What is reference modeling

“Reference modeling methods are used to create simplified representations of reality. Starting from observations (inductive) or derived from theories (deductive), these models are designed to represent a planned or optimized system environment.“(Bodendorf et al. 2012)
You can use the reference modeling to derive generally applicable recommendations for action from a theory. There are defined steps for this, which you should strictly follow. I give examples of this at the end of the article.

• Problem: What’s the problem anyway?
• What: Construction of the model frame (what are the framework conditions)
• How: How do I solve the problem (recommendations for action)
• Reference model: visualization of the model (graphic, checklist)

Limitations and advantages of reference modeling

As already mentioned by Bodendorf et al. (2012) said the limitation is as follows: “Reference models themselves do not contribute to knowledge about facts or their explanation. They are only intended to cover a wide range of possible situations in reality and “serve as ready-made solution schemes or general recipes for certain classes of decision-making problems to cope with practical problems”. So they represent a recommendation or an idea of the situation and do not always have to be valid in other companies and are therefore more likely to be valid for a specific individual case, such as in your thesis. You should limit this.
At the same time, this is also the big one advantage , because you will never be able to derive concrete recommendations which are valid in all companies and your work is therefore vulnerable. Every second company will say to you: “Well, that’s not how we can implement it because of the internal guidelines.”
Tip: don’t forget yours Cleanly limit methodology.

Use of reference modeling

So if you want to create a framework or recommendations for action, first describe the problem. Example: How can a manager efficiently lead employees at other locations. Now define the general conditions such as: He is allowed to travel once a month and has e-mail, video tool and telephone to communicate with the employees.
You then show the recommendations for action. He can, for example, delegate tasks, trust employees, etc. In the end, you visualize this in a checklist or a great graphic. Don’t forget to limit afterwards. For example, they could travel more often or buy new tools so that they can improve their leadership. Different guidelines may also prevail in other companies, so that some of your recommendations cannot be implemented. Your recommendations therefore only apply to the framework conditions described.
Reading tip: Framework in the thesis
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• Literature research (search, reduction and possibly clustering)
• Literature analysis (content analysis and presentation of the literature)

Tip: An example of a literature analysis with many suggested topics for a thesis can be found in my study from 2019.
Lindner, D., & Christian Leyh. (2019). Digitization of SMEs – questions, recommendations for action and implications for IT organization and IT service management. HMD – Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik , 4th , 21.

Overview of the procedures and authors

You will also have to provide a description of the methodology for your literature analysis. I would therefore like to give you four sources which are considered to be the “original papers” of literary analysis. You can quote these:

• Webster and Watson 2002 (is the original paper for literature analysis)
• Fettke 2006 (a good addition to business informatics)
• Vom Brocke et al. 2009 (Deepens the search for literature again)
• Mayring 2000 (Deepens the evaluation of the literature again)

A literature analysis always has two steps. You go in search of literature and evaluate it. I’ll give you a pretty extensive explanation for both steps. In short, in the first step you select the database, journals and quality criteria. Von Brocke et al. best represented. Then you can optionally start a forward or backward search (more later) and evaluate the literature according to Webster and Watson (2002) or Mayring (2000). I don’t count the last step, the writing, directly as a step, but I notice that students have problems here again and again and therefore explain this as well.
PS: You can download the template here and like to quote in your work.

Literature search

In the literature search, selected literature databases (e.g. scholar, springerlink, etc.) are searched in order to answer the central research question. Here I strictly follow vom Brocke et al. (2009). So you set journals, databases and variables such as time period (I recommend 3-5 years), focus and research method.
In the first step, search strings are specified such as

• digi * AND (workplace OR “knowledge work”) AND (mobil * OR individu * OR agile *)
• (company OR “organization”) AND (taylor * OR agil * OR digi *) AND (“transformation” OR “framework”)

These are entered into the various databases and you can see how many results have been found. For example, search string 2 currently delivers 1,169 results. Finally, all abstracts were examined and pre-sorted for consideration. Now comes the reduction .
In this case, I examined 97 articles more closely after reviewing the abstracts. The study can be found here, by the way . After a closer examination of the content, 13 primary sources remained as relevant papers for my research, which I used for the conception of my study.
This means that I took a closer look at all 97 posts and rated them according to their relevance. Enclosed is a large selection of relevant academic databases. I then used these 13 sources as part of the Clustering classified in 4 categories (workplace, agile methods, NewWork and Activity Based Working).
Reading tip: Book scientific reading

• EBSCO (ASC, BSC, EconLIT)
• ScienceDirect
• Emerald Web of Science
• ACM
• AISel
• EconBiz
• IEEE
• ProQuest
• Springer link

Excursus: what is academic?

