Showing papers in "Information Systems Journal in 2014"

Understanding customers' repeat purchase intentions in B2C e-commerce: the roles of utilitarian value, hedonic value and perceived risk

Abstract: Customer loyalty or repeat purchasing is critical for the survival and success of any store By focusing on online stores, this study investigates the repeat purchase intention of experienced online buyers based on means-end chain theory and prospect theory In the research model, both utilitarian value and hedonic value are hypothesised to affect repeat purchase intention positively Perceived risk is hypothesised to affect repeat purchase intention negatively and moderate the effects of utilitarian and hedonic values on repeat purchase intention Utilitarian value is proposed as a formative second-order construct formed by product offerings, product information, monetary savings and convenience Hedonic value is also proposed as a formative second-order construct formed by the six hedonic benefits that have been identified in prior research Data collected from 782 Yahoo!Kimo customers provide strong support for the research model The results indicate that both the utilitarian value and hedonic value are positively associated with buyers' repeat purchase intention A higher level of perceived risk reduces the effect of utilitarian value and increases the effect of hedonic value on repeat purchase intention Implications for theory and practice and suggestions for future research are provided

Understanding e-Government portal use in rural India: role of demographic and personality characteristics

Abstract: Electronic government e-Government is one of the most important ways to bridge the digital divide in developing countries. We develop a model of e-Government portal use. We use various individual characteristics, namely demographics and personality, as predictors of e-Government portal use. Specifically, our predictors were 1 gender, age, income and education; 2 the Big Five personality characteristics, i.e. extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience; and 3 personal innovativeness with information technology. We conducted a field study in a village in India. We collected data from over 300 heads of household. We found support for our model, with most variables being significant and explaining 40% of the variance in e-Government portal use.

The push, pull and mooring effects in virtual migration for social networking sites

Abstract: Social networking sites SNSs have become increasingly common in recent years, and their use has become integrated into the daily lives of millions of people across the world. Attracting new users and retaining existing ones are critical to the success of SNS providers. This study applies the push-pull-mooring model of the migration theory to improve our understanding of factors that influence the switching behavior of SNS users. Following the migration theory, this study empirically examines the three categories of antecedents for SNS switching intention: push i.e., dissatisfaction and regret, pull i.e., alternative attractiveness, and mooring i.e., switching costs factors. The results show that the three categories of factors had varying degrees of effects on switching intention. Additionally, the strong moderation effects of both pull and mooring factors help answer the question why switching does not necessarily occur when push factors are in effect. Managerial implications are provided.

Security services as coping mechanisms: an investigation into user intention to adopt an email authentication service

Abstract: Email plays an important role in the digital economy but is threatened by increasingly sophisticated cybercrimes. A number of security services have been developed, including an email authentication service designed to cope with email threats. It remains unknown how users perceive and evaluate these security services and consequently form their adoption intention. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model and Technology Threat Avoidance Theory, this paper investigates the factors that affect user intention to adopt an email authentication service. Our results show that user intention to adopt an email security service is contingent upon users' perception of risk and evaluation of both internal and external coping strategies. This study contributes to research in security service adoption, service success and design, and information security behaviour.

Examining interpersonal trust as a facilitator and uncertainty as an inhibitor of intra-organisational knowledge sharing

Abstract: This study developed a theoretical model to explore the antecedents of interpersonal trust and the impact of interpersonal trust and uncertainty on intra-organisational knowledge sharing in highly information-technology-mediated work environments. The proposed model was tested empirically using survey data collected from five telecommunication companies. The findings reveal that interpersonal trust has a positive effect on knowledge sharing, while uncertainty has a negative effect upon knowledge sharing. The results also show that social interaction ties and shared knowledge-sharing vision are the antecedent factors of interpersonal trust, and that uncertainty regarding knowledge sharing is increased by seeker absorptive capability concerns, reciprocity concerns and fear of losing knowledge power. Some important implications for theory and practice as well as directions for future study are discussed.

