Putting on the Thinking Cap: Using NeuroIS to Understand Information Processing Biases in Virtual Teams - Minas, Randall K; Potter, Robert F; Dennis, Alan R; Bartelt, Valerie; Bae, Soyoung (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Virtual teams are increasingly common in today's organizations, yet they often make poor decisions. Teams that interact using text-based collaboration technology typically exchange more information than when they perform the same task face-to-face, but past results suggest that team members are more likely to ignore information they receive from others. Collaboration technology makes unique demands on individual cognitive resources that may change how individual team members process information in virtual settings compared to face-to-face settings. This experiment uses electroencephalography, electrodermal activity, and facial electromyography to investigate how team members process information received from text-based collaboration during a team decision-making process. Our findings show that information that challenges an individual's prediscussion decision preference is processed similarly to irrelevant information, while information that supports an individual's prediscussion decision preference is processed more thoroughly. Our results present neurological evidence for the underlying processes of confirmation bias in information processing during online team discussions.
Keywords: collaboration technology; electroencephalography; information processing bias; NeuroIS; virtual teams

Trusting Humans and Avatars: A Brain Imaging Study Based on Evolution Theory - Riedl, René; Mohr, Peter N C; Kenning, Peter H; Davis, Fred D; Heekeren, Hauke R (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Avatars, as virtual humans possessing realistic faces, are increasingly used for social and economic interaction on the Internet. Research has already determined that avatar-based communication may increase perceived interpersonal trust in anonymous online environments. Despite this trust-inducing potential of avatars, however, we hypothesize that in trust situations, people will perceive human faces differently than they will perceive avatar faces. This prediction is based on evolution theory, because throughout human history the majority of interaction among people has taken place in face-to-face settings. Therefore, unlike perception of an avatar face, perception of a human face and the related trustworthiness discrimination abilities must be part of the genetic makeup of humans. Against this background, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment based on a multiround trust game to gain insight into the differences and similarities of interactions between humans versus human interaction with avatars. Our results indicate that (1) people are better able to predict the trustworthiness of humans than the trustworthiness of avatars; (2) decision making about whether or not to trust another actor activates the medial frontal cortex significantly more during interaction with humans, if compared to interaction with avatars; this brain area is of paramount importance for the prediction of other individuals' thoughts and intentions (mentalizing), a notably important ability in trust situations; and (3) the trustworthiness learning rate is similar, whether interacting with humans or avatars. Thus, the major implication of this study is that although interaction on the Internet may have benefits, the lack of real human faces in communication may serve to reduce these benefits, in turn leading to reduced levels of collaboration effectiveness.
Keywords: agent; avatar; brain; cognitive neuroscience; evolutionary psychology; evolution theory; functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); medial frontal cortex (MFC); mentalizing; NeuroIS; theory-of-mind (TOM)

Enhancing User-Game Engagement Through Software Gaming Elements - Li, Mengxiang; Jiang, Qiqi; Tan, Chuan-Hoo; Wei, Kwok-Kee (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
User-game engagement is vital for building and retaining a customer base for software games. However, few studies have investigated such engagement during gameplay and the impact of gaming elements on engagement. Drawing on the theoretical foundation of engagement, we meticulously deduced two cognitive-related gaming elements of a software game, namely, game complexity and game familiarity, and argued that these elements have individual and joint effects on user-game engagement. This research adopted multimethod empirical investigations to validate our conceptions. The first investigation used electroencephalography and a self-report survey to study quantitatively the cognitive activities of user-game engagement. The second investigation adopted the qualitative interview method to triangulate the findings from the quantitative data. This research contributes to theory in two ways, namely, conceptualizing and empirically examining user-game engagement as well as theorizing and demonstrating how the two gaming elements affect user-game engagement. This work contributes to the gaming practice by providing a set of design principles for gaming elements.
Keywords: electroencephalography; NeuroIS; online games; software games; user-game engagement

Informational and Normative Social Influence in Group-Buying: Evidence from Self-Reported and EEG Data - Kuan, Kevin K Y; Zhong, Yingqin; Chau, Patrick Y K (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
This study examines two types of information commonly used by group-buying sites to induce purchasing. The first study indicates the number of people who have bought a deal ("buy" information). The second one indicates Facebook friends who "like" a deal ("like" information). The effects of the group-buying information on opinions (attitude and intention) and emotions were examined using a controlled experiment. Our results show that positive and negative "buy" information has an asymmetric influence on attitude and intention, whereas "like" information has a positive influence on intention. The presence of "buy" information is associated with EEG activity that is generally linked to negative emotions. However, the addition of "like" information is associated with EEG activity that is generally linked to positive emotions. The different effects of the two types of group-buying information can be explained by the different social influences exerted by the information.
Keywords: electroencephalography; emotion online; group buying; information social influence; NeuroIS; normative social influence

Explicit and Implicit Antecedents of Users' Behavioral Beliefs in Information Systems: A Neuropsychological Investigation - de Guinea, Ana Ortiz; Titah, Ryad; Léger, Pierre-Majorique (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Behavioral beliefs-perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use-have been identified as the most influential antecedents of individuals' information systems use intentions and behaviors within the technology acceptance model. However, little research has been aimed at investigating the implicit (automatic or unconscious) determinants of such cognitive beliefs, and more importantly, the potential nonlinear relationships of such antecedents with explicit (perceptual) ones. As such, this paper theorizes that implicit neurophysiological states-memory load and distraction- and explicit-engagement and frustration-antecedents interact in the formation of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. To test the study's hypotheses, we conducted an experiment that measured neurophysiological states while individuals worked on instrumental and hedonic tasks using technology. The results show that, as theorized, implicit and explicit constructs interact together, and thus have a nonlinear effect on behavioral beliefs. Specifically, when engagement is high, neurophysiological distraction does not statistically significantly affect perceived usefulness, whereas when engagement is low, neurophysiological distraction has a negative and significant effect on usefulness. The results also show that when frustration is high, neurophysiological memory load has a negative effect on perceived ease of use, whereas when it is low, neurophysiological memory load has a positive effect on perceived ease of use. This study makes several contributions to acceptance research and the emerging field of NeuroIS, including demonstration of the importance of emotional perceptions for moderating the effects of neurophysiological states on behavioral beliefs.
Keywords: behavioral belief formation; cognitive beliefs; electroencephalography (EEG); emotion; IS acceptance; IS use; NeuroIS; nonlinear effects; TAM

Guidelines for Neuroscience Studies in Information Systems Research - vom Brocke, Jan; Liang, Ting-Peng (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Neuroscience provides a new lens through which to study information systems (IS). These NeuroIS studies investigate the neurophysiological effects related to the design, use, and impact of IS. A major advantage of this new methodology is its ability to examine human behavior at the underlying neurophysiological level, which was not possible before, and to reduce self-reporting bias in behavior research. Previous studies that have revisited important IS concepts such as trust and distrust have challenged and extended our knowledge. An increasing number of neuroscience studies in IS have given researchers, editors, reviewers, and readers new challenges in terms of determining what makes a good NeuroIS study. While earlier papers focused on how to apply specific methods (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging), this paper takes an IS perspective in deriving six phases for conducting NeuroIS research and offers five guidelines for planning and evaluating NeuroIS studies: to advance IS research, to apply the standards of neuroscience, to justify the choice of a neuroscience strategy of inquiry, to map IS concepts to bio-data, and to relate the experimental setting to IS-authentic situations. The guidelines provide guidance for authors, reviewers, and readers of NeuroIS studies, and thus help to capitalize on the potential of neuroscience in IS research.
Keywords: NeuroIS; neuroscience; research guidelines; research methods

Effects of Social Networks on Prediction Markets: Examination in a Controlled Experiment - Qiu, Liangfei; Rui, Huaxia; Whinston, Andrew B (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
This paper examines the effect of a social network on prediction markets using a controlled laboratory experiment that allows us to identify causal relationships between a social network and the performance of an individual participant, as well as the performance of the prediction market as a whole. Through a randomized experiment, we first confirm the theoretical predictions that participants with more social connections are less likely to invest in information acquisition from outside information sources, but perform significantly better than other participants in prediction markets. We further show that when the cost of information acquisition is low, a social network-embedded prediction market outperforms a nonnetworked prediction market. We find strong support for peer effects in prediction accuracy among participants. These results have direct managerial implications for the business practice of prediction markets and are critical to understanding how to use social networks to improve the performance of prediction markets.
Keywords: information exchange; prediction markets; social networks

Forming Interoperability Through Interorganizational Systems Standards - Zhao, Kexin; Xia, Mu (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Interoperability is a crucial organizational capability that enables firms to manage information systems (IS) from heterogeneous trading partners in a value network. While interoperability has been discussed conceptually in the IS literature, few comprehensive empirical studies have been conducted to conceptualize this construct and examine it in depth. For instance, it is unclear how interoperability is formed and whether it can improve organizational performance. To fill the gap, we argue that interorganizational systems (IOS) standards are a key information technology infrastructure facilitating formation of interoperability. As an organizational ability to work with external trading partners, interoperability's development depends not only on capability building within firm boundaries but also on community readiness across firm boundaries. Using data collected from 194 organizations in the geospatial industry, we empirically confirm that interoperability is formed via these two different paths. Furthermore, our results show that interoperability acts as a mediator by enabling firms to achieve performance gains from IOS standards adoption. Our study sheds new light on formation mechanisms as well as the business value of interoperability.
Keywords: business value; geospatial industry; interoperability; interorganizational systems standards; IT standards; network effects; standardization; standardized data infrastructure

Differential Effects of Keyword Selection in Search Engine Advertising on Direct and Indirect Sales - Lu, Xianghua; Zhao, Xia (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Product sales via sponsored keyword advertising on search engines rely on an effective selection of keywords that describe the offerings. In this study, we consider both the direct sales of the advertised products and indirect sales (i.e., cross-selling) of other products, and examine how specific keywords and general keywords influence these two types of sales differently. We also examine how the cross-selling effects may vary across different types of products (main products and accessories). Our results suggest that the use of specific keywords leans toward improving the direct sales of advertised products, while the use of general keywords leans toward improving the indirect sales of other products. The contribution of keywords to indirect sales is influenced by product type. For main products, the use of specific keywords generates a higher marginal contribution to indirect sales than that of general keywords. For accessory products, the use of general keywords generates a higher marginal contribution to indirect sales than that of specific keywords. The key implication of this study is that sellers focusing on different types of sales (direct or indirect sales) or products (main or accessory products) should consider using different types of keywords in search engine advertising to drive sales.
Keywords: cross-selling; keyword advertising; keywords selection; online advertising; search engines; sponsored search

Exploring How IT Professionals Experience Role Transitions at the End of Successful Projects - Dubé, Line (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
In an increasingly fluid working environment, workers often find themselves in a state of transition and must be capable of adapting to rapid changes. This study focuses on intrafirm temporary role transitions, and more specifically on the case of information technology (IT) professionals transitioning out of a successful project and returning to their functional unit. In-depth interviews were conducted with 19 IT professionals. All of the respondents reported that they had experienced an adaptation period, albeit minor for some. Others, however, felt an important re-entry shock. A shock of high magnitude is mainly experienced when the successful project becomes a referent to which all other work assignments are compared. This idealized project work environment is the result of the decisions top management makes about the project structure, management, and governance. The results show that all people do not react the same way to a shock of high magnitude: some either adapt or change their new role, but others resist. This study highlights the need to better understand role transitions by further investigating the moderating variables at play in the relationships between actor, experience, magnitude of shock, and reaction. The study contributes to practice by questioning the widely shared assumption that IT professionals effortlessly navigate between project and functional work environments, and by highlighting the need to consider successful projects as a potential source of turmoil for team members. Finally, it raises the question of where the responsibility of managing transitions lies in the organization.
Keywords: IT professionals; IT projects; job satisfaction; project governance; project management; qualitative study; role theory; role transition; socialization

Achieving IT Program Goals with Integrative Conflict Management - Jiang, James J; Chang, Jamie Y T; Chen, Houn-Gee; Wang, Eric T G; Klein, Gary (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Information technology (IT) programs are collections of projects structured to meet goals established by top management regarding the use of technology. Prior research has established the importance of commitment to the organizational goals set by top management and a shared understanding of the goals among the project teams. However, conflicts occur among project teams due to pursuit of their own goals, their unique approaches to completion of required tasks, and their individual need for limited resources. These conflicts need to be resolved in a fashion that leads to the pursuit of program goals, not the independent goals lodged in individual projects. We develop a model of an IT program environment to study the effects of goal interdependence among projects and shared understanding of organizational goals on promoting integrative conflict management (ICM). ICM techniques yield agreement on decisions in the face of conflicting ideas. In turn, ICM promotes arrival at an agreement about implementation means and commitment to the IT program goals, which are better achieved as a result. The model presents a new perspective for research on conflict that considers the specific resolution process to be a key component in the attainment of goals. Practitioners should instill integrative conflict resolution techniques into program and project processes as a fundamental means of achieving goals critical to the organization.
Keywords: conflict management; goal commitment; goal consensus; goal understanding; IT program; IT projects; means consensus project integration; project management

Creating Shared Understanding in Heterogeneous Work Groups: Why It Matters and How to Achieve It - Bittner, Eva Alice Christiane; Leimeister, Jan Marco (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Shared understanding has been claimed to be crucial for effective collaboration of researchers and practitioners. Heterogeneity in work groups further strengthens the challenge of integrating understanding among diverse group members. Nevertheless, shared understanding and especially its formation are largely unexplored. After conceptualizing shared understanding, we apply collaboration engineering to derive a validated collaboration process module (compound thinkLet "MindMerger") to systematically support heterogeneous work groups in building shared understanding. We conduct a large-scale action research study at a German car manufacturing company. The evaluation indicates that with the use of MindMerger, team learning behaviors occur, and shared understanding of the tasks in complex work processes increases among experienced diverse tool and dye makers. Thus, the validated compound thinkLet MindMerger provides designers of collaborative work practices with a reusable module of activities to solve clarification issues in group work early on. Furthermore, findings from the field study contribute to the conceptualization of the largely unexplored phenomenon of shared understanding and its formation.
Keywords: collaboration engineering; group collaboration; heterogeneous groups; knowledge integration; shared understanding; thinkLet

The Impact of Social Network Structures on Prediction Market Accuracy in the Presence of Insider Information - Qiu, Liangfei; Rui, Huaxia; Whinston, Andrew B (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
This paper examines the effects of social network structures on prediction market accuracy in the presence of insider information through a randomized laboratory experiment. In the experiment, insider information is operationalized as signals on the state of nature with high precision. Motivated by the literature on insider information in the context of financial markets, we test and confirm two characterizations of insider information in the context of prediction markets: abnormal performance and less diffusion. Experimental results suggest that a more balanced social network structure is crucial to the success of prediction markets, whereas network structures akin to star networks are ill suited to prediction markets. As compared with other network structures, insider information has less positive effects on prediction market accuracy in star networks. We also find that the bias of the public information has a larger negative effect on prediction market accuracy in star networks.
Keywords: controlled experiment; insider information; prediction markets; social networks

A Rigidity Detection System for Automated Credibility Assessment - Twyman, Nathan W; Elkins, Aaron C; Burgoon, Judee K; Nunamaker Jr, Jay F (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Credibility assessment is an area in which information systems research can make a major impact. This paper reports on two studies investigating a system solution for automatic, noninvasive detection of rigidity for automated interviewing. Kinesic rigidity has long been a phenomenon of interest in the credibility assessment literature, but until now was infeasible as a veracity indicator in practical use cases. An initial study unexpectedly revealed the occurrence of rigidity in a highly controlled concealed information test setting, prompting the design and implementation of an automated rigidity detection system for interviewing. A unique experimental evaluation supported the system concept. The results of the second study confirmed the kinesic rigidity found in the first, and provided further theoretical insights explaining the rigidity phenomenon. Although additional research is needed, the evidence from this investigation suggests that credibility assessment can benefit from a rigidity detection system.
Keywords: automated interviewing systems; computer vision; concealed information test; credibility assessment; deception detection; freeze response; kinesic rigidity

How Posture-Profile Misalignment in IT Innovation Diminishes Returns: Conceptual Development and Empirical Demonstration - Fichman, Robert G; Melville, Nigel P (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
We conceive of information technology (IT) innovation posture-profile misalignment as a condition that exists when a firm's innovation posture (the extent to which a firm leads with IT innovation) does not match up with its innovation resource profile (the firm's stock of resources conducive to effective innovation). We theorize that firms with a posture-profile misalignment will see diminished returns from IT adoption because they will be less likely to possess (and be less effective at exploiting) crucial innovation resources when they need them most. We demonstrate how misalignment conditions the link between IT innovation adoption and organizational performance using a data set comprising electronic networking technologies in over 25,000 U.S. manufacturing plants. Productivity regression estimations reveal a consistent pattern that the association between IT innovation adoption and productivity is substantially diminished among misaligned firms. These empirical results provide initial confirmation of the theoretical value of innovation posture, innovation resource profile, and innovation posture-profile misalignment. We consider the implications for research on business value and innovation as well as for the practice of management.
Keywords: innovation; innovation outcomes; innovation with information technology; IT adoption; IT business value; IT innovation

How Social Capital Among Information Technology and Business Units Drives Operational Alignment and IT Business Value - Wagner, Heinz-Theo; Beimborn, Daniel; Weitzel, Tim (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
It is widely acknowledged that information technology (IT) and business resources need to be well aligned to achieve organizational goals. Yet, year after year, chief information officers still name business-IT alignment a key challenge for IT executives. While alignment research has matured, we still lack a sound theoretical foundation for alignment. Transcending the predominantly strategic executive-level focus, we develop a model of "operational alignment" and IT business value that combines a social perspective of IT and business linkage with a view of interaction between business and IT at nonstrategic levels, such as in daily business operations involving regular staff. Drawing on social capital theory to explain how alignment affects organizational performance, we examine why common suggestions such as "communicate more" are insufficient to strengthen alignment and disclose how social capital between IT and business units drives alignment and ultimately IT business value. Empirical data from 136 firms confirms the profound impact of operational business-IT alignment, composed of social capital and business understanding of IT, on IT flexibility, IT utilization, and organizational performance. The results show that social capital theory is a useful theoretical foundation for understanding how business IT alignment works. The findings suggest that operational alignment is at least as important as strategic alignment for IT service quality; that managers need to focus on operational aspects of alignment beyond communication by fostering knowledge, trust, and respect; and that IT utilization and flexibility are appropriate intermediate goals for business-IT alignment governance.
Keywords: business-IT alignment; business value of IT; information systems alignment; operational alignment; social capital

User Roles and Contributions in Innovation-Contest Communities - Füller, Johann; Hutter, Katja; Hautz, Julia; Matzler, Kurt (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Organizations increasingly initiate Internet-based innovation-contest communities through which individuals can interact and contribute to the innovation process. To successfully manage these communities, organizations need to understand what roles members assume, how they communicate and vary in their contribution behavior. In this exploratory study, we investigate the heterogeneous roles of contest participants based on an international innovation-contest community. We identify six user types associated with various behavioral contribution patterns by using cluster and social network analysis. The six user types further differ in their communicative content and contribution quality. Our paper contributes to a better theoretical understanding of distinctive user types in innovation-contest communities, their role in the community, and their contribution to the success of innovation contests in the era of social software. From a managerial perspective, the study provides guidance for contest platform design and appropriate reward structures.
Keywords: co-creation; innovation contests; online communities; user contribution; user roles