The supervisor must have told you to use academic literature. But what is academic? Of the VHB-JOURQUAL3 is a ranking of economically relevant journals based on the judgments of the VHB members. The VHB4 should also come soon.
Over 1,100 members of the VHB have made a total of 64,113 reviews of magazines in the last few months. Of the 934 journals that were up for review, 651 journals exceeded the threshold of 25 reviews and received a rating. These are divided as follows:

• 22 outstanding and globally leading scientific journals in the field of business administration (A + = 3.4%),
• 72 leading academic business journals (A = 11.1%),
• 217 important and respected scientific business journals (B = 33.3%),
• 273 recognized academic business journals (C = 41.9%) and
• 59 scientific business journals (D = 9.1%).

Alternative: backword and forward search

In addition, there is the possibility not only to examine the results of the database but also to do a forward and backword search. I oriented myself to Webster and Watson (2002). Backward search is defined as the search for relevant literature from the cited sources of the article in question. Forward search is defined as searching for literature that cites this article. In concrete terms, that means: Look who is quoting the author and who is quoting the author.
The difference in the method is that, for example, you only search through the A + journals of business information systems and then recursively identify further papers from these.

Literature evaluation

In the analysis, all papers are sorted and best described by year or category. You start first with the content analysis and then with the presentation (writing) of the literature.
Reading tip: Literature search in 7 steps

There is more than one content analysis

Overall, I am familiar with four different elements of content analysis. These are:

• Structuring content analysis (Mayring 2000)
• Summary content analysis (Mayring 2000)
• Explicit content analysis (Mayring 2000)
• Concept matrix (Webster and Watson 2002)

The structuring content analysis identifies existing content and sorts it into categories based on a defined procedure. This type is very suitable if you have a fairly broad and complex subject.
example : Take leadership, for example. There are various debates about agile or virtual leadership. You will also find professional and disciplinary guidance. So it’s a very open discussion. You therefore divide the literature into the categories mentioned and describe the relevant content in each category. Example is the Study by Lindner et al. (2018).
The summary content analysis reduces the text material to such an extent that essential content is captured and a clear short text is created. This type is suitable if you have a fairly straightforward and linear topic or if it is a topic that is constantly being discussed in new contexts. For example, the term innovation, which in the 90s was more of a mechanical product and is now researching more digital services. Example is the Study by Lindner et al. (2017).
example : The aim is to present the debate about the research topic from the first mention of the examined context. The last few years can be briefly summarized here, e.g. computers at workplaces have been around since 1985 and we have not examined them until then. Then from around 2000 onwards there are numerous publications on this and these are summarized in the debate about the workplace IT. Now at the end of the analysis (last 2-3 years) the current opinions are presented more broadly. Example: In the IT workplace, research diverges. Some research into home office workplaces, others into flex desks and third into ergonomics in the workplace and so on.
The goal of the Explicit content analysis is to identify additional information (background information) on the research topic in order to achieve a higher level of understanding. I think this is used more in the natural sciences and I only mention it for the sake of completeness.
example : While you previously reduced the literature and limited it to the essential content, the goal now is to describe targeted content in great detail. I have never experienced this directly, but I could imagine the following: You are investigating the influence of the introduction of agile frameworks. Now you could do a very detailed analysis of, for example, two selected frameworks (Holacracy and LeSS). However, I have never seen such an analysis in economics or business informatics. The example can also be wrong, but I haven’t found anything better on Google either. If you have a study or example for me – I’m very welcome!
The concept matrix is the original method of Webster and Watson (2002). The two authors recommend using concepts to explain a research area. Based on the concepts of a subject area, it is checked which work pursues which concepts.
example : You want to investigate the introduction of agility and organize the literature according to research methodology. For example, you can find Case studies and expert interviews and find that there are hardly any quantitative surveys. You can also structure the literature according to the theory used. For example, look which change model an author used when introducing agility (Kotter, Rogers, …).

