Modelling of Information Flows in the Business
Administration Realm
The Research Perspective
Vladimír Bureš
Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Králové,
Rokitanského 62, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Vysoká škola manažmentu / City university of Seattle, Panónska cesta 17, 851 04 Bratislava, Slovakia
Keywords: Information Management, Information Flow, Project, Mixed Research Methodology, Discussion Paper.
Abstract: The main objective of information management is to ensure that valuable information is acquired and
exploited to its fullest extent. From the research perspective, the information management constitutes
currently a global and actual research topic. The main research construct of this paper is the information
flow, since attention paid to understanding of information flow patterns or principles represents the area in
which significant research results can be anticipated, for theoretical explanation is mostly linked to the
realm of technical systems. The main objective of this discussion paper is to briefly review existing research
results in this domain, identify the main gaps, and suggest project-based approach that can be discussed,
scrutinised and consequently implemented. The research proposal is based on the mixed research
methodology, which consists in the phenomenological research, the Grounded Theory, the replication
multiple case-study, and system dynamics and multi-agent modelling.
1 INTRODUCTION
It was recognised long time ago that due to the
critical dependency of organisations on information,
improving its overall management can yield
significant operational benefits to all areas of an
organisation and importantly its overall efficiency,
competitiveness and responsiveness (Hicks, 2007;
Chaffey and Wood, 2004; Dietel, 2000).
Simultaneously, the economic, business and social
environment was strongly influenced by the
emergence and consequent deployment of
innovations in the field of information technologies
during the last decades (Bureš et al., 2012;
Mikulecký, 2011). This trend significantly shapes
the way in which business is conducted and
penetration of technologies is apparent in many
areas such as product management (Zahay et al.,
2011), knowledge management (Bureš and Brunet-
Thornton, 2009), human resources management
(Rodrigues and Raposo, 2011), performance
evaluation (Mithas et al., 2011), or even soft
disciplines such as cross-cultural management
(Brunet-Thornton and Burš, 2012).
Information support of all processes and
activities has its gratifying as well as seamy aspects.
It is considered as beneficial for the business itself,
however on the other hand it gives a rise to a
phenomenon which we have been facing for several
years - information overload (Tarafdar et al., 2013;
van Velsen et al., 2013). This development led to the
establishment of the new discipline which
foundations were formed in early 1990’s –
information management. There are many
definitions of information management extant,
originating in the academia, public administration,
research institutions, or business companies. Mostly
the origins the information technologies are
reflected; however many of them apply generic
management terms to the information domain.
Nevertheless, majority of definitions, regardless
their origin, considers the necessity to manage all
related activities such as the creation, representation,
organisation, maintenance, visualisation, reuse,
sharing, communication and disposal of information
(Hicks, 2007), or the planning, budgeting,
manipulating, and controlling of information
throughout its life cycle (OMB, 2013).
426
Bureš V..
Modelling of Information Flows in the Business Administration Realm - The Research Perspective.
DOI: 10.5220/0004618404260430
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval and the International Conference on Knowledge
Management and Information Sharing (KMIS-2013), pages 426-430
ISBN: 978-989-8565-75-4
Copyright
c
2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
From an organisation’s perspective the objective
of information management is to ensure that
valuable information is acquired and exploited to its
fullest extent. This objective can be ensured by the
usage of several existing information management
frameworks. Not surprisingly, available framework
are mostly IT-oriented, e.g. Zachman’s (Frankel,
2003), or Henderson & Venkatraman’s framework
(Venkatraman, 1994). However, more holistic and
balanced frameworks can be found. For instance,
Linderman et al. (2005) suggest a reference model
for information management to support information
sharing needs. The model is based on several layers
based on the core comprising information catalogues
and repositories and consequent activities ranging
from maintenance to security issues.
Maes (1999) in his series of working papers
elaborates the Amsterdam Information Management
Model. It provides a mapping of the relationships
between organization and information. The
Amsterdam Model can be used to support strategic
discussions in three different ways:
• Descriptive, orientation – the framework offers a
map of the entire information management
domain, and can be used for positioning specific
information management processes in the
organization.
