Information governance requirements in dynamic business networking
| Date | 08 August 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-06-2015-0260 |
| Published date | 08 August 2016 |
| Pages | 1356-1379 |
| Author | Mohammad Reza Rasouli,Jos J. M. Trienekens,Rob J. Kusters,Paul W.P.J. Grefen |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems |
Information governance
requirements in dynamic
business networking
Mohammad Reza Rasouli
Industrial Engineering Department,
Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Jos J.M. Trienekens
Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences Department,
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and
Rob J. Kusters and Paul W.P.J. Grefen
Industrial Engineering Department,
Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to identify information governance (IG) requirements in the
context of dynamic business networking (BN).
Design/methodology/approach –For the identification of IG requirements a systematic literature
review is conducted. The practical significance of identified IG requirements is evaluated through a
case study.
Findings –A comprehensive list of IG requirements in dynamic BN is identified. These requirements
are classified in information quality, information security, and metadata domains. The conducted case
study demonstrates information exchange issues in a real world dynamic BN that reflects the practical
significance of the identified IG requirements.
Research limitations/implications –Exploiting emerging market opportunities through a
dynamic BN necessitates the realization of a comprehensive IG program within the network.
Otherwise, information exchange related risks can interrupt the operations in a BN. In this research the
authors concentrate on interactions between parties within a BN. The interactions with customers for
the co-creation of value are not addressed directly. Although the conducted case study reflects the
practical significance of the identified IG requirements clearly, more empirical study is needed for
prioritizing these IG requirements.
Practical implications –The governor of a BN needs to balance between the value obtained from
dynamic networked interactions and the risk evolving from the dynamic inter-organizational
information exchange.
Originality/value –The comprehensive list of IG requirements that are identified in this research can
be used to develop an IG program that enables high quality and secure information exchange in a
dynamic BN.
Keywords Metadata, Information security, Information governance, Information quality,
Business networking, Inter-organizational business process
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The competition in today’s globalized markets increasingly forces organizations to
provide mass customized integrated solutions for their customers (Vargo and Lusch, 2004;
Tukker and Tischner, 2006). To achieve competitive advantage, organizations need to
concentrate on their core competencies and outsource others (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990).
This situation increasingly stresses the importance of dynamic business networking (BN)
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 116 No. 7, 2016
pp. 1356-1379
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-06-2015-0260
Received 29 June 2015
Revised 19 October 2015
Accepted 28 November 2015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
1356
IMDS
116,7
to respond to emerging customer requirements (Mehandjiev and Grefen, 2010). A dynamic
BN requires the sensing of customer needs and a rapid response to these needs through
the agile orchestration of resources distributed among parties (Sambamurthy et al., 2003).
This highlights the importance of information-intensive and dynamic inter-organizational
business processes (Grefen et al., 2009). The information-intensity points to a dynamic
evolution of inter-organizational business process to respond to environmental
requirements (Reichert and Weber, 2012). Information-intensity is increasingly enabled
by the internet of things technologies –like sensor, RFID, and social media technologies –
that create more and more digital information about real world objects (Lohr, 2012). This
information can be generated by suppliers (such as logistics-related information) or by
customers(such as informationimplying customers’experience in social media). Although
the access to globally distributed information enables a BN to exploit environmental
opportunities, it also can result in emerging issues such as unsecured information access
and low-quality information products (Tallon, 2013; Haug et al., 2013; Silvola et al., 2011;
Rasouli et al., 2015c). These issues can strongly disrupt the performance of a BN. So, they
need to profoundly be recognized and responded by information governance (IG)
mechanisms (Tallon, 2013).
IG can be characterized as a holistic approach to different mechanisms that are
required to enable high quality information exchange (Hulme, 2012; Kooper et al., 2011).
It should maximize the value of information for all stakeholders and safeguard
information as an asset within its whole lifecycle (Tallon et al., 2013). In this way, IG
addresses different domains like information quality (IQ), information privacy,
information security, and metadata (Khatri and Brown, 2010; Young and McConkey,
2012). Although IG within organizational boundaries has increasingly been attended in
recent literature, the research on IG in the context of BN is lacking (Otto et al., 2011).
The related work on IG in the context of BN is mostly concentrated on architectural
solutions enabling quality information exchange (like Dustdar et al., 2012; Scannapieco
et al., 2004). But, these architectural solutions do not have a comprehensive view on
different aspects of IG including information service quality, information product
quality, security, and metadata (see Rasouli et al., 2015a). On the other hand, IG in a
dynamic BN encounters with various emerging issues such as context aware semantic
information exchange or collaboratively created information ownership. These
emerging information exchange issues in dynamic BN result in new IG requirements to
enable quality information exchange (Otto et al., 2011; Rasouli et al., 2015c).
The BN engineering approach (Alt et al., 2000; Grefen, 2013) requires to pay much
more attention to the way how parties within a BN interact, not only on what they
exchange. This requires recognizing interactions among parties within inter-
organizational business processes. An inter-org anizational business process is
enacted by two or more autonomous organizations, of which at least one
organization exposes a non-black box projection of the explicit control flow structure
of an internal process to the other organization(s) (Grefen, 2013). Based on the BN
engineering approach, in this research we focus on the identification of IG requirements
within inter-organizational business processes in the context of BN. In this way, the
research question that is going to be responded in this research has been stated as:
RQ1. What are the IG requirements in dynamic inter-organizational business
processes within a BN?
For the specification of this research question, we frame it within four facets,
respectively, the context, the intervention, the population, and the outcomes (Petticrew
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Dynamic
business
networking
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