Journal of Management Information Systems

Volume 29 Number 1 2012 pp. 5-14

Editorial Introduction

Zwass, Vladimir

ABSTRACT:

THE PERFORMANCE OF TEAMS AND PROJECTS is the key to organizational performance. Three papers that open this new volume of JMIS present the investigations conducted at that level. In the first, Amrit Tiwana studies the effects of peripheral knowledge by the information technology (IT) and business units on the performance of systems development projects. The first question being asked is: Under what circumstances do the knowledge of the business domain by the IT unit and the knowledge of IT by the business unit, both costly to maintain, return the value during projects? The second principal research question is: Through what mechanism does this value return occur? This theoretically rich work offers nuanced insights into both questions.

The escalation of software projects is, regrettably, not uncommon. Various means are sought to fight the phenomenon. Here, Jong Seok Lee, Mark Keil, and Vijay Kasi present a study of the effects of the initial budget and schedule on project escalation. The work is rooted in the goal-setting theory and in the sunk-cost and mental budgeting perspectives, and makes a contribution to these. Both the difficulty and the specificity of the set out budget and schedule are found to have a significant impact on the ultimate project escalation. Pragmatic takeaways follow from the well-defined theoretical contribution.

Likoebe M. Maruping and Massimo Magni turn to the user side of work units, to investigate the role of the learning and empowerment climates in the technology exploration by team members. The authors also pursue an investigation of the gender role in this exploration. Rather surprisingly, the empirics presented by the authors show that the two types of team climate in their study have opposite effects. The work clearly opens a new research avenue, as the operative mechanisms and the influence on the team performance need to be further investigated.

Offshore outsourcing of information systems development is well established both as a common practice and as a research area. And yet these projects still endemically suffer from underperformance. Improved contracting and project control are therefore sought. To do that, we need to understand better where this improvement may lie. In the next paper of the issue, Shirish C. Srivastava and Thomson S.H. Teo offer a theoretically grounded and discriminating study of a large part of the issue. These authors show empirically the joint importance of contract specificity and the application of an appropriate control governance mechanisms, with both relational and mechanistic governance being effective under appropriate circumstances.

Occasioned by the events of the recent years, risk studies have gained in stature. A new perspective on the value of IT investment is gained by taking up this lens. Conducting an event study, Samual Otim, Kevin Dow, Varun Grover, and Jeffrey A. Wong find an association between the reduction of a firm’s downside risk and its announcement of a strategic IT investment. Guided by the resource-based view and real options perspectives, the authors develop a typology of strategic IT investments, and hypothesize their differential effects primarily on the competitive risk. This important new direction in the IT value studies deserves further and extensive elaboration.

Three further papers in the issue take up e-commerce, using different research methodologies. In the first of these, Mei Lin, Xuqing Ke, and Andrew B. Whinston apply game-theoretic analysis to determine the role of alternative advertising revenue models in the firms’ business models. The authors show how the ad-based support of a lower, or zero, price can serve to successfully differentiate a business model. Moreover, the impressions-based revenue models are found to have a stronger effect than the click-based ones. Aside from their contribution to theory, the findings have direct implications for the firms seeking to monetize their online offerings.

Co-creation of value by consumers in e-commerce often takes the form of product reviews. Their effects on the transactions and loyalty of consumers are studied intensely. On the Web, these reviews coexist with the recommendations and representations made by the vendors. What are the comparative effects of these two sources of recommendations on the purchase intentions? This research question is addressed by Alexander Benlian, Ryad Titah, and Thomas Hess, who use a survey-based methodology. The authors find that the effects of the two types of reviews are different---and largely complementary. They affect the consumers’ decisions to buy through different factors, and their coexistence thus intensifies the impressive inroads of e-tail.

Online virtual worlds, or metaverses, are another emblematic example of co-creation. Their success lies in their continuing use by the participants. The factors in the intention to continue the use of such a service are therefore worthy of close scrutiny. They receive such an examination from Zhongyun Zhou, Yulin Fang, Doug Vogel, Xiao-Ling Jin, and Xi Zhang in the context of the prime examplar, Second Life. These authors find that the intention to continue is based on the combination of affective commitment, as the participants enjoy the play and the company of other avatars, and of the lock-in effect, as the participants are loath to leave the avatars of others and the world they live in, as well as their own personalization investment. We may find it pleasing that the present authors find the former factor to be more dispositive.

Zeying Wan, Deborah Compeau, and Nicole Haggerty study empirically the factors that lead to the various positive outcomes of e- learning in organizations. The authors propose a novel dichotomization of self-regulated learning processes and proceed to develop the measurement scales. In their analysis of the empirics, the researchers show that various factors condition differently the acquisition of declarative knowledge versus skill development, and the learner satisfaction. Aside from a clear practical value of the results obtained here, the work contributes to the theory of self-regulation.