Supporting Creative Problem Solving with a Case-Based Reasoning System - Althuizen, Niek; Wierenga, Berend (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Attention for the division of work between computers and humans is growing due to ever-increasing computer capabilities. Over the past decades, creativity support systems (CSSs) have gained ground as a means to enhance individual, group, and organizational creativity. Whereas prior research has focused primarily on the main effects of CSSs, we explore the interaction effects with the creative ability of the individual. In this paper, we investigate the use of the case-based reasoning (CBR) technology, which is based on the principle of analogical reasoning, to aid individuals in solving business problems creatively. The expectations as to why the CBR technology should enhance individual creativity, and under what conditions (i.e., the type and number of cases that are made available), are derived from creative cognition theory, and are tested empirically. In a series of studies, a CBR system loaded with a diverse set of cases was found to enhance the performance of individuals with lower creative ability, but it did not help the most creative individuals. Although the literature suggests that cases from remote problem domains should lead to more novel solutions, loading the CBR system only with cases closely related to the problem domain proved more effective than remote cases only. Finally, loading the CBR system with a larger set of diverse cases was found to positively influence the creativity of the solutions. These findings have the following implications for CSSs and creative cognition theory: (1) when considering the effectiveness of CSSs it is important to take into account the creative ability of the individual (i.e., "one size does not fit all"), (2) making a sufficiently large and diverse set of cases available is better for stimulating creativity, and (3) providing cases that are too remote may be counterproductive. On a practical note, organizations seeking to redesign their division of labor between individuals and machines can easily follow the CBR approach presented here using their own set of cases.
Keywords: case-based reasoning; creative problem solving; creativity support systems; creative cognition theory; domain knowledge; marketing campaigns

Talk Before It's Too Late: Reconsidering the Role of Conversation in Information Systems Project Management - Mastrogiacomo, Stefano; Missonier, Stephanie; Bonazzi, Riccardo (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Effective team coordination is essential for the information systems (IS) projects' success. We present a four-year study, based on design science research, to develop and instantiate a conceptual model-called Coopilot-to improve real-time coordination in IS projects. Coopilot is a simple conversational guide to help IS project managers minimize the number of coordination surprises that arise for teams during their project meetings. Drawing on coordination literature outside the IS research field, we have adapted and instantiated the theory of joint activity developed by psycholinguist Herbert Clark. The results illustrate the value Clark's theory can add to the IS field and both the importance of conversation intended as a new theoretical construct in IS team project coordination as well as the importance of reaching a sufficient level of understanding. Project managers involved in this study who used Coopilot reported both higher levels of confidence that their projects were on a successful path and overall higher levels of team motivation.
Keywords: conversation for coordination; IS project management; IS teams; project management; team coordination

Physical and Electronic Wholesale Markets: An Empirical Analysis of Product Sorting and Market Function - Overby, Eric; Mitra, Sabyasachi (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Markets can yield significant economic benefits by improving transaction efficiency, but effective design is necessary to achieve these benefits. We compare a physical market to a discrete electronic market in the wholesale used vehicle industry to evaluate how their different designs work for different types of transactions. We find that buyers and sellers balance adverse selection costs and other transaction costs when using the two markets, with the physical market serving as the general exchange and the electronic market serving as a spot market for vehicles with low adverse selection risk. These findings increase our understanding of how sellers and buyers distribute supply and demand between physical and electronic markets in industries in which they coexist. They also increase our understanding of how information technology can improve market function in wholesale environments.
Keywords: competitive effects of IS; electronic auctions; electronic financial markets; electronic market assessment; electronic market design; IT effects on industry structure; longitudinal research; market structure; network economics

Launching Successful E Markets: A Broker-Level Order-Routing Analysis of Two Options Exchanges - Parker, Chris; Weber, Bruce W (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
New e-markets try in a number of ways to attract a critical mass of participation and usage. Two innovative, all-electronic options exchanges, the International Securities Exchange (ISE) and the Boston Options Exchange (BOX), opened for trading in 2000 and 2004. In contrast to rival floor markets, they offer immediate order execution, direct user access, and reduced costs. As a result, ISE and BOX grew trading volumes and won market share from four incumbent exchanges in the United States. We observe significant differences between broker order-routing practices across ISE and BOX, leading to the markets’ different growth patterns. We develop and test hypotheses about new market growth using a panel of six years of quarterly disclosures from 24 major brokerage firms. We find that membership affiliations are the dominant force in predicting brokers’ order-routing patterns. In contrast to prior research, network externalities, as measured by an exchange’s previous quarter market share, are not significant predictors after controlling for temporal heterogeneity. From our results, executives of new electronic exchanges should concentrate on developing broker exchange affiliation and incentive schemes in order to achieve sustainable order levels. Furthermore, keeping a keen eye on the competitive landscape and reacting to changes in current and prospective competitors’ affiliation structures may prove the most beneficial way to ensure continued success. Top management must identify the relative advantages of new entrants’ affiliation structures and respond accordingly. A new entrant that provides incentives through a novel affiliation structure can be routed significant orders if the incumbent exchange does not react swiftly and effectively. The results are not limited to analyzing electronic exchanges but, we expect, to many situations where competing information technology platforms also benefit from user affiliation and network effects.
Keywords: adverse selection; automotive sector; electronic markets; market design; online markets; physical markets; quality sorting; transaction costs

The Impact of Buy-Now Features in Pay-per-Bid Auctions - Reiner, Jochen; Natter, Martin; Skiera, Bernd (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Pay-per-bid auctions require all bidders to pay for every bid. However, paying bidding fees without receiving the auction item in return often causes high dissatisfaction among losers, resulting in heated discussions and high churn rates. To reduce these negative reactions, pay-per-bid auctioneers created the Buy-Now feature, which allows losers to put all or part of the bidding fees that they paid during an auction toward buying the auction item. Using unique data, including individual customer bidding histories and cost data from more than 6,800 pay-per-bid auctions, we find that, overall, the Buy-Now feature leads to more aggressive bidding behavior, attracts more bidders, increases loyalty, and results in a higher profit per auction. However, for voucher auctions that represent common value auctions, the Buy-Now feature causes a decrease in the number of bidders and the profit per auction, although we find an increase in the average number of bids per bidder. We also show theoretically that a bidder can pursue a risk-free bidding strategy. However, we find empirically that bidders rarely use this strategy.
Keywords: Buy-Now feature; Buy-Now prices; electronic auctions; online marketing; online retailing; pay-per-bid auctions; penny auctions

Customized Bundling and Consumption Variety of Digital Information Goods - Bockstedt, Jesse C; Goh, Kim Huat (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Customized bundling retail strategies have become increasingly popular online. In customized bundling, consumers decide the bundle’s components, and the effects of this change on consumption variety have important implications for information goods retailers. Although reduction in transaction and search costs increases supply-side product variety, customized bundling can introduce new types of friction in the consumption process. We show that customization of information good bundles reduces consumption variety through two effects: design cost effects and compromise effects. We present the results of three behavioral experiments and an empirical study using sales data from a national music retailer. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the effects of customized bundling on search costs and demand-side dynamics. The results provide insights for information goods retailers on the effects of design and search costs on consumer purchasing behavior. Implications for the design of retail platforms for customizable information goods are discussed.
Keywords: behavioral economics; bundling; content bundling; customization; e commerce; information goods; mass customization

Determinants of Mobile Apps’ Success: Evidence from the App Store Market - Lee, Gunwoong; Raghu, TS; Raghu, T S (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Mobile applications markets with app stores have introduced a new approach to define and sell software applications with access to a large body of heterogeneous consumer population. This research examines key seller- and app-level characteristics that impact success in an app store market. We tracked individual apps and their presence in the top-grossing 300 chart in Apple’s App Store and examined how factors at different levels affect the apps’ survival in the top 300 chart. We used a generalized hierarchical modeling approach to measure sales performance, and confirmed the results with the use of a hazard model and a count regression model. We find that broadening app offerings across multiple categories is a key determinant that contributes to a higher probability of survival in the top charts. App-level attributes such as free app offers, high initial ranks, investment in less-popular (less-competitive) categories, continuous quality updates, and high-volume and high-user review scores have positive effects on apps’ sustainability. In general, each diversification decision across a category results in an approximately 15 percent increase in the presence of an app in the top charts. Survival rates for free apps are up to two times more than that for paid apps. Quality (feature) updates to apps can contribute up to a threefold improvement in survival rate as well. A key implication of the results of this study is that sellers must utilize the natural segmentation in consumer tastes offered by the different categories to improve sales performance.
Keywords: app markets; apps; m-commerce; mobile software sustainability; product portfolio management; survival analysis

Gifting and Status in Virtual Worlds - Goode, Sigi; Shailer, Greg; Wilson, Mark; Jankowski, Jaroslaw (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
While profitable business models elude many virtual worlds, sales of virtual products are a potentially lucrative source of revenue. One new addition to this strategy is virtual gifting, whereby users purchase virtual products to give to other users. The monetary value of such virtual good transactions is economically significant but no prior study has examined this phenomenon in a strictly virtual context. We apply theory from the economics literature to examine gifting behavior in a virtual world in which users’ social status is reflected in observable social connections (friendships) and interactions (personal messages). We find strong evidence that gifting is associated with future enhancements of the gift giver’s social status, consistent with a social status–seeking motivation, thus confirming a theorized behavior that is difficult to study in the real world. Our study has implications for system proprietors and managers because we show that gift giving increases system use continuance. We identify various antecedents of gift giving, which may assist a manager in identifying users who are most inclined to give gifts and enable the manager to signal the social exchange benefits to users as a way of improving their social connections.
Keywords: gift economy; MMOG; status in virtual worlds; virtual gifts; virtual worlds

Digital Piracy, Teens, and the Source of Advice: An Experimental Study - Hashim, Matthew J; Kannan, Karthik N; Maximiano, Sandra; Ulmer, Jackie Rees (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
The objective of our paper is to determine the effect of piracy advice from various sources on the behavior of the music consumer. Specifically, does it matter if the source of advice has a stake in the outcome of the piracy decision? Does it matter if the source of advice has a social tie with the advisee? Accordingly, we conduct a laboratory experiment using teenagers and their parents as subjects, increasing the realism of the context by sampling potential pirates and their parents. Treatments represent various sources of piracy advice (e.g., the teen’s parent, a record label, or an external regulator). Subjects make decisions playing our new experimental game—The Piracy Game—extended from the volunteer’s dilemma literature. Interestingly, subjects respond negatively to advice from record labels over time, purchasing fewer songs as compared to other sources such as the subject’s parent. The existence of a social tie between the adviser and the subject assists in mitigating piracy, especially when a parent is facing potential penalties due to his or her child’s behavior. An external regulator, having no social tie or stake in the decision, provides the least credible source of advice, leading to the greatest amount of piracy. Our analyses not only provide managerial insights but also develop theoretical understanding of the role of social ties in the context of advice.
Keywords: advice effectiveness; experimental economics; music consumers; music markets; music piracy; online piracy; volunteer’s dilemma

Collaborative Demand Forecasting: Toward the Design of an Exception-Based Forecasting Mechanism - Dong, Yan; Huang, Xiaowen; Sinha, Kingshuk K; Xu, Kefeng (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Sharing of truthful information involving business intelligence between supply chain partners is a challenge on account of the asymmetric nature of the information, where one party possesses information such as market intelligence that is neither available in the public domain nor verifiable through third parties. While busesinss-to-business (B2B) technology solutions, such as CPFR (collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment), facilitate the sharing of historical information (e.g., transaction records), business intelligence (e.g., potential customer demand) is considered private. Central to CPFR is collaborative demand forecasting (CDF) that allows supply chain partners to share private demand information and incorporate the jointly derived demand forecast into production planning and product replenishment decisions. Implementing CDF, however, is a challenge because of the high costs of the laborious collaboration effort (e.g., to resolve forecast differences). Hence, companies are unable to realize the benefits of CDF and, in turn, the full potential of CPFR. Typically, the issues of information truthfulness and collaboration cost are addressed through an exception management mechanism that defines a range of forecast updates within which collaboration is automated without any human intervention in B2B trading partners. In this paper, we develop incentive-based contracts that explicitly consider the truth-telling behavior and exception resolution in decisions related to the threshold values of demand information. Our first contribution to B2B information management is in establishing the strategic value of exception management and resolution mechanisms in B2B relationships, leading to truthful revelation of demand information. Our second contribution is in developing exception-based incentive contracts, especially in light of the advances in today’s business practices and technology, to address issues associated with unobservable and asymmetric demand information. Specifically, we propose a resolution contract to coordinate the supply chain that directly incorporates both exceptions and resolution in an incentive mechanism. We show that these alternative contracts are all viable solutions in assuring truthful exchange of demand information but excel individually in specific situations and, thus, provide practitioners with alternative demand collaboration tools when price negotiation is not an option.
Keywords: B2B commerce; collaborative commerce; collaborative demand forecasting; collaborative planning; exception-based incentive mechanism; forecasting and replenishment; information sharing; supply chain management

Understanding Employee Responses to Stressful Information Security Requirements: A Coping Perspective - D’Arcy, John; Herath, Tejaswini; Shoss, Mindy K (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
We use coping theory to explore an underlying relationship between employee stress caused by burdensome, complex, and ambiguous information security requirements (termed “security-related stress” or SRS) and deliberate information security policy (ISP) violations. Results from a survey of 539 employee users suggest that SRS engenders an emotion-focused coping response in the form of moral disengagement from ISP violations, which in turn increases one’s susceptibility to this behavior. Our multidimensional view of SRS—comprised of security-related overload, complexity, and uncertainty—offers a new perspective on the workplace environment factors that foster noncompliant user behavior and inspire cognitive rationalizations of such behavior. The study extends technostress research to the information systems security domain and provides a theoretical framework for the influence of SRS on user behavior. For practitioners, the results highlight the incidence of SRS in organizations and suggest potential mechanisms to counter the stressful effects of information security requirements.
Keywords: coping theory; ethical orientation; information security; moral disengagement theory; sanctions; security compliance; security policies; security policy violation; social cognitive theory; technostress; workplace stress

Relational Contracts, Growth Options, and Heterogeneous Beliefs: A Game-Theoretic Perspective on Information Technology Outsourcing - Li, Xiaotong (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
More companies have realized that information technology (IT) outsourcing, once viewed as a cost reduction tool, could facilitate and even enable the transformation of their core business processes. The benefits from a potential outsourcing relationship expansion have strategic implications for relational incentive provision. Modeling “information poaching” in IT outsourcing as an incentive problem with contractibility constraints, our analysis shows that this problem could be mitigated in a repeated game where the outsourcing client and the service provider agree on a relational contract. When the two partners share the belief that they can potentially benefit from a future relationship expansion, they are more likely to behave cooperatively during the early stages of their relationship. However, when they disagree about the likelihood of the future relationship expansion, they will have different preferences on a set of otherwise equivalent relational bonus contracts. Specifically, they will adopt a relational contract with large but infrequent bonuses when the client is more optimistic than the service provider about the potential of their relationship. Because these results hold even when the sourcing partners’ beliefs are very close to each other, our analysis sheds fresh light on the issue of equilibrium selection in relational contract theory. In the context of IT outsourcing, the results of this study suggest that, because salient forms of relational bonuses are often not adopted, relational incentive provision is likely more pervasive than what we can observe.
Keywords: contractibility; equilibrium selection; growth options; heterogeneous beliefs; IT outsourcing; outsourcing contracts; relational contracts; repeated games

Healthcare IT Adoption: An Analysis of Knowledge Transfer in Socioeconomic Networks - Peng, Gang; Dey, Debabrata; Lahiri, Atanu (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Despite the potential of health information technology (HIT) systems to significantly reduce medical errors, streamline clinical processes, contain healthcare costs, and ultimately improve the quality of healthcare, their adoption by hospitals in the United States has been rather slow. To study this adoption process and get insights into the underlying mechanisms, in this work we synthesize the theories on social networks and knowledge transfer. We propose a research framework in which the absorptive capacity of a potential adopter and the collective disseminative capacity of connected adopters act as two key determinants of knowledge transfer in a socioeconomic network, and these two capacities substitute for each other in affecting HIT adoption. We also propose that, in a network setting, the mechanism of knowledge transfer manifests quite differently from that of social contagion in its impact on the diffusion process at different stages of adoption. Using a large longitudinal data set covering adoption decisions of more than five thousand hospitals across a thirteen-year horizon, we find strong support for our hypotheses. Our analysis shows that knowledge flow in provider networks plays a key role in fostering technology diffusion in initial years, allowing the contagion effect to set in sooner for quicker adoption in later years. Therefore, recent efforts at multiple levels to form integrated healthcare delivery networks should accelerate HIT adoption.
Keywords: absorptive capacity; disseminative capacity; healthcare; healthcare information system; healthcare information technology; healthcare information technology adoption; integrated healthcare delivery system; knowledge transfer; social network

Intermediation in a Sharing Economy: Insurance, Moral Hazard, and Rent Extraction - Weber, Thomas A (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
A key impediment to sharing is a lender’s concern about damage to a lent item due to unobservable actions by a renter, usually resulting in moral hazard. This paper shows how an intermediary can eliminate the moral hazard problem by providing optimal insurance to the lender and first-best incentives to the renter to exert care, as long as market participants are risk neutral. The solution is illustrated for the collaborative housing market but applies in principle to any sharing market with vertically differentiated goods. A population of renters, heterogeneous both in their preferences for housing quality and with respect to the amount of care they exert in a rental situation, face a choice between collaborative housing and staying at a local hotel. The private hosts choose their prices strategically, and the intermediary sets commission rates on both sides of the market as well as insurance terms for the rental agreement. The latter are set to eliminate moral hazard. The intermediary is able to extract the gains the hosts would earn if transacting directly. Finally, even if hotels set their prices at the outset so as to maximize collusive profits, collaborative housing persists at substantial market shares, regardless of the difference between the efficiencies of hosts and hotels to reduce renters’ cost of effort. The aggregate of hosts, intermediary, and hotels benefits from (a variety in) these effort costs, which indicates that the intermediated sharing of goods is an economically viable, robust phenomenon.
Keywords: collaborative consumption; digital economy; incentive contracting; intermediation; moral hazard; optimal insurance; sharing economy; trust

Augmenting Conflict Resolution with Informational Response: A Holistic View of Governance Choice in Business Process Outsourcing - Barua, Anitesh; Mani, Deepa (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
We develop a holistic model of governance choice in business process outsourcing (BPO) that represents a highly information-intensive form of outsourcing. We integrate perspectives from neoinstitutional economics and the information-processing view (IPV) of the firm. We argue that the governance structure in BPO is chosen not only to address opportunism concerns arising from relational uncertainty to and encourage cooperation, as suggested by institutional economics, but also as an informational response to task and relational uncertainty to encourage coordination between exchange partners. Using the lens of IPV, we posit that uncertainty in the outsourced task increases the information requirements (IR) of the BPO relationship, which, in turn, leads to more hierarchical governance structures. We also suggest that in addition to directly influencing governance choice, relational uncertainty, a key construct in transaction cost economics (TCE), increases IR, and hence has an indirect impact on governance choice. Furthermore, we hypothesize that technological capabilities enable more hierarchical governance in response to increasing IR needs. Data on 130 BPO initiatives provide empirical support for our hypotheses regarding the drivers of IR, its impact on governance choice, and the moderating role of technological capabilities. Our study contributes to theory by integrating the premises of TCE and IPV in the context of BPO, and to practice by underscoring the need to consider information requirements in designing appropriate coordination and collaboration processes.
Keywords: business process outsourcing; cooperation; coordination; governance; hierarchy; information requirements; uncertainty

Autonomous Scientifically Controlled Screening Systems for Detecting Information Purposely Concealed by Individuals - Twyman, Nathan W; Lowry, Paul Benjamin; Burgoon, Judee K; Nunamaker, Jay F (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Screening individuals for concealed information has traditionally been the purview of professional interrogators investigating crimes. However, the ability to detect when a person is hiding important information would have high value in many other applications if results could be reliably obtained using an automated and rapid interviewing system. Unfortunately, this ideal has thus far been stymied by practical limitations and inadequate scientific control in current interviewing systems. This study proposes a new class of systems, termed autonomous scientifically controlled screening systems (ASCSS), designed to detect individuals’ purposely hidden information about target topics of interest. These hidden topics of interest could cover a wide range, including knowledge of concealed weapons, privacy violations, fraudulent organizational behavior, organizational security policy violations, preemployment behavioral intentions, organizational insider threat, leakage of classified information, or even consumer product use information. ASCSS represent a systematic synthesis of structured interviewing, orienting theory, defensive response theory, noninvasive psychophysiological measurement, and behavioral measurement. To evaluate and enhance the design principles, we built a prototype automated screening kiosk system and configured it for a physical security screening scenario in which participants constructed and attempted to smuggle a fake improvised explosive device. The positive results provide support for the proposition that ASCSS may afford more widespread application of credibility assessment screening systems.
Keywords: automated screening kiosk; autonomous scientifically controlled screening system; concealed information test; credibility assessment; deception detection; defensive response; design science; eye-tracking measures; orienting response; physical security

