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Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems

Editorial

Welcome to the Winter issue of the 36th volume of the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems (SJIS). This year has been a special one. SJIS has celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2024, thus being one of the longest running European journals within the discipline of Information Systems.

We are delighted to announce that we are working on a website update. As you know, SJIS is the journal of the IRIS Association (Information Systems Research in Scandinavia), the Scandinavian chapter of the Association for Information Systems (AIS). Previously, some of the journal-related information was divided between the IRIS and AIS sites. We are migrating the remaining information from the IRIS website on the AIS website, which will be the main source of information for the journal. By doing so, we have reduced the duplicate and outdated information across different sites, hopefully making it easier for our readers and authors to locate relevant information and guidelines. We have also extended our policy document by providing more specific author-related information on the responsible use of Generative AI.

We announce several transitions in our editorial board. We warmly welcome Jonna Järveläinen as the new Finnish editor for the period 2025-2028. This Winter issue also marks the end of the four-year journey of Henri Pirkkalainen as the Finnish editor of SJIS. Elena Parmiggiani will be stepping in as the editor-in-chief starting in 2025.

Moving on to this issue of SJIS, we are pleased to announce a rich and versatile compilation of the three kinds of submissions that SJIS endorses: research papers, reflection notes and special issues. The first research paper by Larissa Gebken, Mattis Jacobs, Paul Drews, Ingrid Schirmer and Andreas Drechsler is titled Value-sensitive Action Design Research. Improving the consideration and traceability of values in design decisions. The study depicts how the current methodological guidance for action design research (ADR) lacks a way to proactively incorporate the consideration of values into the resulting designs and interventions. The paper proposes an extension to ADR tasks with value sensitive design considerations and introduce the value-sensitive decision log method to trace how values underpinned and influenced design decisions. These were developed in an action design research project aiming at developing a digital social innovation for supporting humans experiencing homelessness. The approach sets to assist researchers and other participants in action design research projects to incorporate value-sensitive decisions in ADR.

The second paper by Brad McKenna, Petri Mäkinen and Tuure Tuunanen is titled Switching Behaviour in Smartphone Messaging Services. The influences of context, content, and service features. This qualitative paper examines the factors affecting switching behaviour in smartphone messaging services. The study explores the motivations behind customer decisions when choosing between different smartphone messaging services. The study findings indicate that switching decisions are influenced by message context, message content, and service features. The paper discusses how the application of the Push-Pull-Mooring framework extends prior knowledge on consumer behaviour in messaging application switching through the context of use, content of messages, and service features offered to consumers.

The third paper is written by Katja Henttonen, Mirja Pulkkinen and Pasi Tyrväinen. It is titled Health and Orchestration of Public-Sector Open-Source Software Ecosystems. Roles, rules and tools. The paper is positioned around the procurement challenges in the public sector and the way these organizations ventured into establishing and orchestrating free and open-source software (FOSS) ecosystems. The study examines factors that aid the long-term well-being of public-sector FOSS ecosystems. With a qualitative multi-case study, the paper examines three ecosystems and presents a model for health-sustaining activities in public-sector FOSS ecosystems with rulemaking, role creation, and tool provision. The study identifies a set of key challenges in orchestrating public sector FOSS ecosystems and proposes the need for future research on institutional misalignment and conflicting policy frameworks.

The fourth research paper by Pramukh Nanjundaswamy Vasist, Satish Krishnan and Debashis Chatterjee is titled: Social Media Disinformation and Climate Change Mitigation Efforts. A configurational narrative. This article deals with the importance of social media for facilitating climate actions and the way how disinformation challenges these efforts. The study utilizes the theoretical framework of agenda-building and qualitative comparative analysis to conduct a comprehensive cross-country assessment across 167 countries. The findings of the study reveal disinformation operations by governments and political parties on climate change mitigation initiatives. The findings also reveal the diminishing significance of foreign disinformation. The study contributes to overall understanding how disinformation campaigns interact to undermine the effectiveness of climate actions.

This Winter issue also includes a Special Issue titled Theorising the Digital Artefact in Dark Sides Research, edited by Stephen McCarthy and Peter André Busch. Please have a look at their insightful editorial on the special issue, which introduces three research papers that were accepted in the special issue. We are grateful for the great contribution of Stephen, Peter and the brilliant authors of the papers included. Remember, SJIS is always open for your suggestions on special issue topics! Please contact the editors if you are interested in proposing one. Finally, this Winter issue includes two sub-types of reflection notes that we endorse.

First, reflections based on workshops and keynotes of IS conferences are common in SJIS, and you might recall recent reflection notes from our prior SCIS conferences, such as Kalle Lyytinen’s and Andrew Burton Jones’ reflections on their keynote presentations in 2023. This time around, SJIS editor Elena Parmiggiani shares her reflections based on the keynote speech she held at the 15th Scandinavian Conference of Information Systems (SCIS24) that was organized by University of Gothenburg in Sweden. She reveals data governance viewpoints to production of, can you guess? Yes, exactly, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Data quality is a critical factor for cheese production and Elena provides multiple key insights linking research with the family endeavours on producing the cheese that us food lovers have become highly fond of.

The second sub-type of reflection notes is invited debate essays. The previous issue of SJIS included a reflection note with the title From Algorithmic Management to Data-driven Labour Organising A trade union approach to workplace datafication. The reflection note sparked engagement and gained traction. The organizers of SCIS24 included a panel discussion chaired by Stig Nyman from Copenhagen Business School (CBS) to dive deeper into this topic. Panelists and members of the Scandinavian IS community were also invited to submit their commentaries as debate essays. These are included in a special focus section that concludes the Winter issue of SJIS. The section is moderated by Stig Nyman, Olivia Benfeldt, Jacob Nørbjerg and Tine Blegind Jensen. Please have a look at the attached editorial authored by Nyman and colleagues for an overview of the commentaries.

We want to thank every reviewer, contributor, author and reader of the journal. Please remember that SJIS is an AIS-affiliated journal and welcomes submissions from all over the world. We look forward receiving your submissions that address and advance different phenomenon related to IS!

Henri Pirkkalainen, Elena Parmiggiani, Olgerta Tona and Louise Harder Fischer