• Specification, design – the framework can be
used to re-organize the information management
organization, e.g. to specify the role of the Chief
Information Officer (CIO) or determine the
responsibilities of the retained organization in the
case of outsourcing.
• Prescriptive, normative – the framework can be
used as a diagnostic instrument to find gaps in an
organization’s information management, and
specifically aimed at identifying missing
interrelationships between the various
components of the framework.
On the horizontal axis, the framework distinguishes
three domains of governance: a) Business – this
domain comprises all standard business functions
such as management, HR, resources and processes;
b) Information and Communication (information
domain – this domain describes how information
and communication supports the business); and c)
Technology (IT domain – this domain specifically
describes the development and management of
particular IT solutions). The vertical axis describes
the three levels of governance, namely Strategy
(scope, core competencies and governance),
Structure (architecture and competencies), and
Operations (processes and skills).
2 PROBLEM FORMULATION
Apparently, the information management constitutes
currently a global and actual research topic from the
business administration perspective where papers
with hundreds of citations in the recognised
databases are not rare. Although the majority of
research is conducted in the United States, the
Peoples’ Republic of China, and the United
Kingdom (altogether 53,5 % out of 8372 of papers
indexed in the Web of Science database with the key
word “information management” to 19th March,
2013), the rest of publications was created in tens of
countries around the Globe.
This national distribution does not represent a
problem in comparison to the fact that 85,75 % of
the same set of papers is associated solely with
computer science or engineering. It indicates the
endeavour to come with practical solutions which
are mostly focused on problem-oriented technical
solutions and are not unfortunately connected with
any of existing theories related to business
administration. Only few exceptions mostly
originating in technical disciplines and applied to
social ones, such as the Adaptive Structuration
Theory (Desanctis and Poole, 1994) or the Max-flow
Min-cut Theorem for network information flow
(Ahlswede et al., 2000), can be found. Moreover, as
the technology issues are advanced and urged, the
organisational aspects are neglected. Some
information flow mechanisms have been examined
individually in the literature. For instance, Serra-
Sastre and McGuire (2013) examine the role of
different product information flows on the diffusion
of new pharmaceuticals. Currently, the attention
focused on understanding of information flow
patterns or principles in particular represent the area
in which significant research results can be
anticipated, since theoretical explanation is still
linked predominantly to the realm of technical
systems. Results with the key word “information
flow“ in the Web of Science database are associated
with Management (4.6 %), Business (2.8 %),
Economics (2.7 %) and Business Finance (1.6 %),
whereas Computer Science categories (e.g. Theory
Methods, Information Systems, Software
Engineering, or Interdisciplinary Applications) have
altogether 66,9 %.
Furthermore, a strong tie to information
technologies represents only on side of the issue.
Closely related to the IT-centred approach to
information management is its application at the
higher maturity level solely in the large companies.
Although small and medium-sized enterprises
ModellingofInformationFlowsintheBusinessAdministrationRealm-TheResearchPerspective
427
(SMEs) represent the majority in all economies at
the national level, they are often omitted in the
research studies mostly due to their particularity and
high variability. IT-centred approach and orientation
based on large companies can be added to the list of
gaps in the body of research in the information
management domain, which was created by
Niederman et al. (2012). The main research
conjecture is that information flows in organisations
can be modelled, theoretically explained and a
generic model can be developed.
3 THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Current state of research results and main subjects of
interest in the realm of information management
open a new and up to now unsolved research
question: Which ways and why are the information
flows taking place in small and medium-sized
enterprises? Finding out the answer is not a trivial
problem, therefore the main research question has to
be decomposed to several partial research questions
which have to be asked and answers found with the
help of appropriate methods and techniques. These
questions are:
- How can be the information flow anchored to the
existing theories in the realm of business
administration?
- Which dimensions need to be considered during
the investigation of information flows in SMEs?
- What attributes of information flows can be
identified?
- How do certain variables such as CIO or IT
deployment determine the form of information
flows?
- What are the most suitable ways of information
flows modelling in SMEs?
- Is the classification of information flow models
possible and on which criteria?