Digital Natives or Digital Immigrants? The Impact of User Characteristics on Online Trust - Hoffmann, Christian Pieter; Lutz, Christoph; Meckel, Miriam (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Previous research suggests that user characteristics such as web experience and demographics may affect online trust. Drawing on social cognitive theory, we explore the moderating effect of user characteristics on online trust. Based on a survey of German Internet users, we differentiate three groups by age, web experience, and education. We term these groups digital natives, digital immigrants, and naturalized digitals. A multiple-group analysis reveals significant differences in trust formation, particularly in the cues considered in the evaluation of online services. Whereas a large user base inspires confidence in digital natives, naturalized digitals are more geared toward familiar brands and recommendations. Digital immigrants most critically weigh the risks of a transaction against its benefits. We argue that specific user characteristics are associated with distinct cognitive schemata, implying distinct interests and evaluations in online transactions. Online services should differentiate their signaling efforts according to the targeted customer group.
Keywords: e-business; online trust; trust cues; web user characteristics; website signaling

Drivers of Quantity and Quality of Participation in Online Policy Deliberation Forums - Phang, Chee Wei; Kankanhalli, Atreyi; Huang, Lihua (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Online policy deliberation forums (OPDFs) have been increasingly initiated by governments to allow citizens to provide their input and discuss policy issues. Yet, failure to garner participation, in terms of both quantity and quality, prevents the realization of their benefits. In this regard, prior research has suggested different antecedents for the quantity and quality of participation in online forums, but without systematically considering their differences. To address this research gap, in this study we develop a theoretical model to explain the antecedents of quantity and quality of OPDF participation and test the model using a survey and content analysis of forum logs. The results indicate that quantity of participation is enhanced by the information-technology-enabled resource factor of communality but negatively influenced by collective incentives. In contrast, the antecedents of the quality of participation include both motivational and resource factors. Furthermore, communality accentuates the perceived collective incentives and persuasion benefit of participation. This study contributes to the research by proposing and testing a theoretical model that explains the different antecedents of the quantity and quality of participation in OPDFs. More broadly, the findings inform research and practice on how outcomes of web-enabled cocreation, such as those generated through OPDF participation, can be evaluated and enhanced in these online communities.
Keywords: cocreation; online policy deliberation forum; participation theory; public policy deliberation; quality of participation; quantity of participation

Classifying, Measuring, and Predicting Users’ Overall Active Behavior on Social Networking Sites - Chen, Aihui; Lu, Yaobin; Chau, Patrick YK; Gupta, Sumeet (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Although understanding the role of users’ overall active behavior on a social networking site (SNS) is of significant importance for both theory and practice, the complexity and difficulty involved in measuring such behavior has inhibited research attention. To understand users’ active behaviors on an SNS, it is important that we identify and classify various types of online behaviors before measuring them. In this paper we holistically examine users’ active behaviors on an SNS. Toward this end, we conduct three studies. First, we classify active behaviors on an SNS into four categories using the Delphi method. Then, we develop a measurement model and validate it using the data collected from an online survey of 477 SNS users. The measures of the developed instrument exhibit satisfactory reliability and validity and are used as indicators of the latent constructs. This instrument is then used in a predictive model based on commitment theory and tested using data from 1,242 responses. The results of data analysis suggest that affective commitment and continuance commitment are good predictors of overall active behavior on an SNS. This study complements the existing research on social media, cocreation, and social commerce. Most important, this study provides a theoretically sound measurement instrument that addresses the complex characteristic of overall active behavior on an SNS and which should be useful for future research. The findings of this study have important implications for practice as they highlight managing and stimulating users’ active behaviors on an SNS.
Keywords: Delphi study; measurement model; social media; social networking site; user commitment; users’ active behavior

Delivery Consolidation and Service Competition Among Internet Service Providers - Chiang, I Robert; Jhang-Li, Jhih-Hua (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
The infrastructure of the Internet, by and large, is maintained by Internet service providers (ISPs) that cater to regional customers and by Internet backbone providers (IBPs) that serve large organizations and ISPs. Some IBPs have recently branched into content delivery network (CDN) services; separately, other ISPs have started offering on-demand video streaming to compete with pure-play content providers. These developments have intensified the competition in both content delivery and media-streaming markets. For the content delivery market, we study the competition equilibriums by analyzing factors such as market share, cost structure, service pricing, and subscriber preference. Our approach helps identify conditions under which a content provider should choose an IBP over the incumbent CDN for content distribution. We also show how an IBP’s CDN venture affects its interconnection relationship with ISPs. For the streaming service market, we examine conditions under which a content provider would partner with an ISP to lower operating and marketing costs while providing a more streamlined subscriber experience. Analytically, our game-theoretical models can optimize key contracting and pricing strategies for multiple classes of service providers; empirically, insights derived from the proposed models have anticipated events that coincide with several recent developments in content delivery and streaming service markets.
Keywords: content delivery network; Internet service provider; media streaming; peering and transit; service pricing

Understanding the Drivers of Unethical Programming Behavior: The Inappropriate Reuse of Internet-Accessible Code - Sojer, Manuel; Alexy, Oliver; Kleinknecht, Sven; Henkel, Joachim (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
Programming is riddled with ethical issues. Although extant literature explains why individuals in IT would act unethically in many situations, we know surprisingly little about what causes them to do so during the creative act of programming. To address this issue, we look at the reuse of Internet-accessible code: software source code legally available for gratis download from the Internet. Specifically, we scrutinize the reasons why individuals would unethically reuse such code by not checking or purposefully violating its accompanying license obligations, thus risking harm for their employer. By integrating teleological and deontological ethical judgments into a theory of planned behavior model—using elements of expected utility, deterrence, and ethical work climate theory—we construct an original theoretical framework to capture individuals’ decision-making process leading to the unethical reuse of Internet-accessible code. We test this framework with a unique survey of 869 professional software developers. Our findings advance the theoretical and practical understanding of ethical behavior in information systems. We show that programmers use consequentialist ethical judgments when carrying out creative tasks and that ethical work climates influence programmers indirectly through their peers’ judgment of what is appropriate behavior. For practice, where code reuse promises substantial efficiency and quality gains, our results highlight that firms can prevent unethical code reuse by informing developers of its negative consequences, building a work climate that fosters compliance with laws and professional codes, and making sure that excessive time pressure is avoided.
Keywords: code reuse; ethical behavior; information systems ethics; Internet-accessible code; open source software; partial least squares; programming ethics; theory of planned behavior

Effects of Freemium Strategy in the Mobile App Market: An Empirical Study of Google Play - Liu, Charles Zhechao; Au, Yoris A; Choi, Hoon Seok (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014)
This paper examines the effect of the freemium strategy on Google Play, an online marketplace for Android mobile applications. By analyzing a large panel data set consisting of 711 ranked mobile apps, we found that the freemium strategy is positively associated with increased sales of the paid mobile apps. Positive trial experience as represented by high review rating of the free version of a mobile app leads to higher sales of its paid version, whereas high visibility of the free version of a mobile app as represented by its product rank does not have a significant impact on the sales of its paid version. This finding suggests that although offering a free trial version is a viable way to improve the visibility of a mobile app, offering a quality free app is more important in boosting sales of the paid app. Moreover, we found that the impact of review rating is reduced when the free version is offered, or when the mobile app is a hedonic app, because consumers have the ability to experience the app themselves before purchase. These findings extend understanding of the freemium business model to include a market characterized by simultaneous intramarket competition for both the freemium and paid products and demonstrate how such dynamics may influence sales of the paid products.
Keywords: Android; freemium; Google Play; mobile apps; online product rank; online reviews

The Role of Self-Control in Information Security Violations: Insights from a Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective - Hu, Qing; West, Robert; Smarandescu, Laura (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Self-control has been identified as a major factor influencing individual behavior in the social science, neuroscience, criminology, and information security literatures. In this study, we first developed and validated a novel paradigm suitable for use with event-related potentials (ERPs) in scenario-based laboratory experiments of decision making in the context of information security. We then used this paradigm to examine the association between individual differences in self-control and ERPs elicited while individuals deliberated over violations of information security policies. Our results show that the left and right hemispheres of the brain were involved in decision making, and that the participants with low self-control had lower levels of neural recruitment in both hemispheres relative to those with high self-control. This was especially the case for regions in or near the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and inferior frontal cortex (IFC). These results extend the findings in neuroscience literature related to the role of self-control in decision making in general, and validate a new paradigm for use with the electroencephalography/event-related potentials (EEG/ERP) technique to examine theoretical questions in information security and criminology research.
Keywords: information security; neuroscience; self-control; policy compliance; neural correlates; electroencephalography (EEG); event-related potentials (ERPs); NeuroIS

The Behavioral Roots of Information Systems Security: Exploring Key Factors Related to Unethical IT Use - Chatterjee, Sutirtha; Sarker, Suprateek; Valacich, Joseph S (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Unethical information technology (IT) use, related to activities such as hacking, software piracy, phishing, and spoofing, has become a major security concern for individuals, organizations, and society in terms of the threat to information systems (IS) security. While there is a growing body of work on this phenomenon, we notice several gaps, limitations, and inconsistencies in the literature. In order to further understand this complex phenomenon and reconcile past findings, we conduct an exploratory study to uncover the nomological network of key constructs salient to this phenomenon, and the nature of their interrelationships. Using a scenario-based study of young adult participants, and both linear and nonlinear analyses, we uncover key nuances of this phenomenon of unethical IT use. We find that unethical IT use is a complex phenomenon, often characterized by nonlinear and idiosyncratic relationships between the constructs that capture it. Overall, ethical beliefs held by the individuals, along with economic, social, and technological considerations are found to be relevant to this phenomenon. In terms of practical implications, these results suggest that multiple interventions at various levels may be required to combat this growing threat to IS security.
Keywords: unethical IT use; ethics; information ethics; information systems security; nonlinear analysis

Chasing Lemmings: Modeling IT-Induced Misperceptions About the Strategic Situation as a Reason for Flash Crashes - Brandt, Tobias; Neumann, Dirk (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Flash crashes, perceived as sharp drops in market prices that rebound shortly after, have turned the public eye toward the vulnerability of information technology-based stock trading. In this paper, we explain flash crashes as the result of actions made by rational agents. We argue that the advancement of information technology (IT), which has long been associated with competitive advantages, may cause ambiguities with respect to the game form that give rise to a hypergame. We employ hypergame theory to demonstrate that a market crash constitutes an equilibrium state if players misperceive the true game. Once the ambiguity is resolved, prices readjust to the appropriate level, creating the characteristic flash-crash effect. By analyzing the interaction with herd behavior, we find that flash crashes may be an unavoidable systemic problem of modern financial markets.
Keywords: flash crash; game theory; impact of IT, hypergames

Enhancing Predictive Analytics for Anti-Phishing by Exploiting Website Genre Information - Abbasi, Ahmed; Zahedi, Fatemeh “Mariam”; Zeng, Daniel; Chen, Yan; Chen, Hsinchun; Nunamaker, Jay F (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Phishing websites continue to successfully exploit user vulnerabilities in household and enterprise settings. Existing anti-phishing tools lack the accuracy and generalizability needed to protect Internet users and organizations from the myriad of attacks encountered daily. Consequently, users often disregard these tools’ warnings. In this study, using a design science approach, we propose a novel method for detecting phishing websites. By adopting a genre theoretic perspective, the proposed genre tree kernel method utilizes fraud cues that are associated with differences in purpose between legitimate and phishing websites, manifested through genre composition and design structure, resulting in enhanced anti-phishing capabilities. To evaluate the genre tree kernel method, a series of experiments were conducted on a testbed encompassing thousands of legitimate and phishing websites. The results revealed that the proposed method provided significantly better detection capabilities than state-of-the-art anti-phishing methods. An additional experiment demonstrated the effectiveness of the genre tree kernel technique in user settings; users utilizing the method were able to better identify and avoid phishing websites, and were consequently less likely to transact with them. Given the extensive monetary and social ramifications associated with phishing, the results have important implications for future anti-phishing strategies. More broadly, the results underscore the importance of considering intention/purpose as a critical dimension for automated credibility assessment: focusing not only on the “what” but rather on operationalizing the “why” into salient detection cues.
Keywords: design science; data mining; phishing websites; genre theory; Internet fraud; website genres; credibility assessment; phishing

Exploring Knowledge Filtering Processes in Electronic Networks of Practice - Fadel, Kelly J; Meservy, Thomas O; Jensen, Matthew L (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Electronic networks of practice (ENPs) have become an important mechanism for knowledge exchange among loosely connected individuals who share common knowledge interests. While prior research has explored factors that influence knowledge contribution in such networks, less is understood about the process by which individuals evaluate and ultimately adopt knowledge from ENPs. This study examines the process of knowledge filtering in online ENP forums. Drawing from dual process and information-evaluation theories, we hypothesize that performance on a knowledge-filtering task will be influenced by the constancy and directionality of search patterns employed by knowledge seekers. Hypotheses are tested in an experiment that utilized an eye tracker to record gaze data from professional software developers using an experimental ENP forum. By combining information-evaluation and dual process theory perspectives, our results deepen the insights offered in extant information-processing literature by showing that higher filtering accuracy is associated with (a) constant evaluation of some types of information attributes (solution content) but not others (peripheral cues), and (b) increasing attribute-based processing over time.
Keywords: electronic networks of practice; filtering; knowledge evaluation; constancy; directionality; field experiment; eye tracking

Bundling Effects on Variety Seeking for Digital Information Goods - Adomavicius, Gediminas; Bockstedt, Jesse; Curley, Shawn P (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Prior research with consumable goods has consistently found that consumers have a preference for greater variety when selecting items simultaneously as a bundle, rather than as a sequential series of individual decisions. However, digital information goods have a number of important differences from consumable goods that may impact variety-seeking behavior. In three experiments, we address two general research questions. First, as a precursor to studying digital goods, we disentangle the role of bundle cohesion (i.e., item relatedness) from the role of timing (simultaneous vs. sequential choice) as factors in variety seeking with consumable goods. Next, based on differences between digital and consumable goods, we theorize differences in the behavioral effects of bundle cohesion and timing on variety preferences for digital goods. The results show a reduction of influences upon variety-seeking behavior with digital goods, providing important implications for the sellers of such goods in contrast to what has been suggested for consumable goods. Therefore, a key takeaway is that, for digital goods such as music, the use of consumer-driven bundling variations does not suggest an advantage in terms of their ability to affect consumers’ variety-seeking behavior.
Keywords: variety seeking; digital goods; information goods; bundled goods; simultaneous choice; sequential choice; bundle cohesion

Enticing and Engaging Consumers via Online Product Presentations: The Effects of Restricted Interaction Design - Yi, Cheng; Jiang, Zhenhui (Jack); Benbasat, Izak (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
This work investigates the effects of three different online product presentation formats, namely, a noninteractive video presentation and two virtual product experience (VPE) presentations (full interaction and restricted interaction), on engaging users in online product experience as well as enticing users to try products offline. The experimental results show that restricted interaction, which deprives users of part of the interactive product experience, is more enticing than both the noninteractive and fully interactive design for users with more product-class knowledge. In addition, restricted interaction is generally as good as full interaction in engaging users. Both engagement and enticement positively affect users’ purchase intentions. This study contributes to the information systems literature by extending the theory in curiosity formation to the interaction design context and advocating designs for enticement. It contributes to design practice by revealing that less interactive and less costly presentations can be more effective in attracting consumers toward the products.
Keywords: virtual product experience (VPE); restricted interaction; full interaction; enticement; engagement; purchase intention; online product presentation; online video; online selling

Impact of Recommender System on Competition Between Personalizing and Non-Personalizing Firms - Ghoshal, Abhijeet; Kumar, Subodha; Mookerjee, Vijay (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
How do recommender systems affect prices and profits of firms under competition? To explore this question, we model the strategic behavior of customers who make repeated purchases at two competing firms: one that provides personalized recommendations and another that does not. When a customer intends to purchase a product, she obtains recommendations from the personalizing firm and uses this recommendation to eventually purchase from one of the firms. The personalizing firm profiles the customer (based on past purchases) to recommend products. Hence, if a customer purchases less frequently from the personalizing firm, the recommendations made to her become less relevant. While considering the impact on the quality of recommendations received, a customer must balance two opposing forces: (1) the lower price charged by the non-personalizing firm, and (2) an additional fit cost incurred when purchasing from the non-personalizing firm and the increased cost due to recommendations of reduced quality in the future. An outcome of the analysis is that the customers should distribute their purchases across both firms to maximize surplus over a planning horizon. Anticipating this response, the firms simultaneously choose prices. We study the sensitivity of the equilibrium prices and profits of the firms with respect to the effectiveness of the recommender system and the profile deterioration rate. We also analyze some interesting variants of the base model in order to study how its key results could be influenced. One of the key takeaways of this research is that the recommender system can influence the price and profit of not only the personalizing firm but also the non-personalizing firm.
Keywords: recommender systems; duopoly; pricing; dynamic optimization; online competition; Nash equilibrium

Are You Feeling Lonely? The Impact of Relationship Characteristics and Online Social Network Features on Loneliness - Matook, Sabine; Cummings, Jeff; Bala, Hillol (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
In contemporary society, many people move away from their personal networks for extended periods to reach professional and/or educational goals. This separation can often lead to feelings of loneliness, which can be stressful and sometimes debilitating for the individual. We seek to understand how a person’s use of online social networks (OSNs)—technology-enabled tools that assist users with creating and maintaining their relationships—might affect their perceptions of loneliness. Prior research has offered mixed results about how OSNs affect loneliness—reporting both positive and negative effects. We argue in this study that a clearer perspective can be gained by taking a closer look at how individuals approach their relationship management in OSNs. Building on theoretical works on loneliness, we develop a model to explain the effects of relationship characteristics (i.e., relationship orientation, self-disclosure, and networking ability) and OSN features (i.e., active or passive) on perceived loneliness. Our findings show that OSN can be linked to both more and less perceived loneliness, that is, individuals’ relationship orientation significantly affects their feelings of loneliness, which are further moderated by their degree of self-disclosure within the OSN. Furthermore, how users engage in the OSN (either actively or passively) influences their perceptions of loneliness. Practical implications regarding perceived loneliness include recommendations for firms to encourage mobile workers to utilize OSNs when separated from others, for education providers to connect with their new students before they arrive, and for users to utilize OSNs as a social bridge to others they feel close with.
Keywords: social media; online social networks; loneliness; relationship management; communal orientation; social exchange theory; self-disclosure; networking ability

Understanding the Influence of Instant Messaging on Ending Concessions During Negotiations - Johnson, Norman A; Cooper, Randolph B (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
In many online price negotiations, instant messaging (IM) and audio channels rival each other in use, but IM’s use is on the rise. In these contexts, people who are strangers to each other are inclined to act more competitively. They are driven by self-interest and strive for greater gains from agreement in the form of what is termed “ending concessions.” To date, however, researchers have focused on striving for agreement as the main goal of negotiators. This study uses a selfishness theory to explain how individuals using IM, as compared to those using audio, can encourage their negotiation partners to make ending concessions, and thereby increase individuals’ gains when agreement is reached. We use data from a negotiation laboratory experiment to test a model of ending concessions that is predicted by unrestricted offers and comments that negotiators make over IM and audio. We base our analyses on the contents of the resulting communications. The objects of negotiation are simulated lottery tickets. Our results provide three key insights. First, when using IM, partners appear to interpret offers that include concessions from individuals as attempts to manipulate partners into accepting non-equitable agreements; as a result partners decrease their ending concessions. These interpretations do not appear to occur when using audio, and as a result individuals’ concessions do not decrease partners’ ending concessions. Second, using IM, when individuals disagree with anger directed at partners’ bidding behaviors, partners respond by increasing their ending concessions. Ending concessions are further increased when using audio. Third, and in contrast, using IM, when individuals disagree with emotion that does not include anger, partners respond by decreasing their ending concessions. Ending concessions are further decreased when using audio. These insights provide guidance for practice, and are bases for future research on the use of IM and audio for negotiation.
Keywords: instant messaging; audio; selfishness; agreement; ending concession; self-interest; deindividuation; media; negotiation experiment; lottery; negative reciprocation

