Today’s companies rely heavily on in-company information technology standards (ICITS) to reduce costs, ensure flexibility, and facilitate the planning, implementation, and operation of IT systems. Steering and managing ICITS has proven to be challenging, revealing the need for efficient governance mechanisms. But even though prior research demonstrates the challenges of ICITS, viable advice on how to implement ICITS is scarce.

Thus, we developed an organizational design theory for the management of ICITS based on the framework of organizational control theory. We conducted a critical case study to identify basic goals, constitutive elements, and fundamental mechanisms of a working ICITS management. The resulting design goals and principles were then evaluated and further refined in the light of additional expert interviews. With our work, we extend the body of theoretical knowledge on the management of ICITS and help practitioners master the various challenges occurring in this domain.

Please read more about our research in our latest paper accepted for publication in Information Systems Frontiers.

Blockchain technology has been in the interest of IS researchers and practitioners for several years. One key reason for this curiosity is the possibility to carry out peer-to-peer transactions without a trusted intermediary. Building upon this capability, many researchers posited that blockchain technology would remove traditional intermediaries from their market position. This process has been described in electronic markets literature as Disintermediation. However, other researchers proposed a more distinct perspective by proposing that blockchain technology will not facilitate Disintermediation in all settings. Thus, no unified view on this topic exists yet.

Our literature review identifies three dominating concepts in blockchain literature: Extensive Disintermediation, Limited Disintermediation, and Re-Intermediation. We further highlight in our findings that most of the identified literature does not consider all market functions as described in the electronic markets literature. Hence, we provide a structured overview of the field and possibilities for future research.

Please read more about our research that has been accepted for presentation at the 30th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2022) which will take place from June 18 to 24 in Timisoara, Romania.