Facing one of the most challenging pandemics for organizational modus operandi (COVID-19), organizations are struggling for operational and strategic support. The adoption of remote work (RW) is increasing. For economic reasons, competitive advantage, or even as a pandemic response (business continuity plan), RW is a domain worth further investigation. However, the literature lacks insight regarding RW adoption. A design science research methodology was adopted, including a systematic literature review to elicit RW advantages, disadvantages, challenges and driving forces, as well as their relation. To evaluate and demonstrate findings, 129 qualitative interviews were performed with RW professionals. In the end, 57 decision factors were elicited, and 16 relations were validated. The authors concluded that cost-reduction and flexibility to promote work–life balance is the most positive outputs, while communication and technical problems, as well as management issues, are what most concerns professionals. Moreover, positive relations are more recognized among professionals over negative ones.

Purpose: Robotic process automation (RPA) seeks to automate business processes, using software robots that interact with systems through their user interface, improving efficiency and reducing costs. However, some critical steps, such as identifying processes suitable for RPA automation, can have a tremendous impact in organizations if a wrong process is selected. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide an approach for analyzing RPA development in business organizations. Design/methodology/approach: This research presents a cohesive literature review about RPA, in order to identify RPA main concepts, which should be reported and considered in all RPA case studies. A model connecting the main elicited RPA concepts is presented as well as its evaluation and applicability grounded of past RPA case study (CS) analysis, using design science research. Findings: The results from this research show that most of the RPA main concepts gathered in the literature review are not reported in the selected RPA CSs. Originality/value: As RPA is a recent topic, literature lacks a synthetization of RPA main topics. This research aims to fill the gap on that, by identifying and synthesize the main topics related to RPA and proposing a model that connects the main RPA concepts, which can be used by researchers as a schema for conducting and writing RPA case studies.

Purpose: The digital paradigm people live in today, which drastically increased the consumption of data, is a threat to their privacy. To create a high level of privacy protection for its citizens, the European Union proposed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which introduces obligations for organizations regarding the storing, processing, collecting and disclosing of data. This paper aims to identify the critical success factors of GDPR implementation. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review was conducted by following a strict review protocol, where 32 documents were found relevant to perform the review and to answer to the proposed research questions. Findings: The critical success factors of GDPR implementation were identified, including barriers and enablers. Furthermore, benefits of complying with GDPR were identified. Research limitations/implications: As GDPR is a relatively recent subject, there are still few scientific papers about it. Therefore, the authors were unable to neither identify nor present a robust conclusion regarding specific topics, such as practical outcomes. Originality/value: On the basis of the literature, the identified critical success factors may be useful for organizations as these can be better prepared to achieve compliance by prioritizing the enablers and avoiding the barriers.

Information Technology governance (ITG) calls for the definition and implementation of formal practices at the highest level in the organization, involving structures, processes and relational practices for the creation of business value from IT investments. However, determining the right ITG practices remains a complex endeavor. Previous studies identify IT governance practices used in the health and financial sectors. As universities have many unique characteristics, it is highly unlikely that the ITG experiences of the financial and health industry can be directly applied to universities. This study, using Design Science Research (DSR), develops a baseline with advised practices for the university sector. The analysis of thirty-four case studies from the literature review provides a set of practices as a starting point for the development of the baseline model proposal through multiple case studies involving interviews with IT directors, in ten universities in five countries: eight new practices emerge in this study. The model proposed was evaluated by experts. The result is a baseline model with adequate practices for IT governance in universities as well as a set of guidelines for its implementation. Findings revealed that is possible to extend the ITG practices’ baseline when looking at specific contexts.