The Impact of Firm Learning on Value Creation in Strategic Outsourcing Relationships - Mani, Deepa; Barua, Anitesh (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Information technology (IT) is central to the process execution and management of an ongoing relationship in outsourcing, both of which are fraught with challenges, and often lead to poor business outcomes. Thus, it is important for IT groups in organizations to understand how to deal with such difficulties for improved outsourcing performance. We study whether firms learn over time to deal with these two related but distinct issues in IT and business process outsourcing. Does such learning affect financial value appropriation through outsourcing? We build on the literature in information systems and strategy to investigate whether value creation in outsourcing depends on relational learning that results from prior association with the vendor, and procedural learning that results from prior experience in managing interfirm relationships. We estimate value in terms of long-term abnormal stock returns to the client relative to an industry, size, and book-to-market matched sample of control firms following the implementation of the outsourcing contract. We also analyze announcement period returns and allied wealth effects. Using data from the hundred largest outsourcing deals between 1996 and 2005, we find that whereas relational learning influences value creation in both simple and complex outsourcing engagements, procedural learning impacts value only in complex initiatives. Financial markets are slow to price the value of learning. The results suggest that caution should be exercised when firms without the experience of managing interfirm relationships externalize complex tasks to vendors they have not worked with in the past. Furthermore, IT groups can help improve learning-based outcomes by developing processes and systems that enable a firm to improve outsourcing procedures in a cumulative manner and also to coordinate and collaborate with the vendor.
Keywords: abnormal returns; business process outsourcing; contracts; financial value; market efficiency; organizational learning; outsourcing

The Role of Dynamic Capabilities in Responding to Digital Disruption: A Factor-Based Study of the Newspaper Industry - Karimi, Jahangir; Walter, Zhiping (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Internet and digitization are fundamentally changing and disrupting newspaper companies’ traditional operating models. Disruptive innovation theory offers explanations for why companies succeed or fail to respond to disruptive innovations. This study builds on disruptive innovation theory by ascertaining the role of dynamic capabilities in the performance of response to digital disruption. Empirical results suggest that first-order dynamic capabilities that are created by changing, extending, or adapting a firm’s existing resources, processes, and values are positively associated with building digital platform capabilities, and that these capabilities impact the performance of response to digital disruption. For information systems (IS) researchers, this study clarifies the role of first-order dynamic capabilities in responding to digital disruption. For IS practice, it helps managers to focus on the most promising factors for creating first-order dynamic capabilities, for building digital platform capabilities, and for reinventing their core functions to accelerate digitization.
Keywords: autonomous growth group; common language; digital disruption; digital platforms; digital transformation; digitization; disruptive innovation; innovative culture; multimedia mindset; organizational capabilities; resources-processes-values (RPV) framework; response performance; staged resource allocation

Knowledge Integration in Outsourced Software Development: The Role of Sentry and Guard Processes - Mehta, Nikhil; Bharadwaj, Anandhi (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
We examine the role of sentry and guard activities in outsourced software development. Sentry activities are designed to regulate the inflow of external information to the project teams and guard activities are designed to manage the outflow of teams’ information and resources to external sources. The use of sentry and guard activities has been examined in teams in other contexts such as new product development, but their role and relationship to performance in software development teams is not well understood. We hypothesize and test curvilinear relationships between these activities and knowledge integration in vendor development teams. We also examine how these effects vary under conditions of greater project uncertainty. We tested the hypotheses using data from 139 vendor development teams drawn from sixteen Indian software companies. Results highlight complex curvilinear associations among sentry and guard activities, and knowledge integration, which are further impacted by the level of uncertainty that the project team faces. We recommend that carefully calibrating sentry and guard processes will help vendor development teams enhance project outcomes.
Keywords: guard processes; knowledge integration; project uncertainty; sentry processes; software development; software development teams; software projects; team boundary

Exploitation and Exploration Networks in Open Source Software Development: An Artifact-Level Analysis - Temizkan, Orcun; Kumar, Ram L (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Open source software (OSS) development is an increasingly important paradigm of software development. However, key aspects of OSS such as the determinants of project success and motivations of developers in joining these projects are not well understood. Based on organizational theory, we propose that OSS activities of patch development and feature request can be classified as exploitation (implementation-oriented) and exploration (innovation-oriented) activities, respectively. We empirically examine how the structure of social network affects the success of patch-development and feature-request networks in OSS projects, using a data set collected from the SourceForge database. Our results provide empirical support for the view that patch development and feature request are exploitation and exploration activities, respectively. Network structures differ due to team formation differences and have a differential impact on development success based on the type of activity. The concepts of ambidextrous developers and ambidexterity are explored in the context of OSS projects. Collectively, our results indicate that studying OSS projects at the artifact level could improve our understanding of OSS project success and team formation. This, in turn, could lead to better management of OSS projects.
Keywords: exploitation and exploration; open source software development; project success; social networks; software development; team formation

Temporal Distance, Communication Patterns, and Task Performance in Teams - Espinosa, J Alberto; Nan, Ning; Carmel, Erran (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Drawing on theories on dispersed teamwork, computer-mediated communications, and organizations, we examine the direct associations between temporal distance and team performance as well as the mediating role of team interaction. We tested our research model in a laboratory experiment with four temporal distance conditions. Results show that the direct associations between temporal distance and team performance are substantially diminished when we enter the intervening team communication variables (communication frequency and turn-taking) into the analysis model. We find that communication frequency and turn-taking have differentiated effects on conveyance of information and convergence on its meaning. Conveyance is positively associated with production speed, whereas convergence is positively associated with higher product quality (i.e., accuracy). These findings speak to the theoretical significance of communication patterns and information exchange behaviors in dispersed team research. They also transcend the common wisdom that temporal distance is good for speed and bad for quality.
Keywords: geographically dispersed teams; global teams; team performance; temporal distance; time-zone differences; virtual teams

Lost in Cyberspace: The Impact of Information Scent and Time Constraints on Stress, Performance, and Attitudes Online - Moody, Gregory D; Galletta, Dennis F (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
As competition online increases, website owners investigate ways in which they can attract and retain more users. One avenue is to reduce frustration and stress for the users. Furthermore, many website users are rushed when browsing for specific information on a website. To save time and prevent frustration, website owners should try to maximize information scent, that is, visual, audio, and semantic cues that are meant to lead or guide the user to his or her informational goal. This paper presents and tests a model to predict how information scent can reduce the amount of stress that consumers experience when seeking information under time constraints. The study also demonstrates the relationships between information scent, time constraints, stress, performance, and attitudes toward the website. Results demonstrate that high information scent is an important design goal for a website, and latent semantic analysis can be a useful tool for measuring scent. In addition, rather than an attribute of an overall site, the concept of scent is demonstrated to be dependent on both the website and the task(s) being performed by the user. This finding demonstrates that to maximize users’ satisfaction and ability to accomplish their goals, website designers need to determine what tasks users need to accomplish, and to make sure that the links on each page point clearly to the appropriate destination to meet those goals. The latent semantic analysis tool can provide an indication of strength and clarity of the links. Clear links gain even more importance when considering the time constraints of users. Measurable stress explains some of the variance in performance and attitudes.
Keywords: human–computer interaction; information scent; Internet; latent semantic analysis; online anxiety; online stress

Web Personalization Cues and Their Differential Effects on User Assessments of Website Value - Benlian, Alexander (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Although various kinds of personalization cues are pervasively used on websites, previous research studies have treated web personalization primarily as a coarse-grained, monolithic block (e.g., by comparing personalization vs. nonpersonalization or personalization vs. privacy) rather than as a combination of salient types of personalization cues that may create—either jointly or separately—different effects on user assessments of website value. Based on the stimulus–organism–response framework, we develop a research model that proposes users’ preference fit and perceived enjoyment as two key intervening mechanisms that carry over the differential effects of content and design personalization cues on users’ willingness to stick to a website and to pay for website offerings. In a field experiment with 206 subjects using a real-life news aggregator website, our findings provide evidence in support of different effect paths emanating from content and design personalization cues. Furthermore, we show that the effects of content personalization cues on website stickiness and users’ willingness to pay (WTP) are mediated by both preference fit and perceived enjoyment, whereas design personalization cues exert their effects on website stickiness only through perceived enjoyment. Counter to intuition, we find that a combination of content and design personalization cues is ineffective—or even counterproductive—in increasing preference fit and users’ WTP above and beyond the levels generated by content cues alone. With regard to perceived enjoyment and website stickiness, however, content and design personalization cues exhibit synergistic properties indicating that the combination of both cues are more than the sum of the individual cues alone. Recommendations are provided as to how online managers and web designers can use web personalization cues to positively influence website stickiness and to strengthen their digital business model.
Keywords: field experiment; online news aggregators; perceived enjoyment; personalization cues; preference fit; web personalization; website stickiness; website value; willingness to pay

Online Price Dispersion Revisited: How Do Transaction Prices Differ from Listing Prices? - Zhao, Kexin; Zhao, Xia; Deng, Jing (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Price dispersion of a homogeneous product reflects market efficiency and has significant implications on sellers’ pricing strategies. Two different perspectives, the supply and demand perspectives, can be adopted to examine this phenomenon. The former focuses on listing prices posted by sellers, and the latter uses transaction prices that consumers pay to obtain the product. However, no prior research has systematically compared both perspectives, and it is unclear whether different perspectives will generate different insights. Using a unique data set collected from an online market, we find that the dispersion of listing prices is three times higher than the dispersion of transaction prices. More interestingly, the drivers of price dispersion differ significantly between listing and transaction data. The dispersion of listing prices reflects sellers’ perception of market environment and their pricing strategies, and it may not fully capture consumer behavior manifested through the variation of transaction prices. Our study indicates that the difference in perspectives taken on the online prices yields different results as to their dispersion.
Keywords: listing prices; online markets; online prices; price dispersion; transaction prices

Push or Pull? A Website’s Strategic Choice of Content Delivery Mechanism - Ma, Dan (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Really simple syndication (RSS) technology enables an alternative delivery mechanism for online content. Instead of waiting passively for users to pull online content out, websites can push it to potential users through RSS. This is expected to significantly affect user behavior, website profitability, and market equilibrium. This research uses an economic model to study the impact of RSS adoption and examine whether it increases a website’s profit and competitive advantage. The findings are intriguing: they demonstrate that RSS can either increase or decrease website profit. In a competitive context, RSS adoption can actually be a disadvantage; in some cases, it hurts the adopter but benefits the competitor. Moreover, under certain conditions, the first mover will be worse off when the competitor mimics its adoption decision, which discourages the earlier adoption and thus creates an obstacle to using RSS. Derivation of the adoption equilibria in sequential and simultaneous games shows that multiple market outcomes may result. Finally, regardless of whether or not a website operator adopts RSS, it will still benefit by increasing user awareness of RSS technology, but only up to a certain level. Once this critical awareness level has been reached, websites will not gain by continuing to promote RSS to users. As a whole, these results show how technology adoption will have an impact on firm performance and market outcome, and illustrate the complexity of technology adoption strategy in a competitive setting.
Keywords: competition; e-commerce; game theory; information economics; online content delivery; RSS

Employees’ Exploration of Complex Systems: An Integrative View - Liang, Huigang; Peng, Zeyu; Xue, Yajiong; Guo, Xitong; Wang, Nengmin (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Based on the theory of effective use and adaptive structuration theory, we propose that employees’ system exploration behavior can be affected by factors related to three major components: task, system, and organizational environment. Specifically, we examine how task characteristics (job autonomy and task variety), system complexity, and innovation climate jointly affect employees’ exploration, which, in turn, leads to extended use of enterprise systems. A field survey of enterprise resource planning (ERP) users yields several interesting findings. First, job autonomy and task variety directly enhance system exploration. Second, system complexity plays a moderating role by strengthening the relationship between job autonomy and exploration and weakening the relationship between task variety and exploration. Third, innovation climate, also acting as a moderator, strengthens both the impact of job autonomy on exploration and the impact of system exploration on extended use. This research contributes to information systems (IS) research by theoretically articulating that system exploration is subject to the simultaneous influences of task, system, and organizational environment factors and empirically testing these factors’ main effects and interactions to shed new light on system exploration research. It also contributes to IS practice by suggesting that organizations could enhance employees’ system exploration and facilitate the transition from exploration to extended use by increasing job autonomy and task variety, designing personalized training programs to reduce system complexity, and developing organizational climates that foster innovations.
Keywords: autonomy; ERP; innovation climate; IS jobs; system exploration; task complexity; task variety

Family Preferences Concerning Online Privacy, Data Mining, and Targeted Ads: Regulatory Implications - Clemons, Eric K; Wilson, Joshua S (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Young Internet users engage in risky or inappropriate behavior online that could either be embarrassing or harmful to their future. As importantly, young Internet users engage in online activities that reveal a great deal about the cost to serve them and their willingness to pay for goods and services, which could be used against them by well-informed sellers. Educational applications that collect users’ information are becoming ubiquitous in the classroom, presenting the opportunity for students’ data to be mined. We are not aware of prior studies that examine parental or students’ attitudes and preferences toward data mining of educational application accounts, and how these attitudes differ across several countries. We used three survey instruments to measure parents’ and students’ attitudes toward data mining of educational applications. Parents in all countries studied prefer far less data mining of students’ online activities than seems to be the current practice. Most importantly, aversion to data mining does not seem to be correlated with awareness of current practices of data mining of teens’ activities. This study highlights regulatory alternatives and suggests future research and future data requirements for designing appropriate regulatory interventions. The nature of the intervention will be guided by the nature of the causes of inappropriate online behavior and inappropriate selection of educational software. Intervention could range from no regulation needed, through providing greater transparency, to new and detailed legal requirements that software providers must meet.
Keywords: data mining; educational software; online behavior; online teen behavior; privacy; privacy regulation

Industry-Level Analysis of Information Technology Return and Risk: What Explains the Variation? - Ren, Fei; Dewan, Sanjeev (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Motivated by the wide dispersion in the returns on the use of information technology (IT) across industries, we conduct an industry-level examination of IT return and risk, focusing on the moderating role of industry competition, regulation, and technological change. We address the following research questions: What is the impact of IT investment on the return and risk dimensions of industry financial performance? How do industry characteristics moderate the relationship between IT investment and industry performance? Our analysis of these questions finds that higher levels of industry competition are associated with higher IT productivity (contribution of IT to value-added output), lower IT profitability (contribution of IT to industry average return on assets [ROA]), and higher IT risk (contribution of IT to ex ante variability of ROA). This is consistent with the notion that competition induces riskier IT investments, despite the fact that returns tend to be competed away. Higher levels of industry regulation are associated with lower IT returns in both productivity and profitability, but also lower IT risk. Finally, a higher rate of technological change induces both higher IT returns and higher IT risk. A variety of tests indicate that our results are robust. Our results shed light on factors that drive variation in IT performance across industries, and provide useful industry-level performance benchmarks of the return and risk impacts of IT investments.
Keywords: competition; industry-level analysis; information technology investment; IT return and risk; IT value; productivity; profitability; regulation; technological change

Understanding the Dynamics of Service-Oriented Architecture Implementation - Li, Xitong; Madnick, Stuart E (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Despite the potential benefits, many organizations have failed in service-oriented architecture (SOA) implementation projects. Prior research often used a variance perspective and neglected to explore the complex interactions and timing dependencies between the critical success factors. This study adopts a process perspective to capture the dynamics while providing a new explanation for the mixed outcomes of SOA implementation. We develop a system dynamics model and use simulation analysis to demonstrate the phenomenon of “tipping point.” That is, under certain conditions, even a small reduction in the duration of normative commitment can dramatically reverse, from success to failure, the outcome of an SOA implementation. The simulation results also suggest that (1) the duration of normative commitment can play a more critical role than the strength, and (2) the minimal duration of normative commitment for a successful SOA implementation is associated positively with the information delay of organizational learning of SOA knowledge. Finally, we discuss the theoretical causes and organizational traps associated with SOA implementation to help IT managers make better decisions about their implementation projects.
Keywords: normative commitment; organizational traps; service-oriented architecture (SOA); system dynamics; tipping point

Contextualized Relationship Between Knowledge Sharing and Performance in Software Development - Ozer, Muammer; Vogel, Doug (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
We study how the knowledge that software developers receive from other software developers in their company impacts their performance. We also study the boundary conditions of this relationship. The results of our empirical study indicate that receiving knowledge from other software developers in the company is positively related to the performance of the knowledge-receiving software developers. Moreover, this relationship was stronger when the software developers had high rather than low task autonomy, when they had high- rather than low-quality social exchanges with their supervisors, and when the software development firms used formal knowledge utilization processes. Theoretically, these results contribute to a better understanding of the processes through which software developers utilize the knowledge that they receive from their peers in the firm. Practically, they show software development firms how emphasizing the task, social, and institutional dimensions of the software development process can help them increase knowledge utilization and performance in software development.
Keywords: knowledge sharing; software developers; software development; software-development performance; systems design and implementation

Understanding Members’ Active Participation in Online Question-and-Answer Communities: A Theory and Empirical Analysis - Khansa, Lara; Ma, Xiao; Liginlal, Divakaran; Kim, Sung S (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Community-based question-and-answer (Q&A) websites have become increasingly popular in recent years as an alternative to general-purpose Web search engines for open-ended complex questions. Despite their unique contextual characteristics, only a handful of Q&A websites have been successful in sustaining members’ active participation that, unlike lurking, consists of not only posting questions but also answering others’ inquiries. Because the specific design of the information technology artifacts on Q&A websites can influence their level of success, studying leading Q&A communities such as Yahoo! Answers (YA) provides insights into more effective design mechanisms. We tested a goal-oriented action framework using data from 2,920 YA users, and found that active online participation is largely driven by artifacts (e.g., incentives), membership (e.g., levels of membership and tenure), and habit (e.g., past behavior). This study contributes to the information systems literature by showing that active participation can be understood as the setting, pursuit, and automatic activation of goals.
Keywords: active participation; dynamic panel data analysis; goal-oriented action; habit; incentives; online community; online question-and-answer community; system-generated data

Social Media and Brand Purchase: Quantifying the Effects of Exposures to Earned and Owned Social Media Activities in a Two-Stage Decision Making Model - Xie, Karen; Lee, Young-Jin (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
This study investigates the effects of exposures to earned and owned social media activities and their interaction on brand purchase in a two-stage decision model (i.e., likelihood to purchase and the amount purchased offline). Our study is instantiated on a unique single-source dataset of 12-month home-scanned brand purchase records of a group of fast-moving consumer good brands and Facebook brand Fan Page messages related to the brands. We first find that exposures to earned and owned social media activities for brands have significant and positive impacts on consumers’ likelihood to purchase the brands. Their effects are, surprisingly, suppressive on each other. Second, exposures to earned and owned social media activities have almost no impact on the amount purchased offline with presence of in-store promotions. Our study contributes to our knowledge body of social media marketing by demonstrating that social media activities for a brand can foster the consumer base of the brand, but that effort is not necessarily sales-oriented. In addition, our study is conducive to guiding marketers onto the strategic allocation of advertising dollars to online social channels featuring a mixture of earned and owned social media.
Keywords: brand community; brand purchase; Facebook Fan Page; multilevel modeling; social media; social media marketing

Role of Affect in Self-Disclosure on Social Network Websites: A Test of Two Competing Models - Yu, Jongtae; Hu, Paul Jen-Hwa; Cheng, Tsang-Hsiang (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
This study examines how affect influences self-disclosure on social network (SN) websites. We test two competing models that build on direct causation theory and affect heuristic theory, respectively. In a direct effect model, affect steers self-disclosure, independent of cognitive cost–benefit appraisals. The indirect effect model instead suggests that affect influences self-disclosure by adjusting perceptions of benefits and costs. The empirical comparison of the models relies on survey data from more than 500 university students. Overall, affect influences self-disclosure indirectly by adjusting the benefits people perceive. In particular, affect toward self-disclosure and toward SN websites relate positively to self-disclosure motivators; their perceived values appear amplified in the presence of positive affect. We also offer a plausible, alternative explanation of the observed positive relationship between privacy risk and self-disclosure according to an indirect effect model, in which self-disclosure is driven mainly by motivators, whereas the effects of inhibitors depend a posteriori on self-disclosure. These findings call for a reconsideration of any exclusive focus on the direct impacts of affect on technology use, as is common in previous research, and suggest the importance of affective factors for understanding social technology uses and managing customer relationships.
Keywords: affect; dual processing approach; online privacy; online self-disclosure; social network sites

