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Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems

Editorial

The second issue of the SJIS volume 21 features four research articles and a debate commentary paper. The first article by Hans Olav Omland reports a case study of an ERP implementation project in a Norwegian municipality. Omland’s case analysis contributes to a more detailed un- derstanding of the dynamic relationships between actors’ competence, methods, and practice in information systems development processes. In the second article, Lene Pries-Heje and Yvonne Dietrich present a longitudinal case study of ERP implementation in an engineering company headquartered in Denmark. Their analysis focuses on the knowledge integration capabilities of user representatives/end users and ERP experts during different phases of the ERP implementa- tion project. They argue that ERP implementation should be understood as a socio-technical design process, and discuss how methods and tools from participatory design research may miti- gate some of the knowledge integration challenges identified in this type of project. The third paper by Ioannis Ignatiadis and Joe Nandhakumar focuses on the post-implementation stage of ERP implementation and examines how workarounds employed by the users may decrease organizational control. The empirical basis for their analysis is an interpretive case study of a large international company in the rail transport industry. Together these three articles present a rich contribution to the research on information systems development, implementation and use in the context of ERP systems.

The fourth paper by Philip O’Reilly and Patrick Finnegan analyzes the phenomenon of electronic marketplaces. Based on a study of eight electronic marketplaces operating as market intermediariess in various sectors, they present a framework for characterizing electronic mar- ketplaces with value activities related to market, management and technology infrastructure as some of the key characteristics.

The final paper by Jesper Simonsen is a commentary to the paper “Engaged Scholarship in IS Research—The Scandinavian Case” by Lars Mathiassen and Peter Axel Nielsen, published in SJIS 20(2) as an invited paper for the journal’s 20th anniversary. Simonsen’s article follows up on the concern raised in the Mathiassen and Nielsen paper about how some of the current trends of ‘streamlining’ publication practices and doctoral programs in the IS field may be incom- mensurable with the characteristics of enganged scholarship and action research. Based on an autoethnographic approach, he presents examples of challenges experienced in action research projets, and discusses possible ways to sustain engaged scholarship.

Finally, we are pleased to announce that SJIS is scheduled to be available in the AIS eLibrary from the end of November 2009. This represents an important step in increasing further the visibility of the journal. We would like to thank our Production Manager Peter Axel Nielsen for facilitating this process and PhD student Arto Lanamäki for preparing the needed bibliograhpical data for the SJIS archive.