The doctoral consortium is a well-established, widely endorsed event in the information systems (IS) discipline that occurs adjunct to mainstream IS conferences (e.g., ICIS, ECIS, PACIS, AMCIS). Anecdotal evidence suggests that PhD students’ experience of these events is almost universally positive; some have referred to the events as “life changing” or “magical”. Further, both participating students and scholars strongly perceive the events’ value. To extend the experience to more PhD students, doctoral consortia are more recently being run locally and unaffiliated with any conference. By reviewing the literature and historical documents and conducting a series of interviews and email exchanges with past conference co-chairs, we explore the merits of IS doctoral consortia (consortia). We position the IS doctoral consortium as distinct from forms of doctoral student development in other disciplines, a veritable “signature pedagogy” for IS. In examining the practices and motivations underlying doctoral consortia, we explain related phenomena to improving future consortia. In addition, by appending much historical detail, we add to the IS discipline’s organizational memory.

The study provides a review of changing perceptions of the Information Systems (IS) academic discipline in Australia across the ten year span from 2005 until 2015. The main source of data for this analysis is a series of annual surveys of Heads of Information Systems Departments across all Australian universities. The surveys incorporated questions regarding the perceived Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats pertaining at the time to the IS academic discipline in Australia. A review of the annual judgements, augmented by data from other sources, while revealing the inevitable changes of focus over time, brings to the fore a range of persistent and enduring issues demanding the attention of Australia’s IS academics. Collaborative Doctoral Consortia are proposed as effective mechanisms to exploit the strengths and opportunities and to redress weaknesses and threats identified.

The Australasian Conference in Information Systems (ACIS) has been a significant outlet for the research of Information Systems academics and practitioners for nearly two decades. This paper reports on the collection and archiving in electronic form of all the papers from the eighteen ACIS conferences held since the first conference in 1990. While there has been a very large increase over time in the number of research papers submitted to ACIS, reflecting the growth in IS research in Australasia, the percentage of papers accepted for presentation has declined. An analysis of the ACIS papers shows changes in subject matter reflecting changes in the IS discipline over time. Interesting patterns are revealed with regard to the body of work presented at ACIS by institutions across Australia and New Zealand as well as increasing contributions by researchers from outside Australasia.

This is the last in a series of nine papers making up a special issue of Communications of the AIS (CAIS) titled "The State of the Information Systems Academic Discipline in Pacific Asia" (IS-in-PA). This paper reports on knowledge gleaned from the conduct of the sub-studies that comprise the IS-in PA project. In particular, there is analysis of the specific research artifacts developed for the individual sub-studies reported in this special edition. It is proposed that the methodological learnings derived from this project will be of benefit in the replication and extension of this project to other regions of the world. The paper addresses a key aim of the IS-in-PA, involving the development and application of a process of evidence collection and review transferable to other studies tracking diffusion of the IS discipline.

Abstract This study uses SWOT analysis to explore perceptions of differential administrative placement of the Information Systems academic discipline within two Universities. The analysis provides a useful basis for decision makers to exploit opportunities and minimise external threats. The study also offers useful insights for Information Systems academics contemplating administrative relocation of their group. The paper serves the dual-purpose of (1) informing the positioning of IS in the two case Institutions, while (2) evolving an approach and related tools for usefully extending the SWOT analysis to other Institutions and States, and across time. The extension of the analysis to other States and to IS groups in differing circumstances will broaden the relevance of study findings, while improving our understanding of differential placement of IS and perceptions of the relative advantages of the alternatives.

This paper reports on an international study of the key issues facing Information Systems researchers. A variant of the Delphi method was used to identify and rank the issues. The results identified a consistent and unified group of issues facing most researchers surveyed, regardless of location or research orientation. The results suggest that a reliable and valid instrument is available to measure key issues facing IS researchers. Further work to broaden the relevance to all regions is suggested.

The Stokes formulation for representing polarized light is discussed along with the classical measurement method for determining the Stokes polarization parameters. The limitations of this method are noted, and we consider the rotating quarter-waveplate method, which avoids the limitations of the classical method and allows a curve fitting algorithm to be used to determine the Stokes parameters. The quarter-waveplate method is attractive because of its accuracy and simplicity and can be implemented in an undergraduate or graduate optics course with a minimum amount of equipment.

In some Queensland universities, Information Systems academics have moved out of Business Faculties. This study uses a pilot SWOT analysis to examine the ramifications of Information Systems academics being located within or outside of the Business Faculty. The analysis provides a useful basis for decision makers in the School studied, to exploit opportunities and minimise external threats. For Information Systems academics contemplating administrative relocation of their group, the study also offers useful insights. The study presages a series of further SWOT analyses to provide a range of perspectives on the relative merits of having Information Systems academics administratively located inside versus outside Business faculties.

nature of the state. Relative to its population, Queensland has a large number of universities, each of which is engaged in Information Systems teaching and research. The study reveals little evidence of a distinctive Queensland-flavour of Information Systems. Rather, there is a diversity of curriculum approaches and an equally broad range of research foci and approaches to research. Two of the state’s regional universities are notable for the relative strength of their IS presence, in terms of number of IS staff, number of IS students and range of campuses across which IS is taught. The breadth of topics and approaches to IS in Queensland is evidenced by the existence of separate, competing IS groups in two of the largest universities; in each case, one of the IS groups is highly technical in orientation while the other is Business oriented. Across the nine Queensland universities there is wide variability in terms of the administrative location of the Information Systems academic staff in the university structure. The study assesses the state of IS in Queensland universities in relation to criteria indicative of the maturity of a discipline. Measured against these criteria, Information Systems in Queensland universities cannot be considered a mature, distinct academic discipline.