4 THE PROPOSED
METHODOLOGY
Answers to the research questions might be found
with the help of the mixed research methodology
(Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2003). Hence, the
suggested methodology consists of two main parts –
qualitative and quantitative research.
Firstly, the qualitative research needs to be
conducted to find out principal theoretical starting
points for further research. The theoretical sampling
(Glaser and Strauss, 1967) can represent the main
sampling approach used for data collection.
Consequently, the basic sampling techniques used in
qualitative research can be applied, namely snowball
technique, criteria-based technique, critical-case
selection, and stratified sampling (Patton, 1990).
This part of research should comprise three main
stages – analytical, synthetic stage, and the
verification stage:
A. The main aim of the analytical stage is to acquire
insight into phenomena and dimensions of
information flows (e.g. actors, informational
channels, or content classifications) and their
mutual interrelationship. This stage is grounded
in:
a. the phenomenological research. Data and
methodological triangulation should be
assured by two methods of data gathering –
non-formal interview (in which critical event
technique, or stimulated recalling might be
used); and structured open interview (in
which open questions, or expert interview can
be applied). Due to the existing situation
depicted in the first section of this paper the
core sample set of informants can consist of
small and medium-sized IT companies.
Further sample set extension can be based on
the snowball technique and the criteria-based
technique;
b. document analysis (both paper and electronic
ones) which should uncover additional
factors influencing information flows in
organisations that are difficult to capture by
means of interviews.
B. The main aim of the synthetic stage is to
formulate theoretical explanation of investigated
structure and behaviour of the information flows
in SMEs and to suggest preliminary model based
on the Grounded Theory which represents the
main research method of this stage. Formulation
of the concepts, categories and propositions has
to be based on outcomes of the previous stage
with the help of verbal formulation, flow charts,
class diagrams, model boundary diagram, or the
subsystem diagram. Existing theories in related
disciplines (analogically to the Theory of
Constrains (Rahman, 1998) applied in the
business domain) need be considered.
KMIS2013-InternationalConferenceonKnowledgeManagementandInformationSharing
428
Figure 1: Potential modelling techniques (adopted from (Giaglis, 2001)).
C. The main aim of the verification stage is to
confirm, modify if necessary and validate the
created models with different granularity within
the selected organisations. The replication
multiple case study (Yin, 1994) can be the main
method applied. In this stage the critical case
selection and stratified sampling are to be the
principle sampling methods. Secondly, the
quantitative research needs to be conducted to
explore mutual interrelationship among
particular factors of the developed model and
identification of existing patterns. First of all the
outcomes of the qualitative research has to be
transformed to specific models. There is a variety
of available modelling techniques ranging from
usage of mathematical formalisation (Gavalec et
al., 2011) to application of graphical tools
(Olševičová at al., 2010). The selection of
modelling techniques can be based on results
published by Giaglis (2001), who classified
modelling approaches according to their ability
to model systems from functional, behavioural,
organisational, and informational perspective
(see Figure 1). Based on his conclusions the
system dynamics approach and multi-agent
modelling seems to be the best available
modelling alternatives. Consequently, the models
need to be filled with real testing data to enable
complexity capturing, simulations and quantified
evaluation (Bureš and Čech, 2007). Data can be
acquired from organisations that comprise the
sample in the qualitative research phase of the
project.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Aim of this paper is to liven up the discussion on
information flows and related research in the
business administration domain. Business
administration as a multidisciplinary field of study
suffers from adapting various concepts which
originated in other disciplines. From the research
perspective, the complete adoption to the business
administration has to be based on interconnection of
new concepts with existing theories. In case of
information management in general and information
flow modelling, simulation and monitoring in
particular, the IT-centred approaches and
perspectives still prevail. Therefore, this paper
outlines the research problem and suggests
methodological approach to its solution that can be
discussed, scrutinised, modified and consequently
implemented in practice. This can lead to better
insight into dynamic behaviour of information flows
in organisations and further development of the
business administration realm.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper is created with the financial support of
the specific research project 9/2013 “Analysis of
factors influencing information and knowledge
sharing in organisations and measurement of its
effectiveness” funded by the University of Hradec
Králové, Czech Republic.
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429
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