Presentation of the literature

Regardless of which of the four types of content analysis you choose: You have to present the selected literature, i.e. write it down. After the reduction, you have read a number of sources in full and evaluated them in the form of your chosen type of content analysis.
Now you represent source by source. The important thing is that there is no continuous text that mixes up the sources. One source after another comes. For each source answer the following questions:

• What was the author’s goal / context?
• How did the author research?
• What are the most important results in terms of my research question?

To make this clearer for you, I’ll show you a small example based on three sources on the subject of “efficiency of agile teams”.
example : O’Connor and Kelly (2012) interviewed the agile teams of 300 SMEs in the food sector in Ireland. The most important results are that, according to the SME managers surveyed, agile teams show increased employee and customer satisfaction and work speed. In 2017, Srivastava and Jain interviewed 75 Scrum Masters from India online with the same focus. The most important results are that agile teams bring higher project successes and customer satisfaction with them. The study by Lindner and Leyh (2019) provides a further perspective. In a group discussion with 12 SME decision-makers from Germany, the authors conclude that complex projects such as process digitization require greater autonomy in the execution of work and exploratory procedures, which is given by agile methods and leads to greater success.
You will notice that I have always named the authors and the research goal. Then I presented the methodology (e.g. interviews with 300 agile teams from SMEs in Ireland) as well as the most important results for the research question. You pack source to source according to this scheme.
Tip: don’t forget yours Cleanly limit methodology.
Tip: “Help! I can’t find any literature!”
I often receive emails asking me the following: I am writing about topic X and cannot find any literature . Do you have any tips? In 99% of the cases I also send literature back. However, this is not to your advantage. The reason for this is that you have to state in your thesis: Why did you use this literature. An answer like: If Mr. Lindner sent me or came by chance at Google, your supervisor will probably not be very happy.
For this reason I would like to help you how to find literature. For example, a student wrote to me who was investigating Scrum in production. So build yourself a search string that contains all the relevant words as well as synonyms: Scrum AND (Manufacturing OR Production OR Industry) and search Google Scholar first. Then also with the other databases, which I have listed above. With this search string I found some papers on Scrum in production on the first page.
Reading tip: I can’t find any literature!

“But I still can’t find anything!”

You followed my steps and still can’t find anything? Then it could be due to different points. You should rethink your topic and possibly change something together with the supervisor.

• Your topic is too new and there is no literature yet
• Your topic is not relevant in the academy, it is purely a practical topic
• You write for a company and the topic is company-specific
• Your topic will be explored in a different context

Reading tip: Search literature for specific contexts
For almost any reason, you have no choice but to turn the subject or pursue the Grounded Theory below. However, you should first try to turn your topic around by thinking outside the box. Perhaps your topic will be explored from a different perspective. For example, I would change the topic of the student (Scrum in production) by examining the influence of digitization on agility in production. There are already numerous sources and the Scrum point of view can then be derived from the data. In this way, research starts with the current discussion and the original focus can still be retained.
Reading tip: Go through the topic without literature

Alternative: “Grounded Theory”

If you still want to go through with the topic because your practice partner pays for it or you simply love the topic, then of course you can. Simply generate information yourself by starting with interviews or collecting case studies yourself. Thus, you are not building on a literature analysis, but on empirical data. So you start out on the green field without literature. I have already supervised such a master’s thesis. It’s a lot of work, so think twice about whether you want to go through with it. If you want to know more, I have written an extra article about it.
Reading tip: Grounded Theory

Conclusion: Tips on the literature analysis method

The method is very suitable for almost any research and focuses on structuring the current state of knowledge. In this way, a researcher can show that he is working on the current state of knowledge. The evaluation takes a long time, but is an important cornerstone of any research. My tips should give an initial orientation to the methodology. Definitely look too in my other book tips!
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Research methods

If you look in Wikipedia a research method is defined as follows: When Research methods In the sciences, processes and analysis techniques are used to clarify scientific questions. In the social sciences in particular, there is a distinction between quantitative Research methods and qualitative Research methods common.
Since a research design is nothing else than a meaningful “ stringing together “of research methods I would therefore like to give a brief overview of the various research methods. They are divided into qualitative and quantitative methods.
Reading tip: How do I classify my research scientifically?

