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2024 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Enterprise Modelling Can Be Used as a Research Method: An Application to Sustainability Reporting Research

Authors : Sergio España, Gudrun Thorsteinsdottir, Vijanti Ramautar, Oscar Pastor

Published in: The Practice of Enterprise Modeling

Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland

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Abstract

Enterprise modelling (EM) refers to eliciting and documenting knowledge about an organisation from several interrelated perspectives. Often EM is industrially applied and scientifically researched within the fields of enterprise and information systems (IS) engineering. In this paper, we put forward that EM constitutes a sound and valid research method that could be used outside these disciplines. Its systematic elicitation and modelling techniques lend themselves to rigorous empirical investigations. We report on our experience in applying an EM method as a research method in a project exploring the relationships between sustainability reporting and strategic management practices. The results were rich in high-quality, detailed research data, that allowed drawing strong evidence-based conclusions. If EM were known in other scientific fields interested in phenomena taking place inside or around enterprises, these research communities would benefit from a structured and rigorous approach to investigate aspects related to the organisational structure, processes, communications and information, motivations, and relationships among these, which are core constructs in EM methods.

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previous chapter Semiautomatic Design of Ontologies

next chapter Using the Business Motivation Model as an Organising Principle to Clarify Public Policy

While not a full-fledged enterprise modelling method, we considered the authors’ research approach representative of the intentions we pursue in championing EM as a research method.

Originally intended for IS development methods, it is currently used for other types of methods and processes (e.g. we have used it to model many ESEA methods [16]).

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Title: Enterprise Modelling Can Be Used as a Research Method: An Application to Sustainability Reporting Research
Authors: Sergio España
Gudrun Thorsteinsdottir
Vijanti Ramautar
Oscar Pastor
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland
Book: The Practice of Enterprise Modeling
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-48582-4

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-48583-1

Copyright Year: 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48583-1_10

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