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 Innovative use of digital technology is an enabler of sustainable development. The public sector, especially local government organizations, holds a unique position in promoting large-scale sustainable development on a local level. However, there has been limited focus in digital sustainability literature on understanding how such initiatives can be effectively organized. To address this gap, we study how explorations of digital sustainability are organized, drawing on a contextual perspective on emerging technology as our theoretical lens. We conduct a case study of a Swedish local government organization renowned for its innovative digital sustainability initiatives. Our findings highlight four exploratory approaches adopted by the organization in utilizing emerging technology for sustainable development. This study contributes to digital sustainability research by addressing how organizations may organize explorations in digital sustainability initiatives under uncertainty. This includes understanding of how explorations are contextually dependent, the tensions that occur between short-term exploration and scaling for long-term impact, and how collaboration with external actors may support digital sustainability initiatives. As practical implications, our findings identify barriers and provide suggestions for organizations aiming to explore and unlock the full potential of emerging technology to advance sustainable development.

Examensarbeten utgör en komplex prestation där studenterna förväntas designa och genomföra en vetenskaplig studie, förankra den i litteratur och skriva om sitt arbete i en längre text. Processen involverar dessutom många olika lärare i rollerna som kursansvarig, handledare och examinator, vilket adderar ytterligare nivåer av komplexitet. Tidigare forskning visar att bedömningen av examensarbeten är extra utmanande utifrån aspekter såsom likvärdighet och rättvisa då det är många faktorer som ska samspela och som kan påverka både process och produkt (t.ex. Almarlind,2015; Ciolek Laerum 2009, UKÄ, 2020).

Vid institutionen för informatik har vi genom åren genomfört ett flertal pedagogiska projekt med fokus på uppsatsprocessen. Däribland kan nämnas utveckling av bedömningskriterier, kollegialt stöd för handledning, samt ökad samsyn mellan handledare och examinator. Under 2022 genomfördes två brusinventeringar i avsikt att synliggöra eventuella variationer i lärarnas bedömningar och tolkning av betygskriterier. Dessa visade att det föreligger ett visst mått av brus inom kollegiet vid bedömning av examensarbeten. Med syftet att reducera brus genomfördes under våren 2023 ettprojekt som innebar att två erfarna lärare utsågs som examinatorer för samtliga examensarbeten på kandidatnivå. I examinatorernas uppdrag ingick, förutom själva bedömningarna, att se om det gick att formulera övergripande insikter om institutionens examensarbeten.

Examinatorerna bedömde totalt 42 uppsatser. Snabbt utkristalliserade sig några generella mönster. Till exempel var studenterna generellt väldigt bra på att designa studier och kombinera datakällor. Däremot var det ett brett spann mellan de som förhöll sig extremt empirinära och de som förmådde göra empiriöverskridande resonemang och bidrag. Vidare kunde man ana stora skillnader mellan olika lärares sätt att handleda, bland annat genom uppsatsens problemformulering och förankring i tidigare forskning. Kort sagt, även när bedömningen var samstämmig så var variationen mellan uppsatser stor.

I detta projekt var syftet att minska bruset mellan examinatorer och dra lärdomar kring uppsatsersutformning och genomförande, för att sedan återföra kunskapen till kollegiet. Ambitionen att minska brus är viktig för att kunna säkerställa likvärdiga bedömningar. Det visade sig dock att det inte räcker med samstämmighet kring hur väl någon uppfyller ett betygskriterium, vi måste också vara överens om vad som utgör ett examensarbete i grunden. Det vill säga, det är inte tillräckligt att skapa likvärdiga bedömningar, vi måste också öka samsynen kring vad som förväntas vara produkten och förankra detta bland såväl studenter och handledare som examinatorer. Detta visar att förutom att utveckla processerna runt handledning och examination av examensarbeten, behöver kollegiet sätta själva uppsatsen i fokus.

Although sociomaterial theorizing has provided important insights into how digital technologies enable or constrain behavior in organizational contexts, there is a need to advance theory to better account for how digital technologies shape heterogeneous work practices in which distributed organizational actors use diverse technology portfolios to collaboratively produce and consume information. Against that backdrop, we draw on the distinction between digital mediation and digital representation to investigate tensions in how actors transfer information across organizational and technological boundaries, how they translate information into meaning, and how they eventually transform information into action in digitalized work. We illustrate and develop this framing through detailed analyses of digitally enabled, condition-based maintenance of equipment in a mining context. Drawing on these analyses and extant literature, we advance theory on tensions in how digital technologies are implicated in producing and consuming information in today’s increasingly heterogeneous work practices.

In this article, we look at the history of the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems (SJIS), its publication record, place in the Scandinavian IS tradition, and future directions. We show how the journal has evolved by looking at its readership, authorship, and publications over the years. We include former editor’s perspectives on SJIS as a basis for outlining the journal’s editorial focus and policy now and in the future. We provide guidance to prospective authors considering submitting their manuscripts to the journal in terms of types of studies and submissions that we welcome.