The analytic components of customer relationship management (CRM) are an important application of decision support systems (DSS). The effectiveness of these CRM subsystems in addressing the marketplace rests in the classification of potential customers into the categories worth addressing with marketing messages. The effectiveness and efficiency combined rest on doing so cost-effectively. In particular, the customers of high potential lifetime value are to be preferred.The customers likely to reject the offer are to be undersampled. In the concluding paper of the issue, Geng Cui, Man Leung Wong, and Xiang Wan present a learning algorithm for the DSS that offers these properties. The authors compare its performance with the other currently available solutions and find it superior.The cost-sensitive learning algorithm proposed here has the potential to be useful in other contexts as well.

As we start this twenty-ninth JMIS volume, it is my duty and privilege to acknowledge the contribution of our referees, the primary guarantors of Journal ’s quality. On behalf of our Editorial Board, the thanks go to:

Hyung Jun Ahn
Manju Ahuja
Pervaiz Alam
Muhammad Aljukhadar
Gove Allen
Omar Alnuaimi
Paul Alpar
Kemal Altinkemer
Naveen Amblee
Hayward P. Andres
Corey Angst
Ofer Arazy
Kursad Asdemir
Norman Au
Yoris Au
Benoit A. Aubert
Peter van Baalen
Barbro Back
Akhilesh Bajaj
Dirk Baldwin
Subhajyoti Bandyopadhyay
Gaurav Bansal
Ravi Bapna
Indranil R. Bardhan
Reza Barkhi
Henri Barki
Stuart J. Barnes
Richard Baskerville
Dinesh Batra
Skip Benamati
Michel Benaroch
Raquel Benbunan-Fich
François Bergeron
Ganesh Bhatt
Anol Bhattacherjee
Sudip Bhattacharjee
Jesse Bockstedt
Wai Fong Boh
Indranil Bose
Nicola Breugst
Glenn J. Browne
Sebastian Bruque
Scott Buffett
Judee Burgoon
Andrew Burton-Jones
Ashley Bush
Terry A. Byrd
Jinwei Cao
Erran Carmel
Susy Chan
Yolande E. Chan
Hsin-Lu Chang
Mohamed Hédi Charki
Patrick Chau
Andrew Chen
Daniel Chen
Hong-Mei Chen
Hsinchun Chen
Jianqing Chen
Jin Chen
Kay-Yut Chen
Kuan Chen
Li Chen
Yuanyuan Chen
Hsing Kenneth Cheng
Mike Cheung
Lei Chi
Robert T.H. Chi
Roger Chiang
Benjamin Chiao
Ananth Chiravuri
Alina M. Chircu
Jong-min Choe
H. Michael Chung
Wingyan Chung
Theodore H. Clark
Randolph Cooper
Kevin Crowston
Dianne Cyr
Qizhi Dai
Yan Dang
Ronald Dattero
Gregory Dawson
Sergio De Cesare
Jason Dedrick
Chrysanthos Dellarocas
Didem Demirhan
Sarv Devaraj
Rajiv M. Dewan
Soussan Djamasbi
Su Dong
Wenjing Duan
Peter Duchessi
Deborah E. Dunkle
Alexandra Durcikova
Kaushik Dutta
Robert Easley
Christophe Elie-Dit-Cosaque
Omar A. El Sawy
Mike Eom
Sean B. Eom
J. Alberto Espinosa
Andrea Everard
Ming Fan
Patrick Fan
Xiaofen Fang
Yulin Fang
Steven Feiner
Jane Feng
Daniel R. Fesenmaier
Eliezer M. Fich
Jerry Fjermestad
Chris Forman
Chiara Francalanci
Mark Fuller
Brent Furneaux
John Gallaugher
Dale Ganley
Gordon Gao
Edward J. Garrity
Judith Gebauer
Andrew Gemino
Michiel van Genuchten
Joey George
Anindya Ghose
Janis L. Gogan
Kim Huat Goh
Thomas Goh
Jahyun Goo
Dale Goodhue
Anand Gopal
Ram D. Gopal
Nelson Granados
Dawn G. Gregg
Ulrike Gretzel
Robert K. Griffin
Michael D. Grigoriades
Bin Gu
Kemal Guler
Ken Guo
