T he emergence of software-based platforms is shifting competition toward platform-centric ecosystems, although this phenomenon has not received much attention in information systems research. Our premise is that the coevolution of the design, governance, and environmental dynamics of such ecosystems influences how they evolve. We present a framework for understanding platform-based ecosystems and discuss five broad research questions that present significant research opportunities for contributing homegrown theory about their evolutionary dynamics to the information systems discipline and distinctive information technology-artifactcentric contributions to the strategy, economics, and software engineering reference disciplines.

This study examines the underexplored tensions and complementarities between bridging ties and strong ties in innovation-seeking alliances. Bridging ties span structural holes to provide innovation potential but lack integration capacity, and strong ties provide integration capacity but lack innovation potential. We theoretically develop the idea that-notwithstanding their tensions-strong ties complement bridging ties in enhancing alliance ambidexterity at the project level. While bridging ties provide access to diverse, structural hole-spanning perspectives and capabilities, strong ties help integrate them to realize an innovation. We also propose that their effects and complementarities influence alliance ambidexterity because they facilitate knowledge integration at the project level. Tests using data on 42 innovation-seeking project alliances involving a major American services conglomerate and its alliance partners support the majority of the proposed ideas. Implications for interfirm network configuration, strategic alliances, and the broader strategy literature are also discussed.

and his coauthored book, Information Technology for Management, now in its fourth edition, is currently the second-largest selling IS textbook in the world. Dr. McLean earned his B.M.E. in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and his S.M. and Ph.D. from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also the Executive Director of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and in 1999 was made a Fellow of the AIS.ABSTRACT: This paper addresses the understudied issue of how individually held expertise in information systems development (ISD) teams results in creativity at the team level during the development process. We develop the idea that team creativity results primarily from integration of individually held expertise of team members at the team level. We further propose the quality of intrateam relationships and knowledge complementarities that align the work of individual team members at the project level influence creativity primarily through the process of expertise integration. We use data from a field study of 142 participants in 42 ISD projects to test the proposed model.The paper makes three new contributions to the IS literature. Its key contribution lies in developing an expertise integration view of team creativity. We demonstrate the centrality of integrating individually held tacit and explicit knowledge about the problem domain and the technology at the team level in achieving team creativity. The use of a process-focused conceptualization of team creativity is especially noteworthy here. Downloaded by [FU Berlin] at 19:10 14 May 2015 14 AMRIT TIWANA AND EPHRAIM R. MCLEANThe second contribution of the paper lies in conceptually developing and operationalizing the concept of expertise integration, a mechanism by which individually held knowledge is integratively applied at the project level. Although the importance of knowledge in the ISD process is widely recognized in prior research, this is the first study to develop the concept in a operationally meaningful way. The third key contribution lies in showing that the compositional and relational attributes of ISD project teams-diverse specialized knowledge in a team, the quality of intrateam working relationships, and members' cross-domain absorptive capacity-do not engender creativity by themselves; they do so primarily because they enhance integration of individual knowledge at the project level. We offer empirical evidence for such full mediation. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications, which are discussed in the paper.KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: absorptive capacity, creativity, expertise integration, information systems development, information systems innovation, integration, knowledge integration, knowledge management, knowledge transfer, software development.DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS (IS) is a creative effort that involves the expertise, insights, and skills of many individuals. As organizations encounter the need to develop systems for novel business a...

I ntraplatform competition has received scant attention in prior studies, which predominantly study interplatform competition. We develop a middle-range theory of how complementarity between input control and a platform extension's modularization-by inducing evolution-influences its performance in a platform market. Primary and archival data spanning five years from 342 Firefox extensions show that such complementarity fosters performance by accelerating an extension's perpetual evolution.

Virtual teams are becoming a preferred mechanism for harnessing, integrating, and applying knowledge that is distributed across organizations and in pockets of collaborative networks. In this article we recognize that knowledge application, among the three phases of knowledge management, has received little research attention. Paradoxically, this phase contributes most to value creation. Extending communication theory, we identify four challenges to knowledge integration in virtual team environments: constraints on transactive memory, insufficient mutual understanding, failure in sharing and retaining contextual knowledge, and inflexibility of organizational ties. We then propose knowledge management system (KMS) approaches to meet these challenges. Finally, we identify promising avenues for future research in this area.

In an increasingly dynamic business environment characterized by fast cycle times, shifting markets and unstable technology, a business organization's survival hinges on its ability to align IT capabilities with business goals. To facilitate the successful introduction of new IT applications, issues of project risk must be addressed, and the expectations of multiple stakeholders must be managed appropriately. To the extent that users and developers may harbour different perceptions regarding project risk, areas of conflict may arise. By understanding the differences in how users and project managers perceive the risks, insights can be gained that may help to ensure the successful delivery of systems. Prior research has focused on the project manager's perspective of IT project risk. This paper explores the issue of IT project risk from the user perspective and compares it with risk perceptions of project managers. A Delphi study reveals that these two stakeholder groups have different perceptions of risk factors. Through comparison with a previous study on project manager risk perceptions, zones of concordance and discordance that must be reconciled are identified.

Although the choice of control mechanisms in systems development projects has been extensively studied in prior research, differences in such choices across internal and outsourced projects and their effects on systems development performance have not received much attention. this study attempts to address this gap using data on 57 outsourced and 79 internal projects in 136 organizations. Our results reveal a paradoxical overarching pattern: controllers attempt greater use of control mechanisms in outsourced projects relative to internal projects, yet controls enhance systems development performance in internal projects but not in outsourced projects. We introduce a distinction between attempted control and realized control to explain this disconnect, and show how anticipated transaction hazards motivate the former but meeting specific informational and social prerequisites facilitate the latter.Our results contribute three new insights to the systems development control literature. First, controllers attempt to use controller-driven control mechanisms to a greater degree in outsourced projects but controllee-driven control mechanisms to a greater degree in internal projects. Second, we establish a hitherto-missing controlperformance link. the nuanced differences in internal and outsourced projects simultaneously confirm and refute a pervasive assertion in the information systems controls literature that control enhances performance. Finally, we show how requirements Downloaded by [University of Nebraska, Lincoln] at 18:57 26 August 2015 10 tIWANA AND kEIl volatility-which can be at odds with control-alters the control-performance relationships. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed. key words And phrAses: attempted control, control theory, information systems development, project controls, realized control, survey research.A centrAl problem in mAnAging systems development projects is obtaining cooperation among organizations or departments with partially congruent objectives. Organizations attempt to foster this cooperation by deploying control mechanisms on the group that develops the system ("controllee") by the group that will eventually use it ("controller"). Effective control of systems development projects is crucial considering that nearly 40 percent of information technology (It) investments in recent years have failed to deliver their intended benefits [5].three gaps in prior research on systems development control are particularly noteworthy. First, it has focused almost exclusively on predicting the controller's choice of control mechanisms (e.g., [10, 24,32]). Further, most of this research has focused on internal projects, even though organizations frequently outsource. A direct contrast of how controllers attempt to control internal projects relative to outsourced projects is therefore missing. However, control can be costly [21], and the opportunism hazards that control attempts to mitigate might be less pronounced in internal projects relative to outsourced projects. Whether org...

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