Design Theory for Market Surveillance Systems - Li, Xin; Sun, Sherry X; Chen, Kun; Fung, Terrance; Wang, Huaiqing (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Market surveillance systems (MSSs) are information systems that monitor financial markets to combat market abuses. Existing MSSs focus mainly on analyzing trading activities and are often developed through a trial-and-error approach by screening data mining algorithms and features. The void of theoretical direction limits the effectiveness of MSSs and calls for the development of a design theory based on a thorough examination of the meta-requirements of MSSs. Based on the efficient market hypothesis and text understanding theory, this paper argues that market information analysis should be incorporated into MSSs and commonsense knowledge should be employed to connect related events to transactions and provide reference concepts for understanding market context and assessing transaction risk. We show the effectiveness of this proposed design theory through developing and evaluating a prototype system in the context of a real-world stock exchange market. By taking a theory-driven approach, this research shows the possibility and provides guidelines on the use of market information analysis to alleviate the market surveillance problem, which has significant implications for financial markets and the economy given the explosive growth of illegal trading activities worldwide.
Keywords: design theory; market surveillance systems; text mining; financial markets; efficient market hypothesis; text understanding theory

Estimating the Contextual Risk of Data Breach: An Empirical Approach - Sen, Ravi; Borle, Sharad (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Data breach incidents are on the rise, and have resulted in severe financial and legal implications for the affected organizations. We apply the opportunity theory of crime, the institutional anomie theory, and institutional theory to identify factors that could increase or decrease the contextual risk of data breach. We investigate the risk of data breach in the context of an organization’s physical location, its primary industry, and the type of data breach that it may have suffered in the past. Given the location of an organization, the study finds support for application of the opportunity theory of crime and the institutional anomie theory in estimating the risk of data breach incidents within a state. In the context of the primary industry in which an organization operates, we find support for the institutional theory and the opportunity theory of crime in estimating risk of data breach incidents within an industry. Interestingly though, support for the opportunity theory of crime is partial. We find that investment in information technology (IT) security corresponds to a higher risk of data breach incidents within both a state and an industry, a result contrary to the one predicted by the opportunity theory of crime. A possible explanation for the contradiction is that investments in IT security are not being spent on the right kind of data security controls, a fact supported by evidence from the industry. The work has theoretical and practical implications. Theories from criminology are used to identify the risk factors of data breach incidents and the magnitude of their impact on the risk of data breach. Insights from the study can help IT security practitioners to assess the risk environment of their firm (in terms of data breaches) based on the firm’s location, its industry sector, and the kind of breaches that the firm may typically be prone to.
Keywords: computer crime; computer security; data breach; data theft; information security; IT security risks

Task Division for Team Success in Crowdsourcing Contests: Resource Allocation and Alignment Effects - Dissanayake, Indika; Zhang, Jie; Gu, Bin (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Advances in information technology bring changes to the nature of work by facilitating companies to go beyond the wisdom of their workforce and tap into the “wisdom of the crowd” via online crowdsourcing contests. In these contests, active and motivated individuals collaborate in the form of self-organized teams that compete for rewards. Using a rich data set of 732 teams in 52 contests collected from the crowdsourcing platform, Kaggle.com, from its launch in April 2010 to July 2012, we studied how the allocation of members’ social and intellectual capital within a virtual team affects team performance in online crowdsourcing contests. Our econometric analysis uses a rank-ordered logistic regression model, and suggests that the effect of a member’s social and intellectual capital on team performance varies depending on his or her roles. Though a team leader’s social capital and a team expert’s intellectual capital significantly influence team performance, a team leader’s intellectual capital and a team expert’s social capital do not. Further, we found that the alignment of a member’s social and intellectual capital within a team has a significant influence on team performance. Moreover, the intensity of the competition moderates the impact. When a contest is highly competitive, the social and intellectual capital alignment negatively affects team performance, and when the competitive intensity is low, this alignment positively affects team performance. Our findings provide insights into improving performance in team-based competitions in crowdsourcing communities.
Keywords: crowdsourcing; crowdsourcing contests; econometrics; intellectual capital; social capital; social network analysis; team competition; virtual teams

The Last Research Mile: Achieving Both Rigor and Relevance in Information Systems Research - Nunamaker, Jay F; Briggs, Robert O; Derrick, Douglas C; Schwabe, Gerhard (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
From our desk chairs it may be tempting to work up an idea, build a quick prototype, test it in a lab, and say, “Our work here is done; the rest is merely details.” More scholarly knowledge awaits discovery, however, by researchers who shepherd an information systems (IS) solution through the last research mile, that is, through successful transition to the workplace. Going the last research mile means using scientific knowledge and methods to address important unsolved classes of problems for real people with real stakes in the outcomes. The last research mile proceeds in three stages: proof-of-concept research to demonstrate the functional feasibility of a solution; proof-of-value research to investigate whether a solution can create value across a variety of conditions; and proof-of-use research to address complex issues of operational feasibility. The last research mile ends only when practitioners routinely use a solution in the field. We argue that going the last research mile negates the assumption that one must trade off rigor and relevance, showing it to be it a false dilemma. Systems researchers who take their solutions through the last research mile may ultimately have the greatest impact on science and society. We demonstrate the last research mile with cases from our own work and the work of others spanning more than forty years.
Keywords: design science; prototypes; research methodology; research rigor; systems research

Barriers to Interorganizational Knowledge Transfer in Post-Hospital Care Transitions: Review and Directions for Information Systems Research - Lim, Shi Ying; Jarvenpaa, Sirkka L; Lanham, Holly J (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Post-hospital care transitions involve coordination and continuity of care from hospital providers to patients and community providers. These care transitions represent a domain of high-risk interorganizational collaborations. However, a conversation about how health information technology (HIT) can enhance interorganizational knowledge transfer during care transitions is largely absent in the information systems literature. We conducted a review of qualitative studies of post-hospital care transitions to better understand barriers to knowledge transfer in high-risk interorganizational collaborations. Our analysis highlights how time pressures inhibit multilateral knowledge transfers, accommodation of fluctuating absorptive capacity, and reconciliation of knowledge and goal conflicts. We advance research questions that focus on HIT capabilities to ease these barriers.
Keywords: absorptive capacity; health information technology; health-care transitions; interorganizational knowledge transfer; IS design; knowledge management

Anatomy of Successful Business Models for Complex Services: Insights from the Telemedicine Field - Peters, Christoph; Blohm, Ivo; Leimeister, Jan Marco (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Telemedicine services may improve the quality of life of individuals while also reducing the costs of service provisioning. They represent an important but as yet understudied type of complex services that integrates many stakeholders acting in service value networks. These complex services typically comprise a combination of information technology (IT) services and highly person-oriented, non-IT services, and are characterized by long service delivery periods. In such an environment, it is particularly difficult to generate successful and sustainable business models, which are necessary for the widespread provision of telemedicine services. Following a design research approach, we develop and evaluate the CompBizMod framework, a morphological box allowing for: (1) the analysis, description, and classification of telemedicine business models, (2) the identification of white spots for future business opportunities, (3) and the identification of patterns for successful business models. We contribute to the literature by presenting a specific business model framework and identifying three business model patterns in the telemedicine industry. We exhibit how business models for complex services can be decomposed into their constituent elements and present an easy and replicable approach for identifying business model patterns in a given industry.
Keywords: analysis frameworks; business model; business model pattern; complex service; telemedicine

It Is Not Just About Competition with “Free”: Differences Between Content Formats in Consumer Preferences and Willingness to Pay - Berger, Benedikt; Matt, Christian; Steininger, Dennis M; Hess, Thomas (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
While consumption of content in offline formats continues to decline, many providers are still struggling to monetize their content online, because consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for content in online formats is low. The availability of free content on the Internet is often considered the primary reason for this issue. However, we hold that the lower WTP is also related to a lower appraisal of online formats per se. Using a conjoint analysis and the example of newspaper subscriptions, we explore differences in consumer preferences and WTP between offline and online formats. Our results show that after price, format is the second-most important attribute of a newspaper subscription. While consumers still prefer the printed newspaper to any online format, WTP differs across online formats and is strongly associated with device ownership. Our study provides a novel understanding of the previously neglected factor content format and its importance for content providers.
Keywords: conjoint analysis; consumer preferences; content formats; digital device ownership; digital media; media industries; willingness to pay

Evaluating Team Collaboration Quality: The Development and Field Application of a Collaboration Maturity Model - Boughzala, Imed; De Vreede, Gert-Jan (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
The quality of collaboration directly affects the quality of an organization’s outcomes and performance. Trends like globalization and increased product and service complexity have pushed organizations to become more and more reliant on collaboration in distributed, cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural, virtual teams. The present research is based on an applied science/engineering (AS/E) research paradigm to address an important class of unsolved problems—measuring the quality of collaboration within and across organizational boundaries. This paper presents a collaboration maturity model (Col-MM) to assess an organization’s team collaboration maturity as a first step toward a generalizable solution to that class of problems. The Col-MM is intended to be sufficiently generic to be applied to different organizational and team settings and usable by practitioners for conducting self-assessments. The Col-MM was developed during a series of focus group meetings with professionals (business unit managers). The model was then piloted and subsequently applied in a field study in an automotive company. This paper reports on the development and field application of the Col-MM. It contributes to the collaboration science literature, theory, and practice through a detailed AS/E study that develops a maturity model and a system for administering it that provides proof of value and effective use in the field.
Keywords: collaboration maturity; collaboration maturity model; collaboration quality; collaboration technology; online collaboration; organizational performance

Strategic Relevance of Organizational Virtues Enabled by Information Technology in Organizational Innovation - Chatterjee, Sutirtha; Moody, Gregory D; Lowry, Paul Benjamin; Chakraborty, Suranjan; Hardin, Andrew (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
The central theme of this paper is that information technology (IT) can serve to create ethical organizations endowed with virtuous characteristics, and that such ethical organizations can innovate better in today’s dynamic market environment. Drawing on the notion of virtue ethics propounded by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, we theorize that core organizational IT affordances influence the development of organizational virtues, which in turn influence organizational improvisational capabilities and innovation. We propose the “IT-virtues-innovation” (IVI) model and test it using a cross-organizational survey of 250 employees from various organizations in the United States. Our findings largely support our proposal that IT affordances positively influence organizational virtues, which then influence organizational improvisational capabilities, thus improving organizational innovation. This paper contributes to the understanding of organizational innovation by articulating the strategic usefulness of IT-enabled organizational ethics, and it explains how IT-enabled ethical competence (virtues) influences strategic competence (improvisational capabilities and innovation).
Keywords: ethical organizations; information technology affordances; information technology strategy; organizational capabilities; organizational courage; organizational innovation; organizational justice; organizational memory affordance; organizational temperance; organizational virtues; organizational wisdom; process management affordance; virtue ethics

Machiavellianism or Morality: Which Behavior Pays Off In Online Innovation Contests? - Hutter, Katja; Füller, Johann; Hautz, Julia; Bilgram, Volker; Matzler, Kurt (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Prior research on user behavior in online innovation contests has mainly focused on factors that positively impact prosocial, collaborative behavior, which should ultimately lead to innovative outcomes. However, little is known about the effects of more negative personal characteristics that might result in more competitive, antisocial, and even unethical behavior. This paper considers Machiavellianism as one of the traits that constitute the “dark triad of personality” and explores the relationship between Machiavellianism and participants’ contribution behavior in online innovation contests. Specifically we investigate how Machiavellian characteristics influence individuals’ contribution intensity, communication, and interaction behavior within the contest community as well as the quality and kind of their contributions. This study relies on multisource individual-level data from a large innovation contest in the field of public transportation. We find that the three dimensions of Machiavellianism—distrust of others, amorality, and desire for status—have very distinct behavioral consequences in the context of online innovation contests. Specifically, the oppositional consequences of amoral manipulation and striving for status on the one hand and showing distrust of others on the other hand concerning contribution quantity and contribution quality are found. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of negative personality traits such as Machiavellianism as powerful predictors of behavior and of success within competitive innovation environments and leads to important managerial implications regarding the design and management of innovation contests.
Keywords: business ethics; co-creation; competitive behavior; crowdsourcing; innovation; innovation contests; Machiavellianism; online contests; personality traits

A Taxonomy of Evaluation Methods for Information Systems Artifacts - Prat, Nicolas; Comyn-Wattiau, Isabelle; Akoka, Jacky (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Artifacts, such as software systems, pervade organizations and society. In the field of information systems (IS) they form the core of research. The evaluation of IS artifacts thus represents a major issue. Although IS research paradigms are increasingly intertwined, building and evaluating artifacts has traditionally been the purview of design science research (DSR). DSR in IS has not reached maturity yet. This is particularly true of artifact evaluation. This paper investigates the “what” and the “how” of IS artifact evaluation: what are the objects and criteria of evaluation, the methods for evaluating the criteria, and the relationships between the “what” and the “how” of evaluation? To answer these questions, we develop a taxonomy of evaluation methods for IS artifacts. With this taxonomy, we analyze IS artifact evaluation practice, as reflected by ten years of DSR publications in the basket of journals of the Association for Information Systems (AIS). This research brings to light important relationships between the dimensions of IS artifact evaluation, and identifies seven typical evaluation patterns: demonstration; simulation- and metric-based benchmarking of artifacts; practice-based evaluation of effectiveness; simulation- and metric-based absolute evaluation of artifacts; practice-based evaluation of usefulness or ease of use; laboratory, student-based evaluation of usefulness; and algorithmic complexity analysis. This study also reveals a focus of artifact evaluation practice on a few criteria. Beyond immediate usefulness, IS researchers are urged to investigate ways of evaluating the long-term organizational impact and the societal impact of artifacts.
Keywords: artifact evaluation; content analysis; design evaluation; design science; system design; taxonomy

Competition Between Open Source and Proprietary Software: Strategies for Survival - Sacks, Michael (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
There are two puzzles in the software competition literature: whether both proprietary and open source software will survive and how producers of proprietary software differentiate themselves from open source competition. I address both puzzles by analyzing competition between a firm producing proprietary software and a community producing open source software. If the firm faces no competition, then the software caters to less technologically savvy individuals. When facing competition, the open source software caters to the most technologically savvy individuals, leading the firm to target even less savvy individuals than it would when acting as a monopolist in order to differentiate its software from the open source option. The open source movement, then, may not be an unalloyed success as the growth in open source can be tied to deterioration in the proprietary software. Given that both types of software survive by catering to different segments of the market, an important avenue for research will be to analyze the stability of the underlying segments and the corresponding welfare implications.
Keywords: differentiation; endogenous fixed costs; heterogeneous consumers; Hotelling competition; mixed duopoly; open source software; proprietary software

How the Use of Big Data Analytics Affects Value Creation in Supply Chain Management - Chen, Daniel Q; Preston, David S; Swink, Morgan (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Despite numerous testimonials of first movers, the underlying mechanisms of organizations’ big data analytics (BDA) usage deserves close investigation. Our study addresses two essential research questions: (1) How does organizational BDA usage affect value creation? and (2) What are key antecedents of organizational-level BDA usage? We draw on dynamic capabilities theory to conceptualize BDA use as a unique information processing capability that brings competitive advantage to organizations. Furthermore, we employ the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework to identify and theorize paths via which factors influence the actual usage of BDA. Survey data collected from 161 U.S.-based companies show that: organizational-level BDA usage affects organizational value creation; the degree to which BDA usage influences such creation is moderated by environmental dynamism; technological factors directly influence organizational BDA usage; and organizational and environmental factors indirectly influence organizational BDA usage through top management support. Collectively, these findings provide a theory-based understanding of the impacts and antecedents of organizational BDA usage, while also providing guidance regarding what managers should expect from usage of this rapidly emerging technology.
Keywords: and phrases: big data; data analytics; dynamics capability theory; structural equation modeling; survey research; TOE framework

Platform Desertion by App Developers - Tiwana, Amrit (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Platform desertion, or a developer’s stopping the development of an app for a platform, is a widespread phenomenon to the detriment of platforms. However, the extant literature focuses primarily on why app developers join—not leave—a platform. This app-level study develops two ideas: (a) coordination costs borne by an app’s developer are associated with platform desertion, and (b) these costs are, in turn, shaped by a nuanced interplay between app decision rights and app “microarchitecture” introduced here. We use survey and snapshot archival data spanning 2009–2014 on over 300 apps in the Mozilla Firefox ecosystem to test these ideas. Our novel contribution shows how, by influencing coordination costs, the previously invisible interplay between app decision rights and app microarchitecture shapes an app’s platform desertion. We find that delegating app decision rights to its developer weakens the coordination cost-reducing benefits of decoupling an app from the platform but strengthens those of standardizing its interfaces to the platform. The key theoretical implication is that app decision rights and app microarchitecture symbiotically influence the coordination costs borne by an app’s developer. The key practical implication for platform designers is that the choices about who ought to make what decisions are intertwined with the architecture of the governed information technology artifact.
Keywords: app developers; apps; architecture; coordination cost; decision rights; ecosystems; mobile apps; modularity; platforms

Two Formulas for Success in Social Media: Learning and Network Effects - Qiu, Liangfei; Tang, Qian; Whinston, Andrew B (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Recent years have witnessed an unprecedented explosion in information technology that enables dynamic diffusion of user-generated content in social networks. Online videos, in particular, have changed the landscape of marketing and entertainment, competing with premium content and spurring business innovations. In the present study, we examine how learning and network effects drive the diffusion of online videos. While learning happens through informational externalities, network effects are direct payoff externalities. Using a unique data set from YouTube, we empirically identify learning and network effects separately, and find that both mechanisms have statistically and economically significant effects on video views; furthermore, the mechanism that dominates depends on the video type. Specifically, although learning primarily drives the popularity of quality-oriented content, network effects also make it possible for attention-grabbing content to go viral. Theoretically, we show that, unlike the diffusion of movies, it is the combination of both learning and network effects that generate the multiplier effect for the diffusion of online videos. From a managerial perspective, providers can adopt different strategies to promote their videos accordingly, that is, signaling the quality or featuring the viewer base depending on the video type. Our results also suggest that YouTube can play a much greater role in encouraging the creation of original content by leveraging the multiplier effect.
Keywords: learning; network effects; social contagion; social media; user-generated content

Thumbs Up, Sales Up? The Contingent Effect of Facebook Likes on Sales Performance in Social Commerce - Lee, Kyunghee; Lee, Byungtae; Oh, Wonseok (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
In this study we investigate whether social reference systems, such as Facebook “likes” (FBLs), promote sales in social commerce, wherein adverse selection and quality uncertainty often severely damage consumer trust and impede efforts to achieve sustainable growth. We also examine the extent to which product characteristics (product uncertainty and product franchising) and deal characteristics (tipping points, discount rates, and deal durations) moderate the social selling stimulated by FBLs. On the basis of 1,327 samples collected from a major social commerce platform provider, we identify several interesting empirical regularities regarding the relationship between FBLs and social commerce sales. The findings suggest that FBLs drive traffic and increase sales. Information technology artifacts and social technologies, such as FBLs, can endow a consumer’s shopping experience with a socialization component and induce social selling in collective buying platforms. Nevertheless, significant variations occur across products and deals. For example, consumers who purchase experience goods more frequently depend on FBLs than do those who buy search goods. FBLs exert a far greater influence on the sales of goods from independent stores than those from franchise chains. Social commerce consumers are unaffected by heavy discount rates as they make purchase decisions, but they extensively rely on FBLs, particularly when purchasing products that have low tipping points. Our results suggest that social commerce can be a powerful marketplace when the economic utility that is driven by price incentives is further strengthened and protected by the social utility that originates from trust and sharing.
Keywords: deal characteristics; Facebook likes; information asymmetry; online sales; product characteristics; social commerce; social network sites; social utility