Zhiling Guo
Saurabh Gupta
Nicole Haggerty
Jungpil Hahn
Ingoo Han
Kunsoo Han
Paul Hart
Matthias Häsel
Khaled Hassenein
Jun He
Hemantha Herath
Tejaswini Herath
Traci Hess
Alan R. Hevner
Starr Roxanne Hiltz
Oliver Hinz
Richard Hoffman
Weiyin Hong
John A. Hoxmeier
Pei-fang Hsu
Jeffrey Hu
Nan Hu
Paul Hu
Qing Hu
Ming-Hui Huang
Wayne Huang
Kai Lung Hui
Wendy Hui
Ard Huizing
Yujong Hwang
Ghiyong Im
Gretchen I. Irwin
Varghese Jacob
Bharat A. Jain
Radhika Jain
Jeevan Jaisingh
Dietmar Jannach
Matthew Jensen
Anand Jeyaraj
Bao-Jun Jiang
James J. Jiang
Zhengrui Jiang
Alice Johnson
Eric Johnson
Emmanuel Josserand
Surinder Kahai
Ajit Kambil
Arnold Kamis
Atreyi Kankanhalli
Karthik Kannan
P.K. Kannan
Jahangir Karimi
Evangelos Katsamakas
Michael Kattan
Timothy Kayworth
Weiling Ke
William J. Kettinger
Moutaz Khouja
Melody Y. Kiang
SiaSiew Kien
Byung Cho Kim
Young-Gul Kim
Dan J. Kim
Dongmin Kim
Seung Hyun Kim
Ruth King
Rajiv Kishore
Gary Klein
Richard Klein
Cenk Kocas
Chang Koh
Rajiv Kohli
Tobias Kollman
Sherrie Komiak
Praveen K. Kopalle
Marios Koufaris
Kenneth A. Kozar
Ramayya Krishnan
Gillian Ku
Uday Kulkarni
Akhil Kumar
Ram Kumar
Jason Kuruzovich
Atanu Lahiri
Simon S.K. Lam
Guido Lang
Karl R. Lang
Nancy Lankton
Kai R. Larsen
Gwanhoo Lee
Heeseok Lee
Ho Geun Lee
Jungwoo Lee
Matthew Lee
Thomas Lee
Yang Lee
Yen-Hsien Lee
Younghwa (Gabe) Lee
Christine Legner
Jan Marco Leimeister
Natalia Levina
Chen Li
Dahui Li
Jiexun Li
Na Li
Ting Li
Xiaotong Li
Xin Li
XinXin Li
Ting-Peng Liang
Paul Licker
John Lim
Fu-ren Lin
Lihui Lin
Ming Lin
Yihwa Irene Liou
Ying Liu
Yipeng Liu
Alexandre Lopes
Paul B. Lowry
Henry C. Lucas Jr.
Mark Lycett
Jane M. Mackay
Simha R. Magal
Pruthikrai Mahatanankoon
M. Adam Mahmood
Bin Mai
Yogesh Malhotra
Arti Mann
Michael V. Mannino
Ji-Ye Mao
Salvatore T. March
Kent Marett
Likoebe M. Maruping
Jerrold H. May
William McCarthy
Roy McKelvey
Harrison McKnight
Ephraim R. McLean
Nirup Menon
Shaila Miranda
Dinesh Mirchandani
AbhayNath Mishra
Sunil Mithas
Prasenjit Mitra
William Money
Ali R. Montazemi
Ramiro Montealegre
Jolene Morrison
Benjamin Mueller
Michael D. Myers
Peter P. Mykytyn Jr.
Barin N. Nag
Fiona Nah
Derek Nazareth
Matthew Nelson
R. Ryan Nelson
Boon Siong Neo
Derrick Neufeld
Michael Newman
Andreas I. Nicolaou
Ralitza Nikolaeva
Mark Nissen
Dmitri Nizovtsev
Oded Nov
Lih-Bin Oh
Wonseok Oh
Bob O’Keefe
Lorne Olfman
James Oliver
Benoit Otjacques
Peter Otto
Yasin Ozcelik
Zafer D. Ozdemir
Carl Pacini
Raymond R. Panko
Gautam Pant
Manoj Parameswaran
Michael Parent
Insu Park
Sungjune Park
Craig Parker
Bhavik K. Pathak
Ravi Patnayakuni
Souren Paul
David J. Pauleen
Paul A. Pavlou
Kenneth Peffers
Robin Pennington
Roger A. Pick
Selwyn Piramuthu
Huseyin Polat
Jean-Charles Pomerol
Jaana Porra
Gerald Post
John H. Prager
David Preston
Sandeep Purao
WenGuang Qu
Arik Ragowsky
Rex Kelly Rainer Jr.
Vandana Ramachandran
K. Ramamurthy
Arkalgud Ramaprasad
B. Ramesh
Richard G. Ramirez
H.R. Rao
R. Ravichandran
Gautam Ray
Louis Raymond
Blaize Horner Reich
Bruce Reinig
Yuqing Ren
Paul Resnick
Hyuen-Suk Rhee
William B. Richmond
Christoph Riedl
Lionel Robert
Nicholas Roberts
Daniel Robey
Michael Rogich
Nicholas C. Romano Jr.
Sherry D. Ryan
