IT и образование Подготовка IT-специалистов IT and education Training IT specialists ПРИКЛАДНАЯ ИНФОРМАТИКА / JOURNAL OF APPLIED INFORMATICS Business Informatics: characteristics, challenges and opportunities from a German perspective The study explores characteristics of the German academic discipline «Wirtschaftsinformatik». <...> It is based on a literature review of fourteen publications on the history of the discipline and on a comparison of research approaches of «Wirtschaftsinformatik» and the North-American sister discipline «Information systems». <...> The study identifies four characteristics of the academic discipline «Wirtschaftsinformatik» and derives six challenges and opportunities for the business informatics community worldwide. <...> Keywords: Business Informatics, Wirtschaftsinformatik, information systems, academic discipline, history, research approaches, behavioral science, design science. <...> The purpose of business informatics1 is the development and application of theories, concepts, models, methods and tools for analyzing, designing, and using information systems in business settings. <...> Scholars in business informatics make use of findings from business administration and computer science (and sometimes economics) and extend this knowledge by specific findings [16, p. 2]. <...> Business informatics may be considered as a) a section or b) a sister discipline of the academic discipline information systems. «Information Systems (IS) is a scientific discipline with global reach that investigates the development, use, and impact of information and communication technologies (IT)» [23]2. 1 The term «business informatics» was selected as an analogy for the Russian label «Бизнес-информатика». <...> For a more detailed discussion of an apppropriate labeling of the academic discipline see section 2 of this study. 2 For a more detailed discussion of the relationship between the two scientific disciplines see section 5 of this study. <...> In recent years, several efforts have been made to compare the German academic discipline «Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI)»3 with the North-American discipline information systems (IS)4 [e.g., 8; 30; 31; 38]. <...> WI, i.e., business informatics as it is practiced in German speaking countries, seems to be a scientific discipline «still under construction» [20, p. 322]. <...> Perceived challenges and opportunities, insights gained and experiences made in this community may also be helpful for colleagues in other parts of the world. 3 «Wirtschaftsinformatik» is the current German label for the academic discipline which is called «business informatics» in this article. <...> However <...>