While most organizations have successfully implemented GenAI in their organization based on a company-specific version of ChatGPT, thousands of new GenAI tools have been launched addressing either niche tasks or tasks with broader impact such as GitHub Copilot for Software Development. While the emergence of GenAI tools is a clear chance to foster innovation, increase productivity, efficiency and job satisfaction, IT Management is simultanously facing the challenge to accomodate the employee demand by ensuring cyber security for the company.

This market shift driven by technology consists of several parallels to the emergence and usage of smartphones in an organizational context, mentioned in research as IT consumerization. IT consumerization has been narrowly defined as the adoption of consumer devices and applications in the workforce (Harris et al., 2012). To tackle this phenomenon, bring-your own device (BYOD) policies have been established.

In order to help IT Management tackle the usage of GenAI within organizations, a review of the landscape of BYOD and IT consumerization is required. Next, (Gen)AI charateristics need to be identified in order to revise exisiting suggestions on BYOD policies according to novel characteristics of GenAI differing from conventional IT.  

• have a basic knowledge of/ strong interest in GenAI
• have a strong interest in how GenAI impacts IT Management
• Have a basic understanding of qualitative interview procedures
• have scientific writing skills in English

• Collaboration will take place in close supervision, with regular review meetings (biweekly), feedback sessions, etc.
• Work can be started immediately.
• Possibility of making a real impact through publishing in a scientific conference

If you are interested, please send a e-mail to Leon Müller. I look forward hearing from you!

If you are eager to explore the topic, please submit to leon.mueller@unisg.ch:

• Your CV: Detailing relevant experience, skills, and academic background.
• Academic Transcripts: Providing records of your coursework and grades.
• Motivation Letter: A brief statement (max. 200 words) explaining your interest in this topic and how your background makes you a suitable candidate.
• Proposed Timeline: An outline of your planned approach to the thesis and how you intend to manage your time throughout the project.

SOURCES:

• Harris, J., Ives, B., and Junglas, I. 2012. “IT Consumerization: When Gadgets Turn into Enterprise IT Tools”, MIS Quarterly Executive (11:3), pp. 99-112

FURTHER READINGS:

• Weiß, F., & Leimeister, J. M. (2012). Consumerization: IT innovations from the consumer market as a challenge for corporate IT. Business and Information Systems Engineering, 4(6), pp. 363–366. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-012-0234-4
• Gregory, R. W., Kaganer, E., Henfridsson, O., & Ruch, T. J. (2018). IT Consumerization and the Transformation of IT Governance. MIS Quarterly, 42(4), pp. 1225–1254. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26635079
• Dwivedi, Y. K., Kshetri, N., Hughes, L., Slade, E. L., Jeyaraj, A., Kar, A. K., Baabdullah, A. M., Koohang, A., Raghavan, V., Ahuja, M., Albanna, H., Albashrawi, M. A., Al-Busaidi, A. S., Balakrishnan, J., Barlette, Y., Basu, S., Bose, I., Brooks, L., Buhalis, D., … Wright, R. (2023). “So what if ChatGPT wrote it?” Multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges and implications of generative conversational AI for research, practice and policy. International Journal of Information Management, 71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2023.102642
• Feuerriegel, S., Hartmann, J., Janiesch, C., & Zschech, P. (2024). Generative AI. Business and Information Systems Engineering, 66(1), pp. 111–126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-023-00834-7