A Multilevel Approach to Examine Employees’ Loyal Use of ERP Systems in Organizations - Yen, HsiuJu Rebecca; Hu, Paul Jen-Hwa; Hsu, Sheila Hsuan-Yu; Li, Eldon Y (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
A successful enterprise resource planning (ERP) system ultimately requires loyal use—proactive, extended use and willingness to recommend such uses to others—by employees. Building on interactional psychology literature and situational strength theory, we emphasize the importance of psychological commitment, in addition to behavioral manifestation, in a multilevel model of loyal use. Our empirical test of the model uses data from 485 employees and 166 information system professionals in 47 large Taiwanese organizations. Individual-level analyses suggest that perceived benefits and workload partially mediate the effects of perceived information quality (IQ) and system quality (SQ) on loyal use. Cross-level analyses show that IQ at the organizational level alleviates the negative effect of an employee’s perceived workload on loyal use; organization-level SQ and service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (SOCBs) of internal information systems staff reduce the influence of employees’ perceived benefits. Overall, our findings suggest that IQ, SQ, and SOCBs at the organizational level influence employees’ loyal use in ways different from their effects at the individual level, and seem to affect individuals’ cost–benefit analyses. This study contributes to extant literature by considering the SOCBs of the internal information systems group that have been overlooked by most prior research. Our findings offer insights for managers who should find ways to create positive, salient, shared views of IQ, SQ, and SOCBs in the organization to nourish and foster employees’ loyal use of an ERP system, including clearly demonstrating the system’s utilities and devising viable means to reduce the associated workload.
Keywords: information quality; loyal use; multilevel analysis; perceived benefits; perceived workload; service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors; system quality

The Impact of Organizational Commitment on Insiders’ Motivation to Protect Organizational Information Assets - Posey, Clay; Roberts, Tom L; Lowry, Paul Benjamin (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Insiders may act to sustain and improve organizational information security, yet our knowledge of what motivates them to do so remains limited. For example, most extant research relies on mere portions of protection motivation theory (PMT) and has focused on isolated behaviors, thus limiting the generalizability of findings to isolated issues, rather than addressing the global set of protective security behaviors. Here, we investigate the motivations surrounding this larger behavioral set by assessing maladaptive rewards, response costs, and fear alongside traditional PMT components. We extend PMT by showing that: (1) security education, training, and awareness (SETA) efforts help form appraisals; (2) PMT’s applicability to organizational rather than personal contexts depends on insiders’ organizational commitment levels; and (3) response costs provide the link between PMT’s appraisals. We show in detail how organizational commitment is the mechanism through which organizational security threats become personally relevant to insiders and how SETA efforts influence many PMT-based components.
Keywords: coping appraisal; information security; MIMIC model; organizational commitment; protection-motivated behaviors; protection motivation theory; security; structural equation modeling; threat appraisal

Robustness of Multiple Indicators in Automated Screening Systems for Deception Detection - Twyman, Nathan W; Proudfoot, Jeffrey Gainer; Schuetzler, Ryan M; Elkins, Aaron C; Derrick, Douglas C (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
This study investigates the effectiveness of an automatic system for detection of deception by individuals with the use of multiple indicators of such potential deception. Deception detection research in the information systems discipline has postulated increased accuracy through a new class of screening systems that automatically conduct interviews and track multiple indicators of deception simultaneously. Understanding the robustness of this new class of systems and the limitations of its theoretical improved performance is important for refinement of the conceptual design. The design science proof-of-concept study presented here implemented and evaluated the robustness of these systems for automated screening for deception detection. A large experiment was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a constructed multiple-indicator system, both under normal conditions and with the presence of common types of countermeasures (mental and physical). The results shed light on the relative strength and robustness of various types of deception indicators within this new context. The findings further suggest the possibility of increased accuracy through the measurement of multiple indicators if classification algorithms can compensate for human attempts to counter effectiveness.
Keywords: automated screening systems; deception countermeasures; deception detection; design science; human–computer interaction; human risk assessment; human screening

The Paradoxes of Word of Mouth in Electronic Commerce - Lin, Zhijie; Heng, Cheng-Suang (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Challenging conventional wisdom, we unravel three paradoxes of word of mouth (WOM) in e-commerce. Specifically, the WOM valence paradox contends that higher WOM valence of a product results in a larger subsequent decrease in the WOM valence of the product, the WOM volume paradox propounds that higher WOM volume of a product results in a smaller subsequent increase in the WOM volume of the product, and the WOM spillover paradox proposes that an improvement in the WOM of a product also improves the WOM of connected products in a product network. These paradoxes caution online retailers that superior WOM may at times backfire and not boost further sales. Drawing theoretical support from expectation-confirmation theory and network theory, we collect data from China’s largest business-to-consumer platform, Tmall.com, and use linear panel data models to examine WOM evolution in a product network, controlling for relevant factors at the individual product, product network, and time unit levels. Importantly, we base our identification strategies on the use of instrumental variables and the difference-in-differences estimation approach. Numerous statistical checks confirm the robustness and consistency of our findings. We contribute to a much richer theoretical understanding of WOM, by extending the applicability of expectation-confirmation theory and network theory to novel predictions and contexts, adding a dynamic perspective, unveiling three important WOM paradoxes, and offering practical insights.
Keywords: econometric analysis; electronic commerce; e-tail; eWOM; product network; product review; word of mouth

Corporate Blogging and Job Performance: Effects of Work-related and Nonwork-related Participation - Lu, Benjiang; Guo, Xunhua; Luo, Nianlong; Chen, Guoqing (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2015)
Corporate blogs are expected to facilitate communication, knowledge sharing, and collaborative innovation within organizations. However, empirical evidence has yet to be found illustrating whether and how such applications have affected job performance. Drawing upon social network theory, we postulate a conceptual model suggesting that employees’ online social relationships accumulated through work- and nonwork-related blog participation will engender different effects on job performance. The model is empirically tested using digital trace and archival data collected from two in-practice systems of a large telecommunications company. The results reveal that, in the work-related blog network, the structural and cognitive dimensions of social relationships positively affect job performance, whereas the relational dimension shows a negative influence. Meanwhile, participation in nonwork-related blog network benefits job performance for employees with a high level of performance in the previous time period, but is detrimental for other employees. The findings uncover the influencing mechanism of corporate blogging on job performance and offer practical advice for managers to better exploit the value of intraorganizational social media.
Keywords: blogs; corporate blogs; digital traces; job performance; organizational social media; social capital; social network

The Effects of IT-Enabled Cognitive Stimulation Tools on Creative Problem Solving: A Dual Pathway to Creativity - Althuizen, Niek; Reichel, Astrid (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
We investigate the effectiveness of three types of IT-enabled cognitive stimulation tools for enhancing creative problem solving: mind mappers, process guides, and stimuli providers. Based on the dual pathway to creativity models, the authors examine the extent to which these tools are capable of stimulating individuals to explore their knowledge base more deeply (i.e., the persistence pathway) and more broadly (i.e., the flexibility pathway) and, hence, help to produce more novel ideas. In a laboratory study with business students, they find that, as compared to unaided individuals, IT-enabled stimuli providers enhance individual creativity more than process guides and mind mappers. As for the underlying creative process, stimuli providers push individuals to explore their knowledge base more deeply and more broadly, leading to more novel but, unexpectedly, also more useful ideas. The reported findings may facilitate the development of creativity support systems and their assignment to individuals and tasks.
Keywords: creativity; creative problem solving; creativity stimulation; dual pathway to creativity; IT-enabled cognitive stimulation; knowledge activation; search for ideas in associative memory (SIAM)

Impact of Network Structure on Malware Propagation: A Growth Curve Perspective - Guo, Hong; Cheng, Hsing Kenneth; Kelley, Ken (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Malicious software, commonly termed “malware,” continuously presents one of the top security concerns, and causes tremendous worldwide financial losses for organizations. In this paper, we propose a structural risk model to analyze malware propagation dynamics measured by a four-parameter (asymptote, point of inflection, rate, and infection proportion at inflection) growth curve. Using both social network data and technological network infrastructure from a large organization, we estimate the proposed structural risk model based on incident-specific nonlinear growth curves. This paper provides empirical evidence for the explanatory power of the structural characteristics of the underlying networks on malware propagation dynamics. This research provides useful findings for security managers in designing their malware defense strategies. We also simulate three common malware defense strategies (preselected immunization strategies, countermeasure dissemination strategies, and security awareness programs) based on the proposed structural risk model and show that they outperform existing strategies in terms of reducing the size of malware infection.
Keywords: information systems security; malware defense; malware propagation; malware propagation trajectory; network analysis; social networks; technological networks

The Determinants and Impacts of Aesthetics in Users’ First Interaction with Websites - Jiang, Zhenhui (Jack); Wang, Weiquan; Tan, Bernard CY; Yu, Jie (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Though aesthetics is generally acknowledged as an important aspect of website design, extant information systems (IS) research on web user experience has rarely studied what affects website aesthetics and how aesthetics influences users’ perceptions of the website and the organization behind the website. In this paper, we synthesize prior literature from different academic domains and propose users’ perceived quality of five design elements (i.e., unity, complexity, intensity, novelty, and interactivity) as determinants of website aesthetics. We further theorize the effects of aesthetics on users’ attitudes toward the website and their perception of the corporate image. Two studies were conducted to test the research model. In Study 1, we adopted a card sorting method and the results provide substantial support to the determinants of website aesthetics. In Study 2, we conducted a survey using ten company portal websites that were unknown to survey respondents. Our analysis further confirms the effects of users’ perceived quality of the five design elements on the perception of website aesthetics. The findings of Study 2 also show that users’ perception of aesthetics has significant impacts on perceived utility and their attitudes toward the website, which further affects the corporate image exhibited via the website. In addition, we find that in users’ first interaction with a website, perceived aesthetics has a larger impact on their attitudes toward the website than perceived utility.
Keywords: corporate image; design complexity; design unity; website aesthetics; web design; website intensity; website interactivity

Could Deal Promotion Improve Merchants’ Online Reputations? The Moderating Role of Prior Reviews - Li, Xitong (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
It is by now almost accepted as a stylized fact that offering deal promotion (such as via Groupon or LivingSocial) deteriorates local merchants’ online reputations (e.g., the average of Yelp review ratings). However, in this paper we show that the stylized fact is not true in certain circumstances. We theorize that the valence and volume of prior reviews can play an important moderating role in the effect of deal promotion. Empirically, we show that restaurants with a relatively low prior average rating and a relatively small review volume have improved their online reputations by offering Groupon promotion. The proportion of such restaurants is substantial. The findings are robust to multiple identification strategies and econometric specifications. The results underscore the substantial heterogeneity in the effect of deal promotion on local merchants’ online reputations. Merchants need to understand the moderating role of prior reviews (e.g., the valence and volume of prior reviews) and design appropriate strategies to maximize the returns from offering deal promotion.
Keywords: deal promotion; difference-in-differences; moderating roles; online deals; online group sales; online reviews; propensity score matching

Using Information Systems to Sense Opportunities for Innovation: Integrating Postadoptive Use Behaviors with the Dynamic Managerial Capability Perspective - Roberts, Nicholas; Campbell, Damon E; Vijayasarathy, Leo R (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Fast-paced environmental changes require that managers quickly sense opportunities for organizational innovation. Information systems (IS) that support business intelligence and analytics help managers access and analyze data from various sources, thereby providing insight into potential opportunities. Building on the dynamic managerial capability perspective, we investigate the extent to which two managerial IS use behaviors—routine use and innovative use—influence a manager’s volume and diversity of ideas for organizational innovation. We also examine the moderating role of three organization-level entrepreneurial orientation characteristics—autonomy, innovativeness, and risk taking. We test our research model with survey data collected from 248 managers. Our results show that routine IS use is not related to volume or diversity of ideas for organizational innovation. However, innovative IS use is positively related to idea volume and idea diversity. Furthermore, organizational autonomy and innovativeness positively moderate the aforementioned innovative use/idea relationships. Our study contributes to the literature by linking postadoptive IS use behaviors to managerial sensing ability, an important dynamic managerial capability. We also further the understanding of how organizational factors such as entrepreneurial orientation play a key role in determining whether, when, and how managers use IS to develop ideas for organizational innovation.
Keywords: business analytics; decision support systems; dynamic managerial capability; idea set; innovative use of IS; IS use; IT business value; sensing ability

Influentials, Imitables, or Susceptibles? Virality and Word-of-Mouth Conversations in Online Social Networks - Susarla, Anjana; Oh, Jeong-Ha; Tan, Yong (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Motivated by the rise of social media platforms that achieve a fusion of content and community, we consider the role of word-of-mouth communications (WOM) structured through a network. Using a data set from YouTube, we examine how cascades of WOM interactions enhance the popularity of videos. We first estimate the impact of channel influence and other network parameters in initiating WOM communications. The probit estimation considers the selection effect in videos that are likely to be associated with a greater propensity to trigger WOM. We find that factors related to a channel’s ability to be a connector and a translator is most likely to result in the incidence of WOM. We then examine how cascades of WOM conversations have persistent impacts on subsequent video popularity. Empirically, the main issue here is heterogeneity in the epidemic potential of a video. Since the threshold might vary across videos, we use a finite mixture model. We also conduct a simultaneous estimation using latent instrumental variables to address endogeneity from unobservables. Our research has implications for researchers and practitioners by highlighting how WOM travels through networks of influence and susceptibility in disseminating awareness, and holds insights in regard to designing social recommendation systems and identifying trending topics in social media.
Keywords: electronic word of mouth; eWOM; finite mixture model; latent instrumental variables; opinion cascades; peer effects; social media; social recommendations; user-generated content

Concurrent IT Sourcing: Mechanisms and Contingent Advantages - Tiwana, Amrit; Kim, Stephen K (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
A growing trend to simultaneously insource and outsource the same information technology (IT) activities (“concurrent IT sourcing”) has not yet received research attention. Although it is widespread and recent empirical studies have detected that in-house IT can complement IT outsourcing, when and how concurrent IT sourcing pays off is not yet understood. This study introduces the notion of concurrent IT sourcing. It then develops two interrelated ideas: concurrent IT sourcing simultaneously enhances in-house and outsourced IT performance: (a) via distinctive mechanisms, but (b) only when vendors’ IT capabilities complement the client’s. Econometric tests using survey data from 233 firms support these ideas. Our novel contribution is to explain when and how concurrent IT sourcing enhances a client firm’s inhouse and outsourced IT performance. The explanatory mechanisms for outsourced IT performance are socialization and modeling of clients’ in-house IT practices by vendors; for in-house IT performance they are knowledge spillovers and ratcheting. For practice, our study shows that when a firm’s in-house capabilities complement its IT vendors’ capabilities, firms can simultaneously outsource and insource the same IT activities to enhance both in-house and outsourced IT performance.
Keywords: concurrent IT sourcing; insourcing; IT capabilities; IT governance; outsourcing; plural governance; seemingly unrelated regression

Duopoly Pricing Strategy for Information Products with Premium Service: Free Product or Bundling? - Zhang, Zan; Nan, Guofang; Li, Minqiang; Tan, Yong (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Many software firms, especially mobile app providers, offer perpetually free basic products to users, but premiums are charged for access to the additional features or functionalities. While the free offering helps capture potential customers, it might cannibalize the sales of premium goods or services. This paper adopts a game theoretical approach to examine the impact of free offering on the competition between two firms in the presence of network effects. The firms can either offer a free core product and a paid service or offer them as a bundle. The core product has stand-alone value and can be used separately but the value-added service has no value without the core product. We derive the market equilibria and present conditions under which the free offering strategy outperforms the bundling strategy. We show that when a firm’s core product has a sufficient advantage in product quality, it is better for this firm to sell the bundle but for the other to use free strategy. However, if the core products are similar in terms of quality, it is optimal for them to use the same strategies. Whether to offer a free product depends largely on the core products’ quality. We also show that the firms may be caught in a prisoner’s dilemma when both adopt the free strategy. Finally, we find that the profitability of the firm that offers a free product always increases in network effects intensity and market size, but this is not the case for the firm that sells the bundle. This study contributes to understanding the behavior of feature-limited free offering in a duopoly setting. Our findings also provide insights into the design of free product and the impact of network effects on the firms’ offering decisions.
Keywords: free core product; freemium; information products; network effects; premium service; pricing; product bundling

Sharing Knowledge in Social Q&A Sites: The Unintended Consequences of Extrinsic Motivation - Zhao, Li; Detlor, Brian; Connelly, Catherine E (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
In order to motivate individuals to share their knowledge in online communities, the use of extrinsic rewards and goals is a typical approach. However, extrinsic motivation may have unintended consequences. Although past studies have examined the direct effect of extrinsic motivation on intrinsic motivation, no research to date has investigated how extrinsic motivation moderates the impact of intrinsic motivation on knowledge sharing, or how the effect of extrinsic motivation on intrinsic motivation is contingent upon whether a member is active or not. Drawing on attribution theory and theory of planned behavior, the study was conducted with data collected from a large social Q&A site consisting of multiple online communities with millions of registered users; the data were analyzed with moderated regression and structural equation modeling. Results show that the effect of enjoyment in helping others on attitude toward knowledge sharing is undermined by virtual organizational rewards, while the effect of knowledge self-efficacy on attitude toward knowledge sharing is undermined by reciprocity. The results also show that the effect of virtual organizational rewards on enjoyment in helping others is contingent upon whether members are active or not. Specifically, for active members, virtual organizational rewards undermine enjoyment in helping others; for inactive members, however, virtual organizational rewards increase enjoyment in helping others. These findings enrich the research on unintended consequences of extrinsic motivation specifically, and the theory of motivation in general. Additionally, these findings provide practical insights on how and when to use extrinsic rewards/goals to motivate individuals to share knowledge in social Q&A sites.
Keywords: active involvement; crowding out, extrinsic motivation; intrinsic motivation; knowledge sharing; online communities; online community participation

Do Professional Reviews Affect Online User Choices Through User Reviews? An Empirical Study - Zhou, Wenqi; Duan, Wenjing (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
With the broad reach of the Internet, online users frequently resort to various word-of-mouth (WOM) sources, such as online user reviews and professional reviews, during online decision making. Although prior studies generally agree on the importance of online WOM, we have little knowledge of the interplay between online user reviews and professional reviews. This paper empirically investigates a mediation model in which online user reviews mediate the impact of professional reviews on online user decisions. Using software download data, we show that a higher professional rating not only directly promotes software download but also results in more active user-generated WOM interactions, which indirectly lead to more downloads. The indirect impact of professional reviews can be as large as 20 percent of the corresponding total impact. These findings deepen our understanding of online WOM effect, and provide managerial suggestions about WOM marketing and the prediction of online user choices.
Keywords: Bayesian modeling; electronic word of mouth; eWOM; mediation model; online reviews; online software markets; professional reviews; word of mouth

What Online Reviewer Behaviors Really Matter? Effects of Verbal and Nonverbal Behaviors on Detection of Fake Online Reviews - Zhang, Dongsong; Zhou, Lina; Kehoe, Juan Luo; Kilic, Isil Yakut (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
The value and credibility of online consumer reviews are compromised by significantly increasing yet difficult-to-identify fake reviews. Extant models for automated online fake review detection rely heavily on verbal behaviors of reviewers while largely ignoring their nonverbal behaviors. This research identifies a variety of nonverbal behavioral features of online reviewers and examines their relative importance for the detection of fake reviews in comparison to that of verbal behavioral features. The results of an empirical evaluation using real-world online reviews reveal that incorporating nonverbal features of reviewers can significantly improve the performance of online fake review detection models. Moreover, compared with verbal features, nonverbal features of reviewers are shown to be more important for fake review detection. Furthermore, model pruning based on a sensitivity analysis improves the parsimony of the developed fake review detection model without sacrificing its performance.
Keywords: deception detection; eWOM; electronic word of mouth; feature pruning; fake online reviews; online reviewer behavior; user-generated content

Examining Hacker Participation Length in Cybercriminal Internet-Relay-Chat Communities - Benjamin, Victor; Zhang, Bin; Nunamaker, Jay F; Chen, Hsinchun (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
To further cybersecurity, there is interest in studying online cybercriminal communities to learn more about emerging cyber threats. Literature documents the existence of many online Internet Relay Chat (IRC) cybercriminal communities where cybercriminals congregate and share hacking tools, malware, and more. However, many cybercriminal community participants appear unskilled and have fleeting interests, making it difficult to detect potential long-term or key participants. This is a challenge for researchers and practitioners to quickly identify cybercriminals that may provide credible threat intelligence. Thus, we propose a computational approach to analyze cybercriminals IRC communities in order to identify potential long-term and key participants. We use the extended Cox model to scrutinize cybercriminal IRC participation for better understanding of behaviors exhibited by cybercriminals of importance. Results indicate that key cybercriminals may be quickly identifiable by assessing the scale of their interaction and networks with other participants.
Keywords: community participation; cybercrime; cybercriminal community; Internet Relay Chat; participation duration modeling