What a smartphone is to me: understanding user values in using smartphones

Abstract: The objective of this study is twofold. First, it aims to investigate the various values users achieve with smartphones, which is a form of user-empowering information technology IT. The other objective is to introduce a means-end chain approach into IT-user studies. An important attraction of smartphones is their personalized environment, which is mainly provided by varied applications. The user personalization ability implies that users achieve diverse benefits with smartphones; that is, users decide what a smartphone is to them rather than adopt a given product. Thus, investigating what values users pursue with a smartphone i.e. a value-oriented approach will give insights into understanding the users. To investigate user values in using smartphones, we conducted a laddering interview with 54 smartphone users and analyzed the data by using a means-end chain approach to understand consumers' hierarchical value structure. This study contributes to value-oriented research on user-empowering IT by revelling how users benefit from smartphones. Furthermore, the study advances value-oriented research by showing what users actually do with smartphones, from concrete activities to abstract values. In addition, a means-end chain approach introduced in the study can be another angle for the investigation of user adoption of technology, in that it can describe IT use contexts and practices, which become an important object of analysis in the information systems research.

Exploring the effects of organizational justice, personal ethics and sanction on internet use policy compliance

Abstract: Internet security risks, the leading security threats confronting today's organizations, often result from employees' non-compliance with the internet use policy IUP. Extant studies on compliance with security policies have largely ignored the impact of intrinsic motivation on employees' compliance intention. This paper proposes a theoretical model that integrates an intrinsic self-regulatory approach with an extrinsic sanction-based command-and-control approach to examine employees' IUP compliance intention. The self-regulatory approach centers on the effect of organizational justice and personal ethical objections against internet abuses. The results of this study suggest that the self-regulatory approach is more effective than the sanction-based command-and-control approach. Based on the self-regulatory approach, organizational justice not only influences IUP compliance intention directly but also indirectly through fostering ethical objections against internet abuses. This research provides empirical evidence of two additional effective levers for enhancing security policy compliance: organizational justice and personal ethics.

Formal and relational governance in IT outsourcing: substitution, complementarity and the role of the psychological contract

Abstract: This study aims to contribute to the literature on IT outsourcing governance by advancing our understanding of mechanisms of substitution and complementarity between formal and relational governance. Our study illustrates certain conditions under which substitution and complementarity can occur and depicts a two-way causal relationship between them. Our examination further provides a more in-depth assessment of relational governance by using the concept of the psychological contract. Our results demonstrate that the psychologically binding nature of the psychological contract makes it a particularly forceful substitute to formal governance, while its associations with other relationship aspects make it a forceful complement.

Knowledge transfer in IT offshoring relationships: the roles of social capital, efficacy and outcome expectations

Abstract: Information technology IT development in global organisations relies heavily on the transfer of tacit and complex knowledge from onshore units to offshore subsidiaries. A central concern of such organisations is the development of social capital, which is known to facilitate the smooth transfer of knowledge. However, only a few studies in IS research have explicitly examined the role of social capital for knowledge transfer in an IT offshoring context. In this paper, we argue that such knowledge transfer mechanisms can be understood better by considering social capital in concert with knowledge senders' efficacy and outcome expectations, two of the potentially key motivational drivers of knowledge transfer. We develop our arguments through a qualitative case study of a large German multinational company. German IT developers in this firm provided in-depth accounts of their experience with offshore colleagues in an Indian captive subsidiary unit. Drawing on our analysis, we develop a model that depicts the influence of social capital, efficacy and outcome expectations on onshore IT developers' ability and willingness to transfer knowledge to offshore colleagues. Through the model, we also explain how social capital, efficacy and outcome expectations are interrelated and generate three interlocked, self-reinforcing circles of knowledge transfer success in IT offshoring relationships.

Towards an ecological account of media choice: a case study on pluralistic reasoning while choosing email

Abstract: The discourse around media choice has generated a diverse array of media choice factors originating from both the media-based and social interaction-based approaches. The multitude of these factors hints at the adaptive nature of media choice. Alas, how a user engages with such factors and adaptively carries out media choice has remained understudied. We undertake a field study to explore the role of a plurality of choice factors and their interactions in shaping media choice processes and outcomes. In particular, we focus on how a user identifies relationships among plural choice factors while he or she works on his or her particular choice resulting in a similar outcome - email - given a large number of alternatives. Drawing upon a theory of affordances, we propose a systemic way of narrating the dynamics of media choice as a multi-dimensional process where a user explores her or his surroundings - a niche - as to establish media affordances that will then help her or him achieve a communication goal. We identify five relational patterns of interactions among specific choice factors: reciprocity, emergence, complementarity, re-exploration and actualisation. These patterns are shown to be emergent and highly interdependent. We conclude by reviewing future research avenues to formulate richer 'ecological' accounts of media choice.

