur sehr wenig uber die nationale Softwareindustrie. Der Swiss Software Industry Survey (SSIS) verfolgt das... more
Die Softwarebranche ist ein zentraler Wachstumsmotor fur hochentwickelte Volkswirtschaften wie die Schweiz. Dennoch wissen wir nur sehr wenig uber die nationale Softwareindustrie. Der Swiss Software Industry Survey (SSIS) verfolgt das Ziel, diese Lucke zu schliessen. Der Swiss Software Industry Survey (SSIS) wird durch das Institut fur Wirtschaftsinformatik der Universitat Bern im Rahmen eines europaischen Hochschulprojektes durchgefuhrt und von inside-it, ICTswitzerland, Swiss Made Software, Simsa, AlpICT, Topsoft, und Sieber & Partners unterstutzt. Geleitet wird der SSIS durch Prof. Dr. Jens Dibbern und Dr. Thomas Huber und ist Grundlage fur die die Dissertation von Thomas Hurni. Gleichzeitig lost der SSIS den bereits bekannten Swiss Software Industry Index (SSII) des Berner Beratungsunternehmens Dr. Pascal Sieber & Partners AG ab.
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The implementation of software robots is based on the often time-consuming work carried out by the project team, which often leads to higher than expected costs and time delays. This can be made more efficient by scaling the extension of... more
The implementation of software robots is based on the often time-consuming work carried out by the project team, which often leads to higher than expected costs and time delays. This can be made more efficient by scaling the extension of the robot’s functionalities. However, scaling can only take place once one has understood what can be scaled and to what extent. Therefore, based on an empirically illustrated theoretical conceptualization of scaling the software robot implementation, in this chapter we elaborate how scaling can be approached when implementing software robots.
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Based on an exploratory multiple-case study in two platform ecosystems, we develop a process theory that explains how and why different ways of practicing ecosystem-wide governance are more or less successful in navigating the tension... more
Based on an exploratory multiple-case study in two platform ecosystems, we develop a process theory that explains how and why different ways of practicing ecosystem-wide governance are more or less successful in navigating the tension between cocreated value and governance costs. Our process theory shows that how ecosystem-wide rules and values are practiced considerably varies and changes over time. Initially, governance practices follow ecosystem-wide rules; if and how practices shift toward going beyond the rules hinges on specific necessary conditions. Irrespective of which governance route is taken, the tension between cocreated value and governance costs is more successfully addressed if practices are sensitive to ecosystem-wide values. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0701 .
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Transaction cost economics (TCE) is the most prominent theory for studying questions surrounding information systems (IS) outsourcing. Its most widely tested argument is that client-specific services are rather kept in-house due to the... more
Transaction cost economics (TCE) is the most prominent theory for studying questions surrounding information systems (IS) outsourcing. Its most widely tested argument is that client-specific services are rather kept in-house due to the high transaction costs which arise for safeguarding against opportunistic behavior. However, empirical support for this argument has so far been inconclusive. We seek to resolve this inconsistency by following two recommendations in prior literature. First, we extend TCE by considering trust differences between internal employees and vendor staff as a context factor. Second, we explicitly account for TCE's economic rationale by acknowledging that client-specific knowledge influences both transaction cost and production cost differences between in-house and outsourced IS services. Using data from 139 organizations on the sourcing of software development and maintenance services, we found support for our theoretical extension. For IS services requir...
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Multisourcing has become a common sourcing model in recent outsourcing practice. Yet, the extant and relevant IS literature has so far offered limited insight into how to stipulate both individual (i.e., individual vendor) and joint (the... more
Multisourcing has become a common sourcing model in recent outsourcing practice. Yet, the extant and relevant IS literature has so far offered limited insight into how to stipulate both individual (i.e., individual vendor) and joint (the entire vendor network) performance while ensuring governance efficiency. Our study set about addressing this gap by examining how these three dimensions of multisourcing success can be achieved through formal governance. Specifically, we considered bilateral formal control, collective formal control and conflict arbitration (among vendors) as key formal governance elements. Results from a pan-European survey of client firms pursuing multisourcing projects show that bilateral formal control sets the stage to achieve both individual and joint performance, while conflict arbitration strengthens individual performance, and collective formal control strengthens joint performance. Governance efficiency is improved when both collective formal control and c...
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Despite promising cost saving potential, many offshore software projects fail to realize the expected benefits. A frequent source of failure lies in the insufficient transfer of knowledge during the transition phase. Former literature has... more
Despite promising cost saving potential, many offshore software projects fail to realize the expected benefits. A frequent source of failure lies in the insufficient transfer of knowledge during the transition phase. Former literature has reported cases where some domains of knowledge were successfully transferred to vendor personnel whereas others were not. There is further evidence that the actual knowledge transfer processes often vary from case to case. This raises the question whether there is a systematic relationship between the chosen knowledge transfer process and know-ledge transfer success. This paper introduces a dynamic perspective that distinguishes different types of knowledge transfer processes explaining under which circumstances which type is deemed most appropriate to successfully transfer knowledge. Our paper draws on knowledge transfer literature, the Model of Work-Based Learning and theories from cognitive psychology to show how characteristics of know-ledge an...