Business process modeling has gained widespread acceptance and is employed as a design and management technique for a wide variety of purposes. While there has been much research on process modeling techniques and corresponding tools, there has been little empirical research into the important factors of effective process modeling, and the post-hoc evaluation of process modeling success. This study is the first that attempts to identify process modeling success factors and measures. This paper reports on the consolidated research findings of three case studies conducted in leading Australian organizations. It reports on an empirically derived Process Modeling Success model with success factors and success measures of business process modeling.

An exploratory and descriptive case study was conducted to discover knowledge management issues and practices in the Australian branch of an international professional services provider referred to as IPSF. Though the study has an operational emphasis, both macro and micro issues of knowledge management are considered; macro issues pertain to the creation of knowledge assets, while micro issues pertain to access, transfer and reuse of knowledge within the firm, and between the firm and its clients. The study takes a professional services provider-centric view. The data was gathered from interviews with IPSF staff. Interpretation focuses on gaps between the literature and observed practice.

Dominion over the management consulting profession worldwide has passed in recent times from multinational accounting firms to multinational Information Technology firms. This transition coincides with a period of major change in the practice of management consulting. Yet, very little research has been done into the issues faced by management consultants. This paper reports a preliminary empirical investigation aimed at identifying these issues. From review of the literature and from interviews of State Chapter Presidents of the Institute of Management Consultants in Australia, the study identifies twenty-one issues around three categories: (1) the changing Client Environment, (2) the changing Client-Consultant Relationship, and (3) the changing Consultant Environment.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages have transformed the way organisations go about the process of providing Information Systems. Instead of crafting each new Information System locally, organisations are able to install well-integrated, internationally sourced packages that seek to provide best practice from IT systems world-wide. These packages also provide very rich choice in features and functions so that the adopting organisation can tailor the package implementation to meet their very specific needs. However, the enormous growth rate in ERP adoption has slowed. It is apparent that some adopters are not yet realising the benefits that they had anticipated. Efforts to make ERP packages successful in small to medium enterprises, in particular, are facing challenges. This paper reports on case study research involving one adopter of the ERP package, SAP. The research uses an a priori ERP Success Model based on a framework developed to explain success in the adoption of CASE packages. From the study, a modified model is developed. The model proposes Task-Technology Fit (TTF), User Satisfaction, and ERP Utilisation as meaningful indicators of ERP success. The revised framework can assist IS managers developing new strategy involving ERP use.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages have, in the last five years, transformed the way organisations go about the process of providing Information Systems. Instead of crafting each new Information System locally, organisations are able to install well-integrated, internationally sourced packages which seek to incorporate best practice from IT systems world-wide. These packages also provide very rich choice in features and functions so that the adopting organisation can tailor the package implementation to meet their very specific needs. However, the enormous growth rate in ERP adoption has slowed. It is apparent that some adopters are not yet realising the benefits that they had anticipated. Efforts to make ERP packages successful in small to medium enterprises, in particular, are facing challenges. This paper reports on case study research involving some adopters of the ERP package, SAP. The research uses an ERP Success Model based on a framework developed to explain success in the adoption of CASE packages. Results to date support the value of this model. In particular, it points to the usefulness of the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) construct as an indicator of ERP success. 1. PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH 1.1. The ERP Concept Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has its origins in the concepts associated with Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) packages and their antecedents from the 1970s, Materials Requirement Planning packages. Some argue (Davenport, 2000) that the evolution of ERP software has been such as to make the analogy with MRP inappropriate. In this spirit, there have been moves to replace the term ERP with EWS (Enterprise Wide Systems) or just ES (Enterprise Systems). Although there is some difficulty in agreeing upon a definition of ERP (Klaus et al, 2000), there are certain features that can be seen to characterise ERP packages. These key features (Bancroft et al., 1998) are present in the German package, SAP R/3, the package installed by the organisations investigated in this study. A fundamental feature of the package is a high level of integration, with all applications sharing a single corporate database. The system is designed for an on-line client/server environment. A high level of

This paper extends Kulkarni's conformal boundary partial derivativeL for a simply connected Lorentz surface L to a compact conformal boundary partial derivative L-c. The procedure used is analogous to Caratheodory's construction (in the definite metric setting) of prime ends from the accessible points of a bounded simply connected planar domain. The space partial derivative L-c of conformal boundary elements is homeomorphic to the circle, and contains Kulkarni's conformal boundary partial derivativeL as a dense subspace.