1. There has been a very significant number of paper submissions to EJIS in recent years on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI), with many of these focusing in some way on responsibility. Thi...

• Synthesizes empirical studies on responsible AI and the underlying principles. • Differentiates between principles and governance of AI in a responsible way. • Analyzes through a critical lens existing studies and uncovers underlying assumptions. • Defines the notion of responsible AI governance based on the synthesis and critical reflection. • Develops a research agenda and identifies important areas for future research within the IS domain. The widespread and rapid diffusion of artificial intelligence (AI) into all types of organizational activities necessitates the ethical and responsible deployment of these technologies. Various national and international policies, regulations, and guidelines aim to address this issue, and several organizations have developed frameworks detailing the principles of responsible AI. Nevertheless, the understanding of how such principles can be operationalized in designing, executing, monitoring, and evaluating AI applications is limited. The literature is disparate and lacks cohesion, clarity, and, in some cases, depth. Subsequently, this scoping review aims to synthesize and critically reflect on the research on responsible AI. Based on this synthesis, we developed a conceptual framework for responsible AI governance (defined through structural, relational, and procedural practices), its antecedents, and its effects. The framework serves as the foundation for developing an agenda for future research and critically reflects on the notion of responsible AI governance.

Crowdfunding projects have been the subject of contrasting narratives. To many, they are the antithesis of predatory bottom-line business ventures, and to others, they are an under-regulated vehicle for immature, or unscrupulous project owners to exploit inexperienced and vulnerable investors. These differences are significant, given many use crowdfunding to build public awareness and project a positive image. We use the myth of Prometheus – the Greek god associated with “defiant progress” and technological advancement – as a sensitising lens to build a set of competing, dialectic archetypes. We then apply these archetypes through a Hegelian dialectic analysis of three high-profile crowdfunding campaigns. The overarching contribution of the study is that it provides a foundation for discussion of the positive and negative narratives surrounding crowdfunded project owners and explicates the limitations of crowdfunding as an enabler of positive systemic change. The dialectic approach provides a systematic means of identifying the essence of disagreement between narratives. While it may be too early to predict the outcomes for emerging technology-driven initiatives such as crowdfunding, the use of myth offers a sophisticated means to look for “rhyming” phenomena, where the phenomena at play are similar to the grand frailties of humankind throughout history.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been argued to offer a myriad of improvements in how we work and live. The notion of AI comprises a wide-ranging set of technologies that allow individuals and organizations to integrate and analyze data and use that insight to improve or automate decision-making. While most attention has been placed on the positive aspects companies realize by the adoption by the adoption and use of AI, there is a growing concern around the negative and unintended consequences of such technologies. In this special issue we have made a call for research papers that help us explore the dark side of AI use. By adopting a dark side lens, we aimed to expand our understanding of how AI should be implemented in practice, and how to minimize or avoid negative outcomes. In this editorial, we build on the notion of responsible AI, to highlight the different ways in which AI can potentially produce unintended consequences, as well as to suggest alternative paths future IS research can follow to improve our knowledge about how to mitigate such occurrences. We further expand on dark side theorizing in order to uncover hidden assumptions of current literature as well as to propose other prominent themes that can guide future IS research on AI adoption and use.

This issue of the European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS) is a special issue on Business Process Management and Digital Innovation. Guest editors Jan Mendling, Brian Pentland, and Jan Recker...

“Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends.”(Aeschylus, 6C B.C.)Technological progress is often measured by increased speed and efficienc...

In the course of conducting studies in information systems (IS), researchers must oftentimes investigate, design, and develop sound methods or approaches to best conduct their research. While new t...

This paper investigates the tightness of budgetary control over projects in a large systems development multinational. This represents a case of extreme information systems development (ISD) failure en masse, where all but two of the 22 projects in a business unit went over budget, causing senior executives to refocus their strategic priorities and cancel all current and potential projects that followed. This study focuses specifically on the two best performing (12 and 4% under budget) and worst performing (223 and 320% over budget) of these projects. Using a framework drawn from control systems theory, this study examines the ‘tightness’ of budgetary control exerted over each project, and what was done or could have been done to avert such failure. The study then identifies a set of emerging factors affecting tight budgetary control in ISD.

Agile systems development methods emerged as a response to the inability of previous plan-driven approaches to handle rapidly changing environments (Highsmith, 2002). Originating from the so-called...

Tailoring of methods is commonplace in the vast majority of software development projects and organisations. However, there is not much known about the tailoring and engineering of agile methods, or about how these methods can be used to complement each other. This study investigated tailoring of the agile methods, eXtreme programming (XP) and Scrum, at Intel Shannon, and involved experienced software engineers who continuously monitored and reflected on these methods over a 3-year period. The study shows that agile methods may individually be incomplete in supporting the overall development process, but XP and Scrum complement each other well, with XP providing support for technical aspects and Scrum providing support for project planning and tracking. The principles of XP and Scrum were carefully selected (only six of the 12 XP key practices were implemented, for example) and tailored to suit the needs of the development environment at Intel Shannon. Thus, the study refutes the suggestion that agile methods are not divisible or individually selectable but achieve their benefits through the synergistic combination of individual agile practices; rather, this study shows that an a la carte selection and tailoring of practices can work very well. In the case of Scrum, some local tailoring has led to a very committed usage by developers, in contrast to many development methods whose usage is limited despite being decreed mandatory by management. The agile practices that were applied did lead to significant benefits, including reductions in code defect density by a factor of 7. Projects of 6-month and 1-year duration have been delivered ahead of schedule, which bodes well for future ability to accurately plan development projects.