Qualitative research

Qualitative research tries to capture a previously unknown problem. Here the researcher slowly “approaches” the object and, thanks to the openness of the method, leaves room for the discovery of new facts. Basically, the idea is to let the object of investigation, such as a project manager, have their own say and to listen a lot. Common methods are:

• Interviews
• Group discussion
• Qualitative content analysis
• observation
• ethnography

Quantitative research

This method is geared towards facts and figures and follows a fixed pattern. Methods and models for research must therefore be available at the beginning. For example, it must be clear how to measure employee satisfaction. Using analysis methods such as significance tests, regression analysis, etc., hypotheses are derived from the data.

• survey
• Data analysis
• Data collection
• Experiments

Interim conclusion and choice of method

Of course, research does not have to be one-sided, but can consist of a mixture of both methods. The choice of methods depends heavily on the research object and also on the preference. I myself have used three methods in research, which I have also mastered. It is not easy to be able to use every method perfectly, but to specialize in 2-3.
Tip: don’t forget yours Sensibly limit research design !
Reading tips :

• Literature analysis
• Group discussion
• Quantitative survey
• Book tips

Research design structure

The current illustration shows the abstract research design. You can see that on the basis of a research question, common methods are put together which should produce a research result. This is of course very abstract, which is why I would like to give two examples.

The next figure shows a research design for qualitative research. In this case, challenges of executives are examined and approaches to solving them are sought together with executives in a group discussion. This is then evaluated by creating a transcript from which specific statements are derived. In the design, I always recommend the purpose of conveying the goal of the method in the small boxes. In this way, on the one hand, the choice of research method is justified and the meaning of the combination is clear.

In contrast to the first graph, here is quantitative research. This examines the current relationship between employee satisfaction and home office. So I choose a survey in which I ask about the current job satisfaction on the one hand and how much and whether home office is operated. I can use regression analysis to examine the relationship between variables. For example, whether the number of home office days is related to job satisfaction.

Of course, the methods are not black and white. You are also welcome to combine qualitative and quantitative methods. So, for example, you can determine hypotheses from a survey, which you can use together in Expert interviews evaluate. There are actually no limits to the combination.
PS: You can download the template for the design here
PPS: A template with a topic can be found here.
Reading tip: Book tips on research

Special case: Grounded Theory

There are cases in which you are working on very complex topics that cannot be covered by literature. In such cases the grounded theory can help. The grounded theory is derived inductively through systematic collection and analysis of data related to the examination subject (Strauss and Corbin 1996, p. 7). Data collection, analysis and the emerging theory are arranged in a cycle that is run through several times as part of a research process (Bodendorf et al. 2010)

In this example, you are looking for a research question and, in the first step, ask test subjects about it. You then evaluate and analyze this information. Now plan the next step and interview test subjects again to deepen the research results. Read more in a separate article.
Reading tip: Grounded Theory

Conclusion: Tips for building research design

In this article I explained the difference between qualitative and quantitative research methods. A research design can be created from this. The methods can be combined in any way and it should be clear to the reader, for example by means of the small boxes below, why you are using which methods and what the result is. Finally, I’ll show you an example of such a mixed method. In the first step, data is collected here, which is then evaluated with project managers. The research question would be: Is a lack of software equipment a success factor for projects? There are certainly many other options and my tips should provide an initial orientation. Definitely look too in my other book tips!
By the way, feel free to include these images in your thesis. A short one Source reference enough. I am happy to share this with you. You can download the template here.