Versioning: Go Vertical in a Horizontal Market? - Dey, Debabrata; Lahiri, Atanu (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
The issue of versioning of information goods has resurfaced, in part as a result of the recent popularity of downloadable contents (DLC) among video game manufacturers. The central idea behind the DLC strategy, zero-day DLCs in particular, is that consumers who find the base version of a game to be sufficiently close to their tastes would want more of its capabilities and would pay a premium to upgrade by purchasing a DLC. To better understand the implications of such a product-line strategy, in this work, we combine the literature on versioning with that on consumer learning. In doing so, we uncover an interesting economic phenomenon that, for an experience good, a manufacturer’s desire to vertically differentiate could actually stem from its inability to otherwise elicit unobserved heterogeneity in consumers’ perceived fit. In other words, we generalize versioning to accommodate both vertical and horizontal heterogeneity.
Keywords: consumer learning; downloadable content; experience good; information good; product sampling; versioning; vertical differentiation; video games

Computer-Mediated Deception: Strategies Revealed by Language-Action Cues in Spontaneous Communication - Ho, Shuyuan Mary; Hancock, Jeffrey T; Booth, Cheryl; Liu, Xiuwen (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Computer-mediated deception threatens the security of online users’ private and personal information. Previous research confirms that humans are bad lie detectors, while demonstrating that certain observable linguistic features can provide crucial cues to detect deception. We designed and conducted an experiment that creates spontaneous deception scenarios in an interactive online game environment. Logistic regression, and certain classification methodologies were applied to analyzing data collected during fall 2014 through spring 2015. Our findings suggest that certain language-action cues (e.g., cognitive load, affective process, latency, and wordiness) reveal patterns of information behavior manifested by deceivers in spontaneous online communication. Moreover, computational approaches to analyzing these language-action cues can provide significant accuracy in detecting computer-mediated deception.
Keywords: computer-mediated communication; computer-mediated deception; deception detection; deceptive communications; human–computer interaction; interpersonal deception theory; language-action cues

An Empirical Validation of Malicious Insider Characteristics - Liang, Nan (Peter); Biros, David P; Luse, Andy (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Malicious insiders continue to pose a great threat to organizations. With their knowledge and access to organizational resources, malicious insiders could launch attacks more easily that result in more damaging impacts compared to outsiders. However, empirical research about malicious insiders is rare due to the unavailability of data. With few exceptions, many studies focus on a small number of cases. In order to identify common characteristics of a large number of malicious insiders, this study employs text mining to analyze 133 real-world cases of offenders from military units, intelligence agencies, and business organizations with data available to the public. Contributions of this study reside in two aspects: first, we use public data from documented malicious insider cases, implying a potentially valuable data source for future studies in this domain; second, we validate malicious insider characteristics identified in previous research, thereby establishing a foundation for more comprehensive research in the future.
Keywords: data classification; insider attacks; insider threat; malicious insider; text mining

Untangling a Web of Lies: Exploring Automated Detection of Deception in Computer-Mediated Communication - Ludwig, Stephan; van Laer, Tom; de Ruyter, Ko; Friedman, Mike (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Safeguarding organizations against opportunism and severe deception in computer-mediated communication (CMC) presents a major challenge to chief information officers and information technology managers. New insights into linguistic cues of deception derive from the speech acts innate to CMC. Applying automated text analysis to archival e-mail exchanges in a CMC system as part of a reward program, we assess the ability of word use (micro level), message development (macro level), and intertextual exchange cues (meta level) to detect severe deception by business partners. We empirically assess the predictive ability of our framework using an ordinal multilevel regression model. Results indicate that deceivers minimize the use of referencing and self-deprecation but include more superfluous descriptions and flattery. Deceitful channel partners also overstructure their arguments and rapidly mimic the linguistic style of the account manager across dyadic e-mail exchanges. Thanks to its diagnostic value, the proposed framework can support firms’ decision making and guide compliance monitoring system development.
Keywords: automated text analysis; channel partners; computer-mediated communication; deception detection; deception severity; linguistic cues; speech act theory

More Than Meets the Eye: How Oculometric Behaviors Evolve Over the Course of Automated Deception Detection Interactions - Proudfoot, Jeffrey G; Jenkins, Jeffrey L; Burgoon, Judee K; Nunamaker, Jay F (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Eye-tracking technology has exhibited promise for identifying deception in automated screening systems. Prior deception research using eye trackers has focused on the detection and interpretation of brief oculometric variations in response to stimuli (e.g., specific images or interview questions). However, more research is needed to understand how variations in oculometric behaviors evolve over the course of an interaction with a deception detection system. Using latent growth curve modeling, we tested hypotheses explaining how two oculometric behaviors—pupil dilation and eye-gaze fixation patterns—evolve over the course of a system interaction for three groups of participants: deceivers who see relevant stimuli (i.e., stimuli pertinent to their deception), deceivers who do not see relevant stimuli, and truth-tellers. The results indicate that the oculometric indicators of deceivers evolve differently over the course of an interaction, and that these trends are indicative of deception regardless of whether relevant stimuli are shown.
Keywords: automated screening systems; concealed information test (CIT); deception detection; eye tracking; latent growth curve modeling; pupil dilation, oculometrics

Detecting Fraudulent Behavior on Crowdfunding Platforms: The Role of Linguistic and Content-Based Cues in Static and Dynamic Contexts - Siering, Michael; Koch, Jascha-Alexander; Deokar, Amit V (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Crowdfunding platforms offer founders the possibility to collect funding for project realization. With the advent of these platforms, the risk of fraud has risen. Fraudulent founders provide inaccurate information or pretend interest toward a project. Within this study, we propose deception detection support mechanisms to address this novel type of Internet fraud. We analyze a sample of fraudulent and nonfraudulent projects published at a leading crowdfunding platform. We examine whether the analysis of dynamic communication during the funding period is valuable for identifying fraudulent behavior—apart from analyzing only the static information related to the project. We investigate whether content-based cues and linguistic cues are valuable for fraud detection. The selection of cues and the subsequent feature engineering is based on theories in areas of communication, psychology, and computational linguistics. Our results should be helpful to the stakeholders of crowdfunding platforms and researchers of fraud detection.
Keywords: crowdfunding; deception detection; fraud detection; text mining; content-based cues; linguistic cues

Product Pricing in a Peer-to-Peer Economy - Weber, Thomas A (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
The emergence of a collaborative economy has been driven by advances in information technology that allow consumers to borrow and rent goods among peers on a secondary sharing market. In a dynamic setting, consumers make intertemporal decisions about purchases and their participation in the sharing market. This study introduces an overlapping-generations model to analyze product pricing and consumer choice with and without a sharing market. The model quantifies the impacts of a peer-to-peer economy on the demand for ownership, the product price, and all participants’ payoffs, including consumer surplus, profits, and social welfare. Given consumers that are heterogeneous with respect to their consumption needs and valuations, it illustrates which of them are prone to participate in a sharing economy and whether a retailer (or manufacturer) can benefit from the presence of a secondary exchange. A sharing market tends to increase the price of new products by a “sharing premium,” which positively depends on the retailer’s commitment ability. The price increment becomes relatively smaller for higher-cost products. Low-cost products and sufficiently impatient consumers together make a peer-to-peer economy unattractive for retailers. For high-cost products, however, the latter stand to gain from the existence of a sharing market. Most important, the introduction of a peer-to-peer economy increases both consumer surplus and social welfare, thus creating an implicit imperative for a social planner to help promote collaborative consumption, for instance, by providing incentives for retailers and manufacturers that tend to offset possible expected negative payoff effects from consumer sharing.
Keywords: collaborative consumption; market equilibrium; monopoly pricing; overlapping generations; peer-to-peer economy; product pricing; sharing economy

Perverse Effects in Defense of Computer Systems: When More Is Less - Wolff, Josephine (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
With computer security spending on the rise, organizations seem to have accepted the notion that buying more—and more expensive—defenses allows them to better protect their computer systems. In the context of complex computer systems, however, defenses can also have the opposite effect, creating new, unforeseen vulnerabilities in the systems they are intended to protect. Advocacy for defense-in-depth and diverse security measures has contributed to this “more is better” mentality for defending computer systems, which fails to consider the complex interaction of different components in these systems, especially with regard to what impact new security controls may have on the operation and functionality of other, preexisting defenses. We give examples of several categories of perverse effects in defending computer systems and draw on the theory of unintended consequences and the duality of technology to analyze the origins of these perverse effects, and to develop a classification scheme for the different types and some methods for avoiding them.
Keywords: complex systems; computer systems; cyber defense; cybersecurity; defense-in-depth; information security

Influence of Firm’s Recovery Endeavors upon Privacy Breach on Online Customer Behavior - Choi, Ben CF; Kim, Sung S; Jiang, Zhenhui (Jack) (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
The soaring number of privacy breaches has prompted affected firms to learn how to effectively recover damaged customer relationships. In this study we develop and test a model that explains how online customer behavior is influenced by a firm’s recovery endeavors when privacy breaches occur. Drawing on a service recovery perspective, we integrate the notions of justice perceptions and psychological responses into a theoretical framework. The proposed model was tested against data collected from 1,007 online customers based on a hypothetical scenario. Results show that three types of justice perceptions, distributive, procedural, and interactional justice, jointly affect psychological responses—that is, perceived breach and feelings of violation. In addition, psychological responses were shown to be important in shaping postincident outcomes such as post-word of mouth and post-likelihood of switching. The study gives researchers and practitioners a useful conceptual tool for analyzing the effectiveness of organizational practices in recovering customer relationship after privacy breaches.
Keywords: online customer behavior; privacy; privacy breaches; psychological responses; security; structural equation modeling

Product Information Websites: Are They Good for Consumers? - Markopoulos, Panos M; Aron, Ravi; Ungar, Lyle H (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Product information websites have become ubiquitous in supporting B2C E-Commerce. This study explores their impact on firm profitability, consumer surplus, and social welfare. Using an analytical model, we show that firms take advantage of such infomediaries and reduce their own information investments, increasing their profitability. Surprisingly, we find that the existence of these websites may actually reduce social welfare. Contrary to the common belief that product information websites are good for buyers, we show that they may be hurting consumers, even when they seek to maximize consumer surplus as their principal goal. These findings question the uncritical acceptance of infomediaries as beneficial to markets in general, and buyers in particular, especially when the infomediaries assume roles that substitute the information disclosure investments that sellers freely choose to make.
Keywords: B2C eCommerce; consumer surplus; electronic markets; infomediaries; information dissemination; information economics; product information

Emotion in IT Investment Decision Making with A Real Options Perspective: The Intertwining of Cognition and Regret - Park, Eun Hee; Ramesh, Balasubramaniam; Cao, Lan (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Real options thinking helps individuals cope with uncertainties in the information technology (IT) investment decision-making process. Our study examines the intertwining of cognition and a specific emotion, regret, in IT real options decision making using a multisite case study of IT investments. We develop a process model that explains the context in which regret is triggered, the strategies used to regulate regret, and how these strategies influence the valuation, creation, exercise, and revaluation of several types of IT real options. Our research highlights that while some regret regulation strategies may be productive, others are counterproductive. Our findings extend the studies on cognition-based models of IT real options by including emotion, which allows us to explore human behavior on a psychological level and offer a more fundamental understanding of IT real options thinking. Practitioners must recognize the presence of regret that could cloud cognition-based analysis and must be sensitive to its impact.
Keywords: emotion; IT investment decision; IT real options decision; regret; regret regulation strategy

Not As Smart As We Think: A Study of Collective Intelligence in Virtual Groups - Barlow, Jordan B; Dennis, Alan R (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Organizations increasingly use virtual groups for many types of work, yet little research has examined factors that make groups perform better across multiple different types of tasks. Previous research has proposed that groups, like individuals, have a general factor of collective intelligence, an ability to perform consistently across multiple types of tasks. We studied groups that used computer-mediated communication (CMC) to investigate whether collective intelligence is similar or different when groups work using CMC. A collective intelligence factor did not emerge among groups using CMC, suggesting that collective intelligence manifests itself differently depending on context. This is in contrast to previous findings. Our results surface a need for more research on boundary conditions of the construct of collective intelligence. Our findings also have practical implications: managers should take care when organizing virtual group work because groups that perform well on one type of task will not necessarily be the groups that do well on other tasks
Keywords: collective intelligence; computer-mediated communication; group performance; intelligence; task types; virtual groups

From Warning to Wallpaper: Why the Brain Habituates to Security Warnings and What Can Be Done About It - Anderson, Bonnie Brinton; Vance, Anthony; Kirwan, C Brock; Jenkins, Jeffrey L; Eargle, David (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Warning messages are fundamental to users’ security interactions. Unfortunately, they are largely ineffective, as shown by prior research. A key contributor to this failure is habituation: decreased response to a repeated warning. Previous research has only inferred the occurrence of habituation to warnings, or measured it indirectly, such as through the proxy of a related behavior. Therefore, there is a gap in our understanding of how habituation to security warnings develops in the brain. Without direct measures of habituation, we are limited in designing warnings that can mitigate its effects. In this study, we use neurophysiological measures to directly observe habituation as it occurs in the brain and behaviorally. We also design a polymorphic warning artifact that repeatedly changes its appearance in order to resist the effects of habituation. In an experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI; n = 25), we found that our polymorphic warning was significantly more resistant to habituation than were conventional warnings in regions of the brain related to attention. In a second experiment (n = 80), we implemented the four most resistant polymorphic warnings in a realistic setting. Using mouse cursor tracking as a surrogate for attention to unobtrusively measure habituation on participants’ personal computers, we found that polymorphic warnings reduced habituation compared to conventional warnings. Together, our findings reveal the substantial influence of neurobiology on users’ habituation to security warnings and security behavior in general, and we offer our polymorphic warning design as an effective solution to practice
Keywords: behavioral information systems security; cybersecurity; fMRI; functional magnetic resonance imaging; habituation; mouse cursor tracking; neurobiology; NeuroIS; polymorphic warnings; security warnings

Empirical Assessment of Alternative Designs for Enhancing Different Types of Trusting Beliefs in Online Recommendation Agents - Wang, Weiquan; Benbasat, Izak (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
competence, integrity, and benevolence are the three key trusting beliefs that are widely acknowledged in the trust literature. Drawing on users’ different dispositional attribution of these trusting beliefs, we investigate the different influence of two sets of experiential reasons on the competence belief versus the benevolence and integrity beliefs in online recommendation agents (RAs). The two sets of experiential reasons encompass interactive reason, including three performance factors (namely, perceived cognitive effort, advice quality, and perceived strategy restrictiveness), and knowledge-based reason (i.e., perceived transparency of an RA). Data were collected through a laboratory experiment to test our hypotheses. Results demonstrate that the three performance factors affect only the competence belief, whereas perceived RA transparency influences all three trusting beliefs. In addition, the effects of perceived transparency on competence are partially mediated by perceived cognitive effort and advice quality. The research contributes to the trust literature by revealing the different antecedents of the three trusting beliefs and provides guidelines for designers to choose specific design elements to improve a particular trusting belief of the user toward an RA.
Keywords: advice quality; cognitive effort; decision support; recommendation agent; restrictiveness; transparency; trust; trusting beliefs

Augmented Virtual Doctor Office: Theory-based Design and Assessment - Zahedi, Fatemeh Mariam; Walia, Nitin; Jain, Hemant (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Motivated by rising demands for medical care and the recent trends in medical care delivery, this work designs, develops, and evaluates the augmented virtual doctor office (AVDO). AVDO is intended to provide group medical visits in cyberspace (Cyber GMV). This research adopts the design science approach to design AVDO based on the extension of media naturalness (MN) theory. AVDO is implemented in an augmented world setting that integrates real visual cues with a virtual-world technology (Second Life® in this case). The assessment of AVDO is carried out in two ways: (1) through a synthesis of the extended MN theory and technology acceptance theories to assess the relationships of design features as perceived by patients with outcomes that include understanding, perceived effectiveness, trust, and behavior intentions, and (2) through the assessment of AVDO’s proof of value and proof of use as a supplementary channel for the delivery of medical care. Our work shows how the design features significantly influence outcomes and patients’ positive views of the design’s value and use. Theoretical and practical contributions of the work are presented.
Keywords: augmented virtual doctor office; augmented worlds; design science; group medical visits; health informatics; Second Life; virtual worlds

Firm Boundaries, Information Processing Capacity, and Performance in Manufacturing Firms - Gómez, Jaime; Salazar, Idana; Vargas, Pilar (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
We analyze the alignment between information processing needs and capacities. First, we explore the relationship between firms’ vertical and horizontal boundaries and information technology (IT) capabilities. The literature postulates that less internalization leads firms to invest more in information technology. However, we argue that the use of taper integration and diversification increases the demand for IT-based resources such as IT infrastructure and IT human resources. Second, we propose that the fit between information processing needs and capacity has a positive effect on performance. Our hypotheses are tested on a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms, and the results provide general support for our arguments. One advantage of the data is that they include not only large firms but also small and medium-size manufacturers. From a theoretical perspective, the study contributes to the literature by providing novel insights on how decisions on the vertical dimension condition investments in IT capabilities. It also adds new evidence on the diversification–IT capabilities relationship and studies the consequences of alignment of corporate strategies and IT capabilities on firm performance. From a managerial perspective, our study suggests that changes in the vertical and horizontal limits should be followed by changes in IT capabilities to improve performance.
Keywords: diversification; information processing capacity; information processing needs; information technology capabilities; IS–organization fit; taper integration

Effects of Social Interaction Dynamics on Platforms - Thies, Ferdinand; Wessel, Michael; Benlian, Alexander (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Despite the increasing relevance of online social interactions on platforms, there is still little research on the temporal interaction dynamics between electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM, a form of opinion-based social interaction), popularity information (a form of action-based social interaction), and consumer decision making. Drawing on a panel data set of more than 23,300 crowdfunding campaigns from Indiegogo, we investigate the dynamic effects of these social interactions on consumers’ funding decisions using the panel vector autoregressive methodology. Our analysis shows that both eWOM and popularity information are critical influencing mechanisms in crowdfunding. However, our overarching finding is that eWOM surrounding crowdfunding campaigns on Indiegogo or Facebook has a significant yet substantially weaker predictive power than popularity information. We also find that whereas popularity information has a more immediate effect on consumers’ funding behavior, its effectiveness decays rather quickly, while the impact of eWOM recedes more slowly. This study contributes to the extant literature by (1) providing a more nuanced understanding of the dynamic effects of opinion-based and action-based social interactions, (2) unraveling both within-platform and cross-platform dynamics, and (3) showing that social interactions are perceived as quality indicators on crowdfunding platforms that help consumers reduce risks associated with their investment decisions. These results can help platform providers and complementors to stimulate contribution behavior and increase the prosperity of a platform.
Keywords: crowdfunding; electronic word-of-mouth; eWOM; informational cascades; online platforms; panel vector autoregression; popularity information; platform success; reward-based crowdfunding

Early Predictions of Movie Success: The Who, What, and When of Profitability - Lash, Michael T; Zhao, Kang (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
We focus on predicting the profitability of a movie to support movie-investment decisions at early stages of film production. By leveraging data from various sources, and using social network analysis and text mining techniques, the proposed system extracts several types of features, including “who” is in the cast, “what” a movie is about, “when” a movie will be released, as well as “hybrid” features. Experiment results showed that the system outperforms benchmark methods by a large margin. Novel features we proposed made weighty contributions to the prediction. In addition to designing a decision support system with practical utility, we also analyzed key factors of movie profitability. Furthermore, we demonstrated the prescriptive value of our system by illustrating how it can be used to recommend a set of profit-maximizing cast members. This research highlights the power of predictive and prescriptive data analytics in information systems to aid business decisions.
Keywords: decision support; movie investments; movie profitability; predictive analytics; prescriptive analytics; social network analysis; text mining