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Many technological developments of the past two decades come with the promise of greater IT flexi-bility, i.e. greater capacity to adapt IT. These technologies are increasingly used to improve organiza-tional routines that are not... more
Many technological developments of the past two decades come with the promise of greater IT flexi-bility, i.e. greater capacity to adapt IT. These technologies are increasingly used to improve organiza-tional routines that are not affected by large, hard-to-change IT such as ERP. Yet, most findings on the interaction of routines and IT stem from contexts where IT is hard to change. Our research ex-plores how routines and IT co-evolve when IT is flexible. We review the literatures on routines to sug-gest that IT may act as a boundary object that mediates the learning process unfolding between the ostensive and the performative aspect of the routine. Although prior work has concluded from such conceptualizations that IT stabilizes routines, we qualify that flexible IT can also stimulate change because it enables learning in short feedback cycles. We suggest that, however, such change might not always materialize because it is contingent on governance choices and technical knowledge. W...
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Individual learning is central to the success of the transition phase in software mainte-nance offshoring projects. However, little is known on how learning activities, such as on-the-job training and formal presentations, are effectively... more
Individual learning is central to the success of the transition phase in software mainte-nance offshoring projects. However, little is known on how learning activities, such as on-the-job training and formal presentations, are effectively combined during the tran-sition phase. In this study, we present and test propositions derived from cognitive load theory. The results of a multiple-case study suggest that learning effectiveness was highest when learning tasks such as authentic maintenance requests were used. Con-sistent with cognitive load theory, learning tasks were most effective when they imposed moderate cognitive load. Our data indicate that cognitive load was influenced by the expertise of the onsite coordinator, by intrinsic task complexity, by the degree of specifi-cation of tasks, and by supportive information. Cultural and semantic distances may in-fluence learning by inhibiting supportive information, specification, and the assignment of learning tasks.
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Social media platforms bear the promise of enhancing interactions in collaborative learning. Yet, relatively little is known about how short-message feeds, a key feature in many social media platforms, affect collaborative learning. We... more
Social media platforms bear the promise of enhancing interactions in collaborative learning. Yet, relatively little is known about how short-message feeds, a key feature in many social media platforms, affect collaborative learning. We report the results of a field experiment in which we manipulated the social media platform that 53 teams of four students used for a collaborative learning task over three weeks. We find that students provided with short-message feeds achieved significantly better learning outcomes than students without. While learner engagement was similar in both conditions, learner communication was more focused on the task in the condition with short-message feeds. The short-message feed led learners to curtail social communication and uncertainty statements, which mediated the effect of the short-message feeds on learning outcomes. Our study provides new insights into the effect of short-message feeds on collaborative learning and communication.
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The question concerning the circumstances under which it is advantageous for a company to outsource certain information systems functions has been a controversial issue for the last decade. While opponents emphasize the risks of... more
The question concerning the circumstances under which it is advantageous for a company to outsource certain information systems functions has been a controversial issue for the last decade. While opponents emphasize the risks of outsourcing based on the loss of strategic potentials and increased transaction costs, proponents emphasize the strategic benefits of outsourcing and high potentials of cost-savings. This paper brings together both views by examining the conditions under which both the strategic potentials as well as savings in production and transaction costs of developing and maintaining software applications can better be achieved in-house as opposed to by an external vendor. We develop a theoretical framework from three complementary theories and test it empirically based on a mail survey of 139 German companies. The results show that insourcing is more cost efficient and advantageous in creating strategic benefit through IS if the provision of application services requi...
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In the enterprise application software industry, dominant system vendors (hubs) have formed strategic partnerships with small software companies (spokes), resulting in the emergence of hub-and-spoke networks. Based upon the concept of... more
In the enterprise application software industry, dominant system vendors (hubs) have formed strategic partnerships with small software companies (spokes), resulting in the emergence of hub-and-spoke networks. Based upon the concept of software stacks, we argue that the governance mechanisms applied by hub and spokes depend on the complementarity between hub's and spoke's resources. Specifically, we draw on the relational view and combine it with the resource dependence theory to develop a theoretical framework that explains the link between the type of complementarity and differential governance mechanisms. We are able to show that while hubs seek to take advantage of complementarities with the entire network of partners, spokes are primarily interested in gaining access to complementary resources and capabilities of the hub organization. In order to leverage the benefits of resource complementarity, hubs mainly invest in network-specific resources to generate value. On the ...
Die Softwarebranche ist ein zentraler Wachstumsmotor fur hochentwickelte Volkswirtschaften wie die Schweiz. Dennoch wissen wir nur sehr wenig uber die nationale Softwareindustrie. Der Swiss Software Industry Survey (SSIS) verfolgt das... more
Die Softwarebranche ist ein zentraler Wachstumsmotor fur hochentwickelte Volkswirtschaften wie die Schweiz. Dennoch wissen wir nur sehr wenig uber die nationale Softwareindustrie. Der Swiss Software Industry Survey (SSIS) verfolgt das Ziel, diese Lucke zu schliessen. Der Swiss Software Industry Survey (SSIS) wird durch das Institut fur Wirtschaftsinformatik der Universitat Bern im Rahmen eines europaischen Hochschulprojektes durchgefuhrt und von inside-it, ICTswitzerland, Swiss Made Software, Simsa, AlpICT, Topsoft, und Sieber & Partners unterstutzt. Geleitet wird der SSIS durch Prof. Dr. Jens Dibbern und Dr. Thomas Huber und ist Grundlage fur die die Dissertation von Thomas Hurni. Gleichzeitig lost der SSIS den bereits bekannten Swiss Software Industry Index (SSII) des Berner Beratungsunternehmens Dr. Pascal Sieber & Partners AG ab.