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

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The Practice of Enterprise Modeling (PoEM 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 497))

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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.

Sergio España is supported by a María Zambrano grant of the Spanish Ministry of Universities, co-funded by the Next Generation EU European Recovery Plan.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    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.

  2. 2.

    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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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Valencian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

    Sergio España & Oscar Pastor

  2. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Sergio España, Gudrun Thorsteinsdottir & Vijanti Ramautar

Authors
  1. Sergio España
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  2. Gudrun Thorsteinsdottir
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  3. Vijanti Ramautar
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  4. Oscar Pastor
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sergio España .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Espírito Santo, Vitória, Brazil

    João Paulo A. Almeida

  2. University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

    Monika Kaczmarek-Heß

  3. University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

    Agnes Koschmider

  4. TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Henderik A. Proper

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España, S., Thorsteinsdottir, G., Ramautar, V., Pastor, O. (2024). Enterprise Modelling Can Be Used as a Research Method: An Application to Sustainability Reporting Research. In: Almeida, J.P.A., Kaczmarek-Heß, M., Koschmider, A., Proper, H.A. (eds) The Practice of Enterprise Modeling. PoEM 2023. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 497. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48583-1_10

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