Knowledge sharing using IT service management tools: conflicting discourses and incompatible practices

Abstract: ICT applications that include functionality for knowledge sharing are routinely used by IT service providers even though their implementation is known to be problematic and the reasons for such problems not well understood. To shed light on the issue, we collected data at two organisations where managers had provided IT service support workers with IT service management ITSM tools incorporating functionality for knowledge sharing. Using critical discourse analysis and rhetorical analysis techniques, we contrasted primary data representative of IT service support practice with other primary and publicly available secondary data reflecting the prevailing discourse of IT service managers. Through this analysis, we identify an apparent dissonance between ITSM managerial and worker discourses that reflect opposing epistemologies. Managers are optimistic about the benefits of ICT-based knowledge sharing, whereas the practice of workers is revealed to privilege self-reliance and interpersonal knowledge sharing. By taking a dual, management-worker, perspective, we provide fresh insight into why ICT-based knowledge sharing is problematic. As a theoretical contribution, we propose that dysfunctional intra-organisational conflict can arise where incompatible management and worker practices become institutionalised through the simultaneous diffusion of conflicting discourses.

Persistent problems and practices in information systems development: a study of mobile applications development and distribution

Abstract: The widespread uptake of mobile technologies has witnessed a re-structuring of the mobile market with major shifts in the predominance of particular firms and the emergence of new business models. These sociotechnical trends are significant in the ways that they are influencing and shaping the working lives of software professionals. Building on prior research investigating the persistent problems and practices of systems development, this paper examines mobile applications development and distribution. A qualitative study of 60 developers based in Sweden, the UK and the USA was analysed around the interrelated problems of diversity, knowledge and structure. The analysis revealed how platform-based development in an evolving mobile market represents significant changes at the business environment level. These changes ripple through and accentuate ongoing trends and developments, intensifying the persistent problems and challenges facing software developers.

Implications of dominant technological frames over a longitudinal period

Abstract: Successful adoption and use of information systems is an area of continued research in the field of information systems. This prior research has shown that how we adopt and use an information system depends on how we make sense of it. The sense-making activity is carried out through our cognitive structures of knowledge that relate to technology our technological frames. The sense-making activity changes over time, as use and exposure to differing technologies occur. Most research into information systems in organisations has focused on a specific information system; this preoccupation with studying discrete projects at one point in time may be limiting. In an attempt to fill this research gap, we use the socio-cognitive perspective of Orlikowski & Gash to analyse technological frames in one organisation over a longitudinal period to evaluate sensemaking in relation to multiple systems. The interpretive case study looks at the technological frames of senior management, faculty teaching staff, information technology IT mediating staff and IT groups over a 10-year period in a university and finds that there were incongruent frames between senior management and other groups within the organisation with senior management holding a dominant frame. The consequences of these frames were demonstrated when they were linked to the use of the four major information systems in the organisation, showing repeated historical patterns of use that caused inefficiencies due to the incongruent frames of the various groups. The unchanging dominant technological frame contributed to this pattern.

Time-out/time-in: the dynamics of everyday experiential computing devices

Abstract: In everyday life, the role of computing devices alternates between the ordinary and mundane, the un-reflected and the extraordinary. To better understand the process through which the relationship between computing devices, users and context changes in everyday life, we apply a distinction between time-in and time-out use. Time-in technology use coincides and co-exists within the flow of ordinary life, while time-out use entails 'taking time out' of everyday life to accomplish a circumscribed task or engage reflectively in a particular experience. We apply a theoretically informed grounded approach to data collected through a longitudinal field study of smartphone users during a 6-month period. We analysed the data based on the concept of time-in/out and show the dynamics in the experience of a device that changes from the 'extraordinary' to the 'ordinary' over time. We also provide a vocabulary that describes this relationship as stages resembling the one between a couple, which evolves from an early love affair, to being married and to growing old together. By repurposing the time-in/out distinction from its origin in media studies, this paper marks a move that allows the distinction to be applied to understanding the use and dynamic becoming of computing devices over time.

