The "standing on the shoulders of giants" metaphor is often used to acknowledge the work of others when undertaking research and, in particular, stresses the importance of literature reviews in scientific inquiry. Though the significance of literature reviews has never been in doubt, researchers, especially novice researchers, still struggle with developing effective strategies for reviewing literature. An important reason for this difficulty is the rapidly increasing number of potentially relevant publications-not all of which necessarily add value to a literature review. As such, avoiding standing on the shoulders of dwarfs literature search emerges as a major issue in crafting an effective literature review. In this paper, we discuss challenges of literature searches in the increasingly dynamic context of information systems (IS) research and make recommendations for how to deal with them. We present practical guidelines and a checklist to help researchers with planning and organizing their literature searches.

Purpose – Business process management (BPM) is a key concept in information systems (IS) research that helps to connect business strategy with the use of technology in an organization. Contemporary BPM research is no longer only about methods, procedures, or tools for managing or modeling processes but about assessing and developing BPM capability in organizations. For this purpose, a vast collection of maturity models has been designed by practitioners and scholars alike. Such models are used to assess the status quo and benchmark it against other organizations, and, most important, to guide the development of BPM capability. With this study, the paper challenges the maturity model perspective of such development models. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, methods of qualitative IS research are employed to address the research objectives. Findings – The paper shows that maturity model-based guidance would be inadequate. Instead, other concept-external factors resulting from organizational and environmental characteristics appear to be important indicators. The theory discussion introduces alternative takes on BPM capability development, lays out implications for BPM practice, and presents potentially fruitful paths for future research in the area of BPM capability development. Originality/value – This paper challenges the current perspectives and contributes a new direction for conceptualizing BPM capability development.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyze the status quo with regards to business process management (BPM) and collaboration and to show potential fields of future research in the area of collaborative BPM. Design/methodology/approach -To obtain results, authors employ the method of a systematic literature review using relevant existing guidelines. They not only search leading journals and conferences in the fields but also in ISI web of knowledge's web of science. Subsuming, 39 relevant articles are selected and analyzed with regards to concepts identified upfront. Findings -The paper finds that collaborative BPM is a growing trend in information systems research, but that there still exist significant research gaps. Hence, it proposes a research agenda consisting out of five action fields pointing at potentially fruitful directions for future research.Research limitations/implications -First, this paper provides an overview of the status quo in the field of collaborative BPM to young scholars. Second, it identifies five distinct research gaps that could be worth studying. However, this paper may be limited by the choice of dimensions and the selection of relevant articles. Practical implications -This paper informs practitioners about the status quo of research on collaborative BPM. Here, especially the analysis in the dimensions collaboration partner and BPM goals can help to evaluate the practitioner's strategy. Originality/value -The results of this paper present the status quo of collaborative BPM literature. Hence, it also identifies research gaps and derives a research agenda.

Purpose People seem to function according to different models, which implies that in business and social sciences, heterogeneity is a rule rather than an exception. Researchers can investigate such heterogeneity through multigroup analysis (MGA). In the context of partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM), MGA is currently applied to perform multiple comparisons of parameters across groups. However, this approach has significant drawbacks: first, the whole model is not considered when comparing groups, and second, the family-wise error rate is higher than the predefined significance level when the groups are indeed homogenous, leading to incorrect conclusions. Against this background, the purpose of this paper is to present and validate new MGA tests, which are applicable in the context of PLS-PM, and to compare their efficacy to existing approaches. Design/methodology/approach The authors propose two tests that adopt the squared Euclidean distance and the geodesic distance to compare the model-implied indicator correlation matrix across groups. The authors employ permutation to obtain the corresponding reference distribution to draw statistical inference about group differences. A Monte Carlo simulation provides insights into the sensitivity and specificity of both permutation tests and their performance, in comparison to existing approaches. Findings Both proposed tests provide a considerable degree of statistical power. However, the test based on the geodesic distance outperforms the test based on the squared Euclidean distance in this regard. Moreover, both proposed tests lead to rejection rates close to the predefined significance level in the case of no group differences. Hence, our proposed tests are more reliable than an uncontrolled repeated comparison approach. Research limitations/implications Current guidelines on MGA in the context of PLS-PM should be extended by applying the proposed tests in an early phase of the analysis. Beyond our initial insights, more research is required to assess the performance of the proposed tests in different situations. Originality/value This paper contributes to the existing PLS-PM literature by proposing two new tests to assess multigroup differences. For the first time, this allows researchers to statistically compare a whole model across groups by applying a single statistical test.