Young U. Ryu
Khawaja Saeed
Otavio Sanchez
G. Lawrence Sanders
Radhika Santhanam
Pallab Sanyal
Nilesh Saraf
Saonee Sarker
Surendra Sarnikar
Carol Saunders
George Schell
Petra Schubert
Judy Scott
Ravi Sen
Sagnika Sen
Sylvain Sénécal
Nainika Seth
Vikram Sethi
Theresa M. Shaft
Michael Shaw
Jim Sheffield
Hong Sheng
Morgan M. Shepherd
Michael Shields
Choon Ling Sia
Siew Kien Sia
Keng Siau
Mark Silver
Param Vir Singh
Atish P. Sinha
Sumit Sircar
H. Jeff Smith
Jai-Yeol Son
Jaeki Song
Ryan Sougstad
Scott Spangler
William E. Spangler
Rajendra P. Srivastava
Thomas F. Stafford
Stephen Standifird
Sandy Staples
Eric W. Stein
Dick Stenmark
Theofanis C. Stratopoulos
Diane M. Strong
Besiki Stvilia
Mani Subramani
Chandra Subramaniam
Heshan Sun
Arun Sundararajan
Shankar Sundaresan
Tae Kyung Sung
Ali Tafti
Paul P. Tallon
Vaughn Tan
Yao-Hua Tan
Xinlin Tang
Mohan R. Tanniru
Monideepa Tarafdar
Nolan Taylor
Gary F. Templeton
Hock Hai Teo
Thompson Teo
Jason B. Thatcher
Matthew Thatcher
Dominic Thomas
Ron Thompson
James Y.L. Thong
Leon van der Torre
Gregory E. Truman
Yanbin Tu
Ilkka Tuomi
Ofir Turel
Tuure Tuunanen
N.S. Umanath
Andrew Urbaczewski
Rustam Vahidov
Ganesan Vaidyanathan
Anthony Vance
Viswanath Venkatesh
Goetz Viering
Padmal Vitharana
Radu Vlas
Douglas Vogel
Steven Walczak
Zhiping Walter
Bin Wang
Eric T.G. Wang
Jingguo Wang
Michael S. Wang
Qiu-Hong Wang
Shouhong Wang
Sophia Wang
Weiquan Wang
Yinglei Wang
Y. Richard Wang
Molly Wasko
Mary Beth Watson-Manheim
Sunil Wattal
Thomas Weber
Chih-Ping Wei
Charles E. Wells
John Wells
Larry West
J. Christopher Westland
Jonathan Whitaker
Michael E. Whitman
Jeffrey L. Whitten
George Widmeyer
Rolf Wigand
Fons Wijnhoven
Christopher Wolfe
Charles A. Wood
Hans Wortmann
Ryan Wright
Dazhong Wu
Mu Xia
Weidong Xia
Mingdi Xin
Heng Xu
Hongjiang Xu
Lizhen Xu
Peng Xu
Zhiyong Yang
Oliver Yao
Ulku Yaylacicegi
Byungjoon Yoo
Yufei Yuan
Fatemeh Zahedi
Chun Zeng
Dongsong Zhang
Han Zhang
Jennifer Zhang
John Zhang
Michael Zhang
Ping Zhang
Zuopeng Zhang
Huimin Zhao
Kexin Zhao
J. Leon Zhao
Dmitry Zhdanov
Lina Zhou
Yilu Zhou
Zhongyun Zhou
Hongwei Zhu
Youlong Zhuang
J. Christopher Zimmer
Moshe Zviran

Just as I finished writing this, the sad news of the passing of Paul Gray reached me. I am sure all of us in information systems share this sadness. Paul was one of the founders and sustainers of our field. His lasting contributions as a scholar, editor, teacher, mentor, and builder of academic institutions, are manifold and profound. He has made a foundational contribution to the area of decision support. He founded International Information Systems, a pioneering journal in the recognition of the global aspects of IS; he later led for several years, with great commitment and success, Communications of the AIS. He established the IS program at Claremont Graduate University, which flourished into its own school. Beyond and above, Paul was a wonderful man whom very many of us are proud to call a friend. Paul and Muriel graced our conferences and made them joy and fun. We will always remember Paul Gray. We will have the many fruits of his labor Paul bequeathed us.

Vladimir Zwass
Editor-in-Chief