Enterprise systems are the backbone of many companies.Most operational activities are usually not feasible without them.In addition, enterprise systems may also constitute remarkable competitive advantage -or turn out to be a threat to competitiveness, depending on their quality.Enterprise systems in general, ERP systems in particular, have been around for some decades.During this time, they have undoubtedly undergone a maturing process.However, hardly any significant progress has been made regarding foundational architectures and corresponding functions.Based on an analysis of widely undisputed objectives and corresponding shortcomings of current enterprise systems, this paper presents an advanced architecture that enables the construction of self-referential enterprise systems (SRES).SRES promise substantial progress with respect to various essential objectives of enterprise systems.The proposed architecture is based on a multi-level language architecture.Among other things, it allows for the integration of enterprise models and corresponding software at run-time.Thus, it does not only boost reuse and adaptability, but substantially fosters user empowerment, too.

Abstract This expert voice paper presents a comprehensive rationale of multi-level modeling. It aims not only at a systematic assessment of its prospects, but also at encouraging applications of multi-level modeling in business information systems and at providing a motivation for future research. The assessment is developed from a comparison of multi-level modeling with object-oriented, general-purpose modeling languages (GPMLs) and domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs). To foster a differentiated evaluation, we propose a multi-perspective framework that accounts, among others, for essential design conflicts, different types of users, as well as economic aspects. Besides the assessment of the additional abstraction offered by multi-level modeling, the evaluation also identifies specific drawbacks and remaining challenges. Based on the results of the comparative assessment, in order to foster the adoption and further development of multi-level modeling, we discuss the prospects of supplementing multi-level modeling languages with multi-level programming languages and suggest possible dissemination strategies customized for different groups of users. The paper concludes with an outline of future research.

Information Systems Research (“Wirtschaftsinformatik”) basically follows two research approaches: the behavioristic approach and the design-oriented approach. In this memorandum, 10 authors propose principles of design-oriented information systems research. Moreover, the memorandum is supported by 111 full professors from the German-speaking scientific community, who with their signature advocate the principles specified therein.