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PurposeThe paper seeks to investigate into the shared services phenomenon in the context of government reforms. It especially aims to address the emergence and shaping of shared services. The paper seeks to develop the notion of shared service centres (SSCs) and shared service networks (SSNs).Design/methodology/approachAn interview‐ and document analysis‐based multiple case study was conducted in Germany. The qualitative analysis covered two shared service projects on the local government level.FindingsImportant preconditions for shared service emergence are identified, including cost pressure as motive, the existence of key actors as well as the existence of prior cooperation. Moreover, the paper provides evidence that the structure of previous cooperation exerts influence on if shared services are organized in a centralised (SSC) or decentralised format (SSN).Research limitations/implicationsThe case selection is a possible limitation of the presented study. The selected cases give an insight into the topic of shared service configuration. The findings derived constitute indicators of possible patterns, which have to be approved by further research in order to identify reliable causal relationships and improve generalisablity of the results presented here.Originality/valueAn insight into conditions of adaptation and shaping of shared services is given, suggesting causal relationships for further theory testing and development.

PurposeToxic behavior in multiplayer video games diminishes the potential revenue of gaming companies by spreading a bad mood, negatively affecting game play, and subsequently leading to the churn of players. However, research investigating why toxic behavior occurs is still scarce. To address this issue, this study disjunctively tests three different theoretical approaches (social cognitive theory, theory of planned behavior, and online disinhibition effect) to explain toxic behavior and propose a unified theory of toxic behavior.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 320 respondents participated in a questionnaire study. This study analyzes the data with covariance-based statistics (i.e. regression analysis and structural equation modelling), and the approach is twofold. First, the hypotheses of three theories are disjunctively tested. Second, a unified theory of toxic behavior is proposed.FindingsThe results of this study indicate that online disinhibition best explains toxic behavior, whereby toxic behavior victimization, attitude, and behavioral control also play an important role.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study offer an opportunity to better understand a contemporary and especially meaningful form of negative behavior online.Practical implicationsTo maintain revenue and popularity, the computer game industry can use the findings of this study to prevent and better address toxic behavior and its negative consequences.Originality/valueToxic behavior among video game players is a relatively new and unexplored phenomenon; therefore, this study makes a valuable contribution to the research field by testing the explanatory power of three theoretical approaches and proposing a unified theory of toxic behavior.

Business process management (BPM) is a topic that has received immense attention in information systems research and practice. While the existing literature comprehensively covers BPM methods, techniques, and tools, the development of BPM capability in organizations remains under-researched. Existing studies mainly present maturity models with generic sequences of distinct stages that provide a rather simplistic perspective on BPM capability progress. Taking a process theory view and drawing from organizational change literature, we elaborate on alternate templates for explaining BPM capability development. By revisiting two case studies on BPM capability development, we analyze the explanatory power of four basic theories of capability development and thus advance existing approaches to explain BPM capability progress. Our analysis shows the general applicability of these theories and points to particular advantages, disadvantages, and application conditions. Using the four basic theories as alternate templates, we also offer a much more-detailed explanation of the mechanisms behind the episodes of BPM capability progress that we observed in the two case studies. In particular, the different theoretical templates allow one to better understand the influence of internal and external contexts on BPM capability progress.