With information technologies becoming available on a growing scale, capturing large amounts of building information is becoming cheaper and economically viable. This is creating new challenges for real estate management organisations. Producing digital assets is one thing, managing them and knowing how to use them is another. The information management tasks and responsibilities of real estate management organisations therefore are becoming challenging and complex at the same time. Not in the least by the fact that in many situations, maintenance activities are outsourced to contractors and sub-contractors, creating maintenance networks. While building register information may be produced in the first place to fulfil the building owner’s needs, this research assumes building registers could also contribute to innovation in the greater maintenance network if the right form of data governance can be implemented. This paper, which is part of a larger research project, presents a research approach for investigating such governance designs for building registers. The approach is based on a qualitative research approach because it aims to address the stakeholders interests adequately and produce findings that are meaningful to all stakeholders for improving data governance in professional practice. Within a multiple case study methodology, an embedded case study design is presented that may provide a useful guide for researchers in this field. The proposed methodology will be used to conduct four in depth case studies. The intended outcome of this research is a theoretical framework that integrates data governance design factors with network innovation effects. It can be used to guide the design of (inter)organisational data governance programmes in maintenance networks.
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This paper explores inter-organisational relationships, in terms of cooperation, between three main types of sport providers at the local level: voluntary sport clubs, for-profit fitness and health clubs, and local sports authorities. Both withinand cross-sector cooperation are analysed and related to organisational characteristics as well as the perceived competition from other sport providers. Data are obtained from three quantitative panel surveys: the Flemish Sport Club Panel 2009, the Flemish Fitness Panel 2009, and the Flemish Local Sports Authorities Panel 2010. The results show that sport providers influence and are influenced by other sport providers in their environment. The three selected groups of sport providers differ with regard to the occurrence and the nature of the cooperation. Local sports authorities (i.e., public sector) are found to be the most cooperative sport provider. Evidence is provided for the use of cooperation as a strategy to meet competitive challenges.
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Outsourcing of business processes and information technology (IT) operations is an important trend in large and middle-sized organizations. However, outsourcing could affect the organization’s ability to align its IT with business strategy and operations. This article reports a qualitative study into the relationship between IT outsourcing (ITO) and business and IT alignment. It aims to provide recommendations for outsourcers and service providers on how outsourcing relationships should develop in order to support business and IT alignment. The research question of the study is “What is the effect of IT outsourcing on the business and IT alignment of companies that have outsourced their IT?”After a review of relevant literature and concepts, four cases are reported. The study revealed that a higher level of motivation for outsourcing paired with a higher level of the relationship between outsourcer and service provider and with a higher level of alignment maturity of the outsourcer. The study also showed that the ITO relationship is influenced by organizational turbulence on one or either side of the relationship and that the service providers tend to assess the relationship on a higher level than the outsourcers. These conclusions provide relevant directions for both outsourcers and service providers for improvement of the their relationship
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