Early vs. late adoption of radical information technology innovations across software development organizations: an extension of the disruptive information technology innovation model

Abstract: This paper extends the disruptive information technology innovation model DITIM by exploring the impact of adoption timing on innovation outcomes within software development organizations during a disruptive innovation cycle. The DITIM suggests that radical changes in computing platforms result in pervasive and radical innovations in software development organizations across three innovation types: base technologies adopted, services produced and processes adopted. Upstream attributes amount and radicalness of the base innovations impact effects in-kind downstream a.k.a., strong order effects on services and processes. Extending these tenets of the DITIM, we posit that during disruptive information technology IT innovation, the temporal stage of innovation activity early vs. late by software development organizations will significantly impact four innovation characteristics: 1 adoption rate of radical IT innovations, 2 strong order effects on downstream innovations related to the amount of innovation, 3 perceived radicalness of innovations and 4 strong order effects on downstream innovations related to the amount of perceived radicalness of innovation. We examine these impacts by reanalysing a cross-sectional study of 121 software development organizations that adopted internet computing as reported in the original data analysis of the DITIM. By splitting the data into early and late adopter groups, our moderation analysis shows significant differences between early and late adopting groups in each of the four hypothesized impacts. Specifically, the adoption rate of radical IT innovations, strong order effects on the amount of innovation, perceived radicalness of innovations and strong order effects on perceived radicalness were each found to differ between early and late adopters. However, it is also important to consider innovation type as three significant effects were in the opposite direction for process innovations. These findings suggest that IT-innovation scholars and practitioners should carefully consider innovation timing and type when studying or managing radical IT innovation.

Educating reflective Enterprise Systems practitioners: a design research study of the iterative building of a teaching framework

Abstract: This research paper reports on the iterative design of a teaching framework developed for teaching Enterprise Systems ES classes for Information Systems IS graduates. These systems embed technical complexity and create organizational challenges when implemented in organizations. Therefore, teaching good ES classes is pedagogically challenging for faculty, and ES curricula are difficult for students. We have gradually designed and rebuilt curricula and teaching frameworks over 8years. This has also resulted in a set of eight design principles. We report from our design and evaluation process and present our final artefact, the teaching framework. The aim is to educate reflective practitioners with multiple ES skills, enabling them to tackle the complexities of ES implementation contexts. The framework has implications for IS educational research and practice and has some generic values that are transferable to other academic institutions and adaptable to other IS learning environments. Further, the study contributes to IS design research by extending its application area. The ES teaching framework is a specific contribution to IS teaching frameworks as a class of problems.

Self-efficacy, learning method appropriation and software skills acquisition in learner-controlled CSSTS environments

Abstract: A computer-simulated software training system CSSTS delivers a specific form of computer-based training in which participants are allowed to select various training features within a simulated software environment. Given the growing use of these systems as end-user training EUT aids, there is a need for greater understanding of how participants use these systems, as well as whether participant-controlled learning environments are truly effective. The present research examines how a particular learner characteristic, software self-efficacy, drives appropriation in a high learner control, CSSTS environment. Contrary to notions in the literature, results from spreadsheet and database software training courses reveal that pre-training specific software self-efficacy constitutes a significant, negative predictor of faithful appropriations of the CSSTS. This research also establishes a positive relationship between faithful appropriation and increases in software self-efficacy SSE. In essence, faithful appropriations lead to greater increases in SSE, which influences software skills performance. In addition, the research validates prior EUT research by extending prior findings to a database training environment. A psychometrically sound measure is put forth to capture database self-efficacy.

Structuration bridging diffusion of innovations and gender relations theories: a case of paradigmatic pluralism in IS research

Abstract: This paper discusses the adoption of a pluralist theoretical framework - one that is also multiparadigmatic - for conducting and publishing information system IS research. The discussion is illustrated by a single case study involving the Australian cotton industry. The theoretical framework is informed by three sociological theories, each with its particular paradigmatic assumptions: structuration theory as a meta-theory, and diffusion of innovations and gender relations as lower-level theories from notionally opposing paradigms. Theoretical pluralism helped to produce rich findings, illuminating both the social nature of women farmers' roles, the materiality of the cotton farming context, the characteristics of the decision support systems in use and the recursive way in which human agency and institutional pressures shape each other. Because users of so-called divergent paradigms often face criticism based on the incommensurability issue, one of the main contributions of this paper is to discuss the value of a pluralist and multiparadigmatic theoretical framework in dealing with complex IS social phenomena.

