Working Group on Software-Intensive Business Research: Definition and Roadmap

In today’s digital environment companies are forced to participate in a process often coined digital transformation. As a result, companies expect to stay relevant and harness digital technologies for their competitive advantage and sustainable value creation. A central element of this transforming process is the software that companies develop, purchase or customize in order to support their business. These challenges stretch beyond the information and technology industry, as businesses use digital technology to compete in traditions industries. Popular examples are omnipresent, with Uber revolutionizing the taxi industry, AirBnB forcing new legislations to protect the hotel industry, and Spotify becoming a single source for music with a monthly subscription model. The Dagstuhl Seminar “Software Business, Platforms, and Ecosystems: Fundamentals of Software Production Research” organized by Pekka Abrahamsson, Jan Boch, Sjaak Brinkkemper, and Alexander Mädche took place from 29th of April until 02nd of May. The seminar’s objectives were i) to strengthen cross-community research efforts, ii) to increase accessibility of research data and results, iii) to exchange on current and future research developments and discussions, iv) to initiate project ideas between scholars and with industry that evolve into project proposals.