ER 2006 Panels

PANELS CO-CHAIRs
Uday Kulkarni (Arizona State University, USA, uday.kulkarni@asu.edu )
Keng Siau (University of Nebraska,Lincoln, USA, ksiau@unlnotes.unl.edu )

Panel 1: Experimental Research on Conceptual Modeling: What Should We Be Doing and Why?
Geert Poels (Moderator), Andrew Burton-Jones (Panelist), Andrew Gemino (Panelist), Jeffrey Parsons (Panelist), V. Ramesh (Panelist)

Recently, there has been a growing interest in experimental research on conceptual modeling. A key objective of such research is to demonstrate the influence of one or more independent variables (such as modeling grammar, modeling process, domain familiarity) on one or more dependent variables (such as comprehension, understanding, recall, perceived difficulty, confidence). However, there is considerable uncertainty and some disagreement about the theoretical underpinnings of conceptual modeling techniques, the appropriateness or usefulness of certain independent and dependent variables, and the balance between rigor and relevance of such research. Recently, several papers have examined some of these questions explicitly (e.g., Gemino and Wand, 2004; Parsons and Cole, 2005), while a range of other research has examined aspects of evaluating conceptual modeling techniques (e.g., Bodart et al., 2001; Khatri et al., 2006).

This panel will present a range of opposing perspectives on important issues regarding theoretical foundations, choosing independent and dependent variables, and the balance between rigor and relevance, from researchers who have conducted experiments in this area and struggled over some of the issues involved. The main issues for debate in the panel include:
• What are the purposes of a conceptual model, and should these purposes influence the design of empirical studies?
• Is theory necessary or useful in the design of experimental studies?
• What measurements are most appropriate in evaluating conceptual modeling techniques?
• Is experimental research relevant to the practice of conceptual modeling?

Geert Poels is a tenured lecturer at the Department of Management Information, Operations Management, and Technology Policy of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Ghent University (Belgium), where he is the head of the Management Informatics research unit. He is also a guest professor at the Center for Industrial Management of the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium).

Andrew Burton-Jones is an Assistant Professor in the MIS division of the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.

Andrew Gemino is an Associate Professor in the MIS area in the Faculty of Business Administration at Simon Fraser University.

Jeffrey Parsons is Professor of Information Systems and Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Business Administration at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

V. Ramesh is Associate Professor in the Information Systems Department and Ford Motor Company Teaching Fellow at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. He is also Chairman of the Information Systems graduate programs.

Panel2: Eliciting Data Semantics via Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches: Challenges and Opportunities
Vijay Khatri (Moderator), Carson Woo (Moderator), Lois Delcambre (Panelist), Yair Wand (Panelist), Mark Zozulia (Panelist), Barb Williams (Panelist)

Data semantics can be defined as the meaning and use of data (Woods 1975). In the context of databases, data semantics refers to the set of mappings from a representation language to agreed-upon concepts in the real world (Sheth 1995). Eliciting and capturing data semantics can enable better management of the enterprise data. Additionally, elicitation of data semantics can enhance understanding of applications and result in reduced maintenance and testing costs along with improved administration of applications. “Bad” data, or data whose semantics are not known or are not clear, is considered a major cause of failures such as “botched marketing campaigns, failed CRM and data warehouse projects, angry customers, and lunkhead decisions” (Whiting 2006). To investigate the practical challenges and to propose future research opportunities, this discussion panel will present: 1) views from Management Information Systems (MIS) and Computer Science (CS) research as well as 2) methods, tools and approaches employed in practice.

The current regulatory and competitive environment necessitates organizations to understand and leverage their enterprise-wide data assets. Two main approaches to understand the meaning of data assets can be differentiated as: 1) top-down and 2) bottom-up. The top-down approach seeks theoretical guidance, via an ontology, to help articulate explicit data semantics. In contrast, bottom-up approaches may help articulate implicit data semantics, for example, those based on data source and context, which can help explain the meaning of data. While both approaches have merit for practitioners who seek to develop enterprise-wide data models, each has inherent drawbacks. Our three panelists from MIS, CS and industry will present three distinct perspectives. Our industry panelist, Mark Zozulia, will describe the need for developing enterprise-wide Business Information Models (BIM) and discuss the relevance of both top-down and bottom-up approaches. Our panelists from MIS (Yair Wand) and CS (Lois Delcambre) will present the top-down and bottom-up approaches, respectively, and will discuss how one approach can complement/supplement the other. In presenting different perspectives, this panel will explore how the two approaches can dove-tail with each other, thus, ultimately helping challenges related to data quality that is faced by the industry.

Vijay Khatri is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Carson Woo is Stanley Kwok Professor of Business at the Sauder School of Business, the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Lois Delcambre is a Professor of Computer Science at Portland State University (PSU) in Portland, Oregon.

Yair Wand is CANFOR Professor of MIS at the Sauder School of Business, the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Mark Zozulia is a Senior Manager with Deloitte Consulting, LLP.