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The group discussion method

In a group discussion in particular, results can be obtained more quickly than in individual interviews and, in particular, the exchange of views between the participants can produce a broader understanding of the arguments. The goal of this method is also in collective decision-making. To better reach a consensus, I wrote in a paper by Prifiti et al. (2017) found a subspecies, i.e. the focus group discussion, as a method. For the evaluation, a so-called focus group consisting of equally valued and strictly selected experts is used. For this reason, the participants were specifically chosen from SMEs or corporations or, as in the 4th Roundtable, only managers from the project management area.
Alireza et al. (2017) see the interactions of the participants as an important source of information acquisition in addition to the evaluation of the language. Long periods of silence, conspicuous gestures (nodding, frowning, etc.), anger, sarcasm and conspicuous consent can also provide insights in terms of the group discussion. Thus, in addition to the audio recording, a log was also kept, but only via gestures.
Reading tip: Method book

Invitation of the participants

Since I chose a focus group, I specifically selected the participants from SMEs or corporations. I have also invited a representative from the union to represent the employee side. The participants were specifically invited on the basis of existing contacts or recommendations from my contacts and a Xing premium search. In addition to a managerial position, the test persons had to have been with the current company for at least 3 years in order to be able to make well-founded statements about the company.
Reading tip: Dealing with Xing

Moderation of the group discussion

The questions in the focus group discussion were asked very openly in order to be able to derive assumptions for the research question from the dialogues. The following questions are exemplary for moderating the discussion: What does good leadership mean to you , What do you associate with digital leadership and What challenges do you currently see for yourself as a manager?
Often I have always prepared theses such as: “Maintaining controllability and control is one of the main tasks of managers in agile teams.” I have provided each thesis with a timebox. For example, we talked about leadership for 60 minutes. We had 15 minutes per thesis. So only the most important points were mentioned and the dialogue could not drift away.
There are two types of moderation in total. The decision is based on the fact whether you have a special focus topic such as soft kills in the management of virtual teams (structured) or a broader topic such as leadership in the age of digitization (self-evident).

• Structured form: narrow topic limitation, elaborated questions and leading moderator,
• Self-running form: hardly any topic limitation, hardly any guidelines, cautious moderation.

Reading tip: Moderation tips

Content of the group discussion

The exact content of the questions depends of course on your research question. However, you should precisely conceptualize the nature of the question. As a rule, you have put forward hypotheses that you want to check. In a quantitative survey, you try to substantiate these theses with concrete figures. In the qualitative group discussion, however, you want to understand the theses better. Examples of theses are:

• From a team size of 12 people, the Kanban method is better suited than Scrum.
• In SMEs, Kanban is more efficient than Scrum because of the small process landscape.

You derive one question for each hypothesis. You want to know: Do you agree with this thesis and why? You can also support the theses with open questions and thus provide background information on the theses, e.g. “What is your opinion on Kanban?” In a thesis, 5-10 questions are usually sufficient. It is important that you always reach a consensus, i.e. a statement to which the group agrees by being silent, nodding or verbally (“exactly”, “true”, …).
Reading tip: Prepare theses

Evaluation of the group discussion

The roundtable was scheduled for two hours and was completely transcribed using the “f4” software. Basically you listen to each other minute by minute and with the help of a pedal you can pause and continue recording. So you write in sync with the recording. For a 4h roundtable I need an average of 18-20h to type it out. I am following the rules of Kuckartz et al. Proceeded in 2008, which allows a slight smoothing of the language. Thus, for example, filler words like “uh” o3 are smoothed out strong slip of the tongue.
On the one hand, drivers and on the other hand assumptions of the participants were derived from the dialogues and it was checked whether these confirm the theoretical literature. The group discussion was clustered for this purpose. Individual arguments were ignored, only arguments which were confirmed or rejected by at least four people by consensus. In particular, the statements with a focus on the core topics were taken into account for the clustering. Topics with very little discussion time were neglected.
Reading tip: Book for evaluation

Conclusion: Tips for group discussions

The method was very well suited for my research and focuses on consensus opinions. I applied the method more concretely through the focus group and thus got consensus opinions more easily. The preparation and evaluation takes a long time, which is why every group discussion must be properly prepared and planned. My tips should give an initial orientation to the methodology. Definitely look too in my other book tips!
Tip: don’t forget yours Cleanly limit methodology.
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