Autonomy and procedural justice in strategic systems planning

Abstract: Job characteristics and procedural justice theories offer an avenue through which to better understand the effectiveness of the strategic planning of decision support and other information systems in the subsidiaries of multinational firms. The first theory suggests that greater autonomy leads to greater perceptions of fair treatment, and the second suggests that perceptions of fair treatment lead to greater commitment and performance. A postal survey of 130 chief information officers of the US subsidiaries of multinational firms collected data to test hypotheses based on the theory.

How do industry-wide information infrastructures emerge? A life cycle approach

Abstract: Industry-wide information infrastructures IIIS have recently gained increased attention by policy makers, especially in the healthcare sector where it is believed that IIIS can substantially contribute to the taming of exploding healthcare costs and dramatically improve service quality, e.g., by avoiding widespread medication errors. However, the emergence and evolution of IIIS is as yet poorly understood, partly because the information systems IS literature traditionally uses much smaller units of analysis such as projects, organizations or small networks of organization. In this paper, we propose a combined company-level and industry-level framework to shed light on the process of IIIS emergence. We demonstrate, for the first time, that IIIS emergence is intricately linked to the industry life cycle for the case of fragmented industries. We also explore the relationship between the industry-level and company-level life cycles in the process of IIIS emergence, and develop a novel proposition regarding this relationship. Our findings suggest that current policy initiatives to promote the development of IIIS have not adequately taken industry-level conditions into consideration.

Editorial - Cultural Bias in Reviews and Mitigation Options

Abstract: In this final issue of Volume 24, I would like to share some thoughts on cultural bias in the review process and the way it can be mitigated. Culture can be classified at various levels, including (but not limited to) the following: national or societal; professional; institutional; and sub-group. Culturally related bias has been recognised as a serious problem in Information Systems (IS) research for some time. Pauleen et al. (2006) offer an extensive review of the ways in which cultural bias may affect our research, including the review process. Further, as I wrote in my previous editorial in this journal (Davison, 2014), ‘a lot of published IS research appears to be acontextual – the authors appear to assume blithely that context and culture do notmatter’. However, authors are not the only ones to make blithe assumptions; reviewers and editors do, too. All too often, I see reviewer comments along the lines of ‘Your research topic is very interesting, but the population studied is very narrow/marginal. What possible relevance could this have for a mainstream audience?’. Consider a fictitious paper into theways in which Laotian informationworkers object to and work around the requirements of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at a local engineering firm with offices in Vientiane and Luang Prabang. Irrespective of how well the research has been carried out and presented, it is not hard to imagine that a reviewer who is unfamiliar with the Laotian context and culture, and who strongly believes that research conducted in the ‘mainstream’ contexts of Europe and North America is superior to that conducted in ‘emerging’ contexts (such as Laos), will form a negative view of the research on the grounds that the outcomes are ‘not generalisable to mainstream contexts’. Although the reviewer may be correct in asserting that the outcomes are not directly generalisable to ‘mainstream’ contexts, the authors could usefully have noted Lee and Baskerville’s (2003, 2012) trenchant explanation that there are at least four different types of generalisation. Generalising to a population is not the only form of generalisation. In this case, the authors could usefully generalise from their empirical data to a new theory. Alternatively, they could generalise from their data to broaden an existing theory. In this way, the range of known examples where the theory has been empirically tested and confirmed to hold true can be extended, which would constitute a valid and useful contribution to knowledge. Some further deconstruction of the reviewer position may be helpful. In my experience, reviewers are inclined to level these kinds of remarks to authors who study emerging topics and populations that do not correspond to what the same reviewers consider to constitute the status quo of established research. It is here that the cultural bias is most evident – it is a form of cultural exclusiveness or centrism (cf. Pauleen et al., 2006), more specifically Euro-American