The current digital transformation of society prompts the reshaping of both the private and public sectors and involves technology, organizations, and people. In this paper we explore within which application areas municipalities use IoT and how the implementation of IoT in this context triggers change and enables smarter cities. Based on an interview study of 337 municipalities in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden, our study portrays that the public sector is in its early stages of exploring IoT and reveals several application areas within the smart city sphere where new value has been created. Application of IoT was shown to trigger municipal digital transformation by increasing contextual awareness, enabling data-driven value creation, the reimagining of organizational structures, and innovation oriented financing. Such direct and indirect activities and practices were altogether shown to enable smarter cities. For the public sector to reap the benefits of potential digital transformation, it is however imperative to challenge current, and common, work practices. Otherwise, they risk getting caught up in incremental changes. Digital transformation involves radical changes, which in turn require technology to be fully integrated in processes and services and aligned with cultural expectations. Such changes require substantial support and commitment from stakeholders and a pronounced understanding of the value new and emerging technologies create.

The use of the term “smartness” in the context of public service delivery indicates an ambition of the public sector to become more agile and resilient through the adoption of emerging technologies. The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology that will be key to the realisation of smart public services. The research presented in this paper explored the role of IoT in public sector innovation through a qualitative study of how IoT technology can be leveraged to create and deliver smart winter road maintenance services. We use an existing smartness framework – based on the dimensions of efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and collaboration – to examine the consequences of introducing IoT-based innovation to road maintenance services. The findings suggest that IoT enables public sector innovation and that smartness is created through the combination of technology, people and organisations. The realisation of smartness in public sector innovation requires sufficient management capabilities and robust technology strategies, along with a willingness to explore and adopt new work practices rather than simply implement emerging technologies.

The Internet of Things (IoT) brings with it promises of smart cities with improved efficiency, increased transparency, and enhanced public services. However, few studies have empirically and systematically investigated the reasoning behind the decision to adopt IoT within municipal organizations. In this paper we study the adoption and diffusion of IoT in Swedish municipalities. We outline areas of application and perceived value creation and conclude that the main reasons for adoption and diffusion can be traced back to 1) the simplicity of the IoT solution, and 2) clear incentives. Among the municipalities that have not embraced IoT, commonly cited barriers are economic factors and that other, more politically charged, issues take priority. This paper extends our understanding of public sector perception of IoT, as well as provides a comprehensive outlook on drivers for IoT-adoption.

This report gives insight into the usage of Internet of Things (IoT) within the public sector. The study was conducted during 2017-2018 and focused on the five countries of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Estonia in Northern Europe. In the following pages you will read about how innovative municipalities have adopted IoT solutions in different areas. This aim of this report is to improve our understanding of what is possible with IoT, what public value IoT can create, and where public sector leaders see potential for developments.

Based on our research we offer recommendations and insights on how to derive value from the IoT and practical insights on how the public sector can implement these solutions more efficiently and effectively.

Purpose: Faced with environments rife with technological uncertainties, software platforms have gained interest as enablers of innovative businesses and development processes. While extant research has focused on mature platforms, the authors know less about the early phases in a platform’s life cycle. Drawing inspiration from the effectual perspective on entrepreneurship, the purpose of this paper is to further the understanding of how software platforms are established.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors develop a framework that describes four types of entrepreneurial awareness and then apply it to a qualitative case study of a platform that has emerged from the initial “creation” phase and is now in a period of rapid growth.

Findings: The study indicates that successful establishment of a software platform depends upon the provider’s ability to integrate business acumen with technical proficiency and leverage these combined skills to ensure short-term viability and long-term relevance in the market.

Research limitations/implications: This paper contributes to literature on platform strategy, which has previously focused on mature platforms, by addressing entrepreneurial behavior during a software platform’s establishment. As it is based on a single qualitative study, additional studies of different platforms are needed to verify the results.

Originality/value: The paper highlights the dependence of software platform establishment on the ability to enact both explorative and exploitative activity patterns, and embrace both strategic foresight and systemic insight cognitive patterns. The combined patterns of activity and cognition form four types of awareness, pertaining to markets, resources, technology and contexts.

The increased digitalization of work results in practices that are increasingly networked and knowledge-based. As such, we need to continuously inquire how digital technology leads to changes in work and not be content knowing that it leads to change. This paper contributes to advancing such knowledge through an analysis of digitalized condition-based maintenance of machinery in a Swedish iron ore mine. Drawing on the distinction between digital representation and digital meditation figurations of human and material agency, we analyze how the distributed network of workers used a diverse portfolio of digital technologies to make complex knowledge-based decisions on when and how to maintain the mining machinery. We combine these empirical insights with extant literature to advance a new theoretical perspective on how key characteristics of digital technologies are implicated in networked, knowledge-based work practices.