Understanding Information Systems Integration Deficiencies in Mergers and Acquisitions: A Configurational Perspective - Henningsson, Stefan; Kettinger, William J (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Information systems (IS) integration is a critical challenge for value-creating mergers and acquisitions. Appropriate design and implementation of IS integration is typically a precondition for enabling a majority of the anticipated business benefits of a combined organization. Often, IS integration projects are subject to deficiencies (e.g., loss of the target firm’s business capabilities with expedited integration) that limit value creation. Drawing on a configurational perspective, we reanalyze 37 published case studies of problematic IS integrations and identify the potential deficiencies and how they are produced. Our findings reveal nine causal configurations that together explain deficiency as a consequence of multiple paths of interconnected mechanisms and contextual conditions that drive their actualization. Finally, based on a post hoc analysis of 25 cases where no negative outcomes are reported, we discuss approaches for managing IS integration to avoid realizing the actualization of deficiencies.
Keywords: acquisitions; case survey; configurational perspective; IS integration; merger benefits; merger problems; mergers

Trust Development in Globally Distributed Collaboration: A Case of U.S. and Chinese Mixed Teams - Cheng, Xusen; Fu, Shixuan; Druckenmiller, Douglas (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Trust is frequently investigated as an indicator of a mutual relationship. Trust is especially important for globally distributed collaboration in light of the lack of face-to-face interactions. As the perception of trust is a dynamic process, however, little research is conducted measuring trust development. Whether facilitation intervention is beneficial for trust development is also unknown. In order to fill the research gaps, we followed a design science approach and incorporated collaboration engineering into the design of the treatment. Data were collected in a series of experiments with Chinese and U.S. mixed teams, including a longitudinal survey, interviews, and documentation. Through the comparison of the treatment group with the control group, we found that trust was significantly improved in the treatment group. In addition, several trust antecedents were found to explain the development. The power of facilitated collaboration is also validated as helpful for trust development. This research makes several implications, such as proposing a series of trust antecedents, a treatment design of a collaboration engineering (CE) approach for trust improvement, and a new context application of CE. This research could also help the practitioners in globally distributed collaboration who want to improve trust over time.
Keywords: collaboration engineering; design science research; globally distributed collaboration; thinkLets; trust development

A Friend Like Me: Modeling Network Formation in a Location-Based Social Network - Lee, Gene Moo; Qiu, Liangfei; Whinston, Andrew B (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
This article studies the strategic network formation in a location-based social network. We build an empirical model of social link creation that incorporates individual characteristics and pairwise user similarities. Specifically, we define four user proximity measures from biography, geography, mobility, and short messages. To construct proximity from unstructured text information, we build topic models using Latent Dirichlet Allocation. Using Gowalla data with 385,306 users, 3 million locations, and 35 million check-in records, we empirically estimate the model to find evidence on the homophily effect on network formation. To cope with possible endogeneity issues, we use exogenous weather shocks as our instrumental variables and find the empirical results are robust: network formation decisions are significantly affected by our proximity measures.
Keywords: homophily; location-based service; network formation; social networks; topic modeling; user proximity

Targeted Twitter Sentiment Analysis for Brands Using Supervised Feature Engineering and the Dynamic Architecture for Artificial Neural Networks - Ghiassi, Manoochehr; Zimbra, David; Lee, Sean (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Social media communications offer valuable feedback to firms about their brands. We present a targeted approach to Twitter sentiment analysis for brands using supervised feature engineering and the dynamic architecture for artificial neural networks. The proposed approach addresses challenges associated with the unique characteristics of the Twitter language and brand-related tweet sentiment class distribution. We demonstrate its effectiveness on Twitter data sets related to two distinctive brands. The supervised feature engineering for brands offers final tweet feature representations of only seven dimensions with greater feature density. Reducing the dimensionality of the representations reduces the complexity of the classification problem and feature sparsity. Two sets of experiments are conducted for each brand in three-class and five-class tweet sentiment classification. We examine five-class classification to target the mild sentiment expressions that are of particular interest to firms and brand management practitioners. We compare the proposed approach to the performances of two state-of-the-art Twitter sentiment analysis systems from the academic and commercial domains. The results indicate that it outperforms these state-of-the-art systems by wide margins, with classification F1-measures as high as 88 percent and excellent recall of tweets expressing mild sentiments. Furthermore, they demonstrate the tweet feature representations, though consisting of only seven dimensions, are highly effective in capturing indicators of Twitter sentiment expression. The proposed approach and vast majority of features identified through supervised feature engineering are applicable across brands, allowing researchers and brand management practitioners to quickly generate highly effective tweet feature representations for Twitter sentiment analysis on other brands.
Keywords: artificial neural networks; feature engineering; sentiment analysis; social media; supervised feature engineering; Twitter

Identifying and Profiling Key Sellers in Cyber Carding Community: AZSecure Text Mining System - Li, Weifeng; Chen, Hsinchun; Nunamaker, Jay F (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
The past few years have witnessed millions of credit/debit cards flowing through the underground economy and ultimately causing significant financial loss. Examining key underground economy sellers has both practical and academic significance for cybercrime forensics and criminology research. Drawing on social media analytics, we have developed the AZSecure text mining system for identifying and profiling key sellers. The system identifies sellers using sentiment analysis of customer reviews and profiles sellers using topic modeling of advertisements. We evaluated the AZSecure system on eight international underground economy forums. The system significantly outperformed all benchmark machine-learning methods on identifying advertisement threads, classifying customer review sentiments, and profiling seller characteristics, with an average F-measure of about 80 percent to 90 percent. In our case study, we identified the famous carder, Rescator, who was affiliated with the Target breach, and captured important seller characteristics in terms of product type, payment options, and contact channels. Our research leverages social media analytics to probe into the underground economy in order to help law enforcement target key sellers and prevent future fraud. It also contributes to our understanding of the use of information technology in detecting deception in online systems.
Keywords: carding community; cybersecurity; deep learning; fraud detection; online deception; social media analytics; topic modeling; underground economy

Problematic Use of Social Networking Sites: Antecedents and Consequence from a Dual-System Theory Perspective - Turel, Ofir; Qahri-Saremi, Hamed (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Problematic use of social networking sites (SNS) and its adverse consequences have become prevalent, yet little is known about the conceptualization and etiology of problematic use of SNS. This study draws on dual-system theory (DST), borrowed from cognitive neuroscience (also known as reflective-impulsive theory of the mind and fast and slow thinking) to investigate what drives this phenomenon. The statistical analyses of time-lagged data collected from 341 Facebook users implicate an imbalance between two systems in the human mind, involving strong cognitive-emotional preoccupation with using the SNS (System 1, impulsive) and weak cognitive-behavioral control over using the SNS (System 2, reflective), as the driver of problematic SNS use behaviors. Problematic use of SNS, in turn, diminishes users’ academic performance. This study contributes to research on the dark side of information systems (IS) use by conceptualizing problematic use and explaining its drivers and consequences. It demonstrates that the dual-system theory is an appropriate theoretical perspective for explaining problematic IS use, superior to planned-behavior–based models. It also explains some of the precursors of the dual system factors and offers practical implications to information technology artifact designers and users.
Keywords: cognitive nueroscience; dark side of IS use; dual-process theory; dual-system theory; Facebook; IS users; problematic IT use; self-esteem; social networking sites; stimulus properties

Global Differences in Online Shopping Behavior: Understanding Factors Leading to Trust - Clemons, Eric K; Wilson, Josh; Matt, Christian; Hess, Thomas; Ren, Fei; Jin, Fujie; Koh, Noi Sian (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Trust underlies much of the online shopping behavior. We compare trust in online shopping in four countries: (1) the United States, a mature online market; (2) Germany; (3) China, the fastest growing online market, where consumers are plagued by counterfeits, forgeries, and spoiled or defective items; and (4) Singapore. We performed laboratory experiments in all four countries. We used three experimental treatments: (1) no assurances; (2) promises of product quality and authenticity; and (3) promises backed up by third-party assurances. We examined subjects’ perceived risk associated with different treatments across different vendor types. The impact of treatments and of vendor reputation on consumers’ trust varied across countries in ways that we did not expect. In mature online markets like the United States, online shopping appears to be treated as just another form of shopping. In China, if an online vendor can establish a reputation for quality, consumers appear to treat those merchants much as Americans do their own favorite online vendors, despite problems with Chinese shopping more generally.
Keywords: e-commerce; e-commerce in China; e-tail; global e-commerce; online consumer behavior; online trust; online trust experiments

Examining Firms’ Green Information Technology Practices: A Hierarchical View of Key Drivers and Their Effects - Hu, Paul Jen-Hwa; Hu, Han-Fen; Wei, Chih-Ping; Hsu, Pei-Fang (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
This study examines key drivers of firms’ green information technology (IT) practices. A hierarchical view, premised in institutional theory and competitive dynamics, leads to a model that explains firms’ practices. This model includes factors that pertain to the environment (environmental awareness and government regulations), industry (industry norms and competitors’ green practices), and firm (customers’ and equity holders’ attitudes and internal readiness) levels. Survey data collected from 304 major firms in Taiwan are used to test the model and hypotheses. In particular, attitudes of a firm’s customers and equity holders, as well as its internal readiness, directly influence its green IT practices, while also channeling the effects of important contextual factors. Among the contextual factors considered herein, environmental awareness and industry norms influence firms’ practices both directly and indirectly. The overall results highlight the significance of contextual factors and underscore the mediating roles of firm-specific considerations. According to our findings, firms should implement strategic goals and make resource allocations toward green IT practices that are aligned with the industry-wide atmosphere and general public’s awareness of environmental protection.
Keywords: competitive dynamics; environmental actions; firms’ green practices; green information technology; green IT; institutional theory; nomological network; sustainability

An Examination of Effective IT Governance in the Public Sector Using the Legal View of Agency Theory - Dawson, Gregory S; Denford, James S; Williams, Clay K; Preston, David; Desouza, Kevin C (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
In the private sector, research on information technology (IT) governance has frequently applied the classical view of agency theory and focused on the controlling role played by the board of directors in constraining a potentially opportunistic manager/agent. However, in the public sector, the board of directors does not exist and there may be less need to focus on the controlling aspect of governance and more need to focus on the politically challenging distribution of state resources. In this U.S.-state–based study, we adopt, apply, and extend the legal view of agency theory past its sole focus on the board of directors as the solitary mediating hierarch in order to examine the strategic mediating hierarch role played by the state legislature and then conceptualize and test for the existence of a tactical mediating hierarch played by the IT steering committee and the production role of an independent Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) in using a fee-for-service funding model. We apply these concepts to extend theory to examine the combination of roles that lead to superior outcomes for the state (the principal) versus those necessary for the IT department (the agent). Our results show that by shifting from the control-oriented view of governance in the private sector to a more mediating view in the public sector, important practices may be portable between the public and private sector, despite their widely differing structures.
Keywords: agency theory; CIO; IT governance; IT in public sector; public sector; steering committee

Technology Evaluation and Imitation: Do They Have Differential or Dichotomous Effects on ERP Adoption and Assimilation in China? - Lai, Vincent Siuking; Lai, Fujun; Lowry, Paul Benjamin (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2016)
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is a platform for innovation with high failure rates due to its complexity. In China, failure rates of ERP are also high, with key differences between China and Western countries in terms of development, cultural, and organizational structure. Even when Chinese firms successfully adopt ERP, many fail to assimilate ERP and consequently never experience the full benefits of the innovation. The purpose of this study is to examine the predictors of adoption versus assimilation in Chinese firms. The existing literature largely assumes a dichotomy of choices when implementing organizational innovations in business: technological evaluation and imitation. We argue that this dichotomy does not apply well to a Chinese ERP context. China has achieved tremendous success in manufacturing and industrial processes through technological leapfrogging offered by imitation. At the same time, Chinese firms are under increasing pressure to innovate. Therefore, we argue that forces of imitation and evaluation are likely both at play when Chinese firms adopt and assimilate innovations—including ERP. Accordingly, we examined how two behaviors, interorganizational social technology imitation and rational technology evaluation, influence Chinese organizations in adopting and assimilating ERP systems. Our findings suggest that both social technology imitation and rational technology evaluation are determinants of Chinese ERP adoption and assimilation. Hence, this study offers new ways for IT and innovation researchers to explore social behavior (i.e., imitation) in IT diffusion processes and to consider the merits or risks of such behavior alongside the conventional rational approach (i.e., evaluation).
Keywords: diffusion of innovation theory; enterprise resource planning system; ERP; ERP assimilation; information systems in China; technology adoption; technology assimilation; technology evaluation; technology imitation

The Consensus Effect in Online Health-Care Communities - Yan, Lu (LUCY); Tan, Yong (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Online health-care communities have become increasingly popular among patients, enabling them to connect to a large population of patients who suffer from similar health problems and to access massive amounts of health-related information. We are interested in investigating how other patients’ consensus on treatment experiences affects patients’ perceived treatment effectiveness. In this regard, we use the cue diagnosticity framework to examine patients’ shared treatment reviews. By controlling individual heterogeneity and the inhomogeneous weighting function of social influence on patients, we find that consensus has a positive impact on patients’ perceived treatment effectiveness. This positive effect, however, is negatively moderated by the characteristics of the shared information, including volume and patients’ precommitment and social connectedness. Overall, we find that perceived treatment effectiveness is closely related to community participants’ perceptions about the treatment. These findings can be used to help health-care practitioners incorporate patients’ experiences into health-care systems and develop effective interventions to help patients better engage in their disease management.
Keywords: cue diagnosticity; health-information sharing; latent variable model; online health care; perceived treatment effectiveness; random coefficient model; social network

What Leads to Prosocial Behaviors on Social Networking Services: A Tripartite Model - Kuem, Jungwon; Ray, Soumya; Siponen, Mikko; Kim, Sung S (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
The major challenge for social networking services (SNS) has been in getting users to exhibit prosocial behavior by active participation in creating and sharing content. We seek to integrate and reconcile the varying, and sometimes conflicting, explanations of prosocial behaviors at SNS. Rooted in postadoption behavior and commitment theory, our study offers three distinct mechanisms that regulate how one’s experience at an SNS translates into commitment that leads to prosocial behavior. In particular, satisfaction, affective commitment, and active participation substantiate a dedication-based mechanism; past investments, continuance commitment, and resulting inattention to alternatives form a constraint-based mechanism; and social support, normative commitment and users’ intentions to moderate comments are a third, obligation-based mechanism. We empirically tested this tripartite model against data collected from actual Facebook users. The results of our analysis supported the proposed relationships between each mechanism’s experiential factor, mediating type of commitment, and prosocial outcome. Intermechanism effects were rare between commitment mediators and outcomes, they were common between experiential antecedents and commitment factors. Understanding these mechanisms allows SNS managers to fine-tune their service experience to promote specific prosocial behaviors. Meanwhile, researchers benefit from our overarching view of prosocial behavior at SNS that helps to combine and contrast emergent perspectives and theories.
Keywords: activity in social networks; SNS; social network content; social networking; social support; structural equation modeling; user commitment; user satisfaction

Who Do You Think You Are? Common and Differential Effects of Social Self-Identity on Social Media Usage - Pan, Zhao; Lu, Yaobin; Wang, Bin; Chau, Patrick YK (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Intense competition requires that social media service providers execute two major business strategies: exploiting current functions while simultaneously exploring incremental innovation. Realization of these strategies is related to two types of member behavior: reinforced use and varied use. Drawing on identity theories, we examine the common and differential effects of two levels of social self-identity—relational identity and social identity—on reinforced and varied use and the moderating role of inertia on their effects on social media usage. Our results reveal that, although both identities have similar effects on usage behavior, users with higher social identities are more oriented toward variety seeking, while those with stronger relational identities are more oriented toward reinforcement. Inertia negatively moderates the impacts of social identity on social media use, but not the relationships between relational identity and social media use. The current research contributes to theory by decomposing social media usage into reinforced and varied use and reveals the common and differential influences of two levels of social self-identity on user behavior. Social media service providers should focus more on social identity to promote varied use and focus more on relational identity when they want to enhance reinforced use.
Keywords: reinforced use; relational identity; self-identity; social identity; social media; social media use; varied use

Winning Back Technology Disadopters: Testing a Technology Readoption Model in the Context of Mobile Internet Services - Xu, Xin; Thong, James YL; Tam, Kar Yan (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
We investigate how information and communication technology (ICT) service providers can win back disadopters of an earlier generation of technology when a new technology generation appears on the market. Integrating prior research on consumers’ defensive bias, knowledge accessibility, diffusion of innovation, and technology adoption, we developed a model to predict disadopters’ intention to readopt a technology. We postulate that the primary reason for disadoption moderates the impacts of both the drivers of readoption (perceived superiority, effort expectancy, price value of the new technology generation, and social influence) and the characteristics of prior usage experience with the disadopted earlier technology generation (duration of disadoption, tenure with the old generation, and usage intensity of the old generation) on readoption intention. We tested our technology readoption model in the context of mobile Internet services. Data were collected from 274 disadopters of an earlier generation of mobile Internet services before the advent of the third generation (3G) technology. The results supported most of our hypotheses. These findings have significant theoretical and practical implications, especially for firms interested in winning back technology disadopters. Finally, we present an agenda for further research into technology readoption.
Keywords: customer win-back; defensive bias; diffusion of innovation; knowledge accessibility; mobile Internet; technology adoption; technology disadopters; technology readoption; UTAUT

To Cyberloaf or Not to Cyberloaf: The Impact of the Announcement of Formal Organizational Controls - Khansa, Lara; Kuem, Jungwon; Siponen, Mikko; Kim, Sung S (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
We investigate the changing causal relationships between cyberloafing behavior and its antecedents after the announcement of formal organizational controls that, unlike informal controls, are officially imposed by organizations. Drawing on Akers’s social learning theory, we first propose neutralization, perceived risk, past cyberloafing, and peer cyberloafing as antecedents of cyberloafing. We then develop a theoretical account of how their impacts change from before to after the announcement of formal controls. The proposed model was empirically tested using data collected from two separate surveys administered a month apart. The first survey captured the preannouncement state of cyberloafing among respondents; the follow-up survey was administered after the respondents were asked to assume that their company had just announced anti-cyberloafing controls that used explicit monitoring and sanctions. We show that preannouncement, employees’ intentions to cyberloaf are mostly influenced by their past tendencies to cyberloaf and by others’ cyberloafing, but their neutralization and perceived risk play no significant role. In contrast, postannouncement, the impacts of individuals’ neutralization and perceived risk on their cyberloafing suddenly become significant. Theoretically, we demonstrate that to accurately predict noncompliant behavior, it is important to account for all four antecedents and incorporate the announcement of formal controls. Practically, understanding how this announcement affects the relationships between cyberloafing and its antecedents suggests different areas managers need to target, pre- and postannouncement, to curb cyberloafing.
Keywords: cyberloafing; formal controls; neutralization; past cyberloafing; peer cyberloafing; perceived risk; social learning theory

A Study of Enterprise Software Licensing Models - Li, Shengli; Cheng, Hsing Kenneth; Duan, Yang; Yang, Yu-Chen (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
We study an enterprise software vendor’s decision on three prominent licensing models– on-premises, software as a service (SaaS), and hybrid. Our findings indicate that both the customers’ estimation of the future software quality improvement and network effects play critical roles in the software vendor’s choice of optimal licensing models. If the network effects are weak, the enterprise software vendor should choose the on-premises model when customers have a low estimation of the software quality improvement in the upgrade version. The hybrid model should be implemented if this estimation is in the mid-range, while the SaaS model generates the highest profit when customers believe that the upgrade version will have a significant improvement in software quality. As the network effects become stronger, the on-premises model will be dominated by the other two licensing models and is never optimal. In the event of a high upgrade cost and strong network effects, SaaS becomes the best licensing model due to its multitenancy nature.
Keywords: enterprise software; network effects; on-premises license; SaaS; software as a service; software licensing; software quality uncertainty

A Strategic Analysis of Multi-Channel Expert Services - Akçura, M Tolga; Ozdemir, Zafer D (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Using stylized models, we investigate when and how expert service providers should offer their services online, and whether they should charge separate prices for face-to-face and online services or provide the online service as a free supplement. Interestingly, consumer surplus can rise when a monopolist charges different prices for face-to-face and online services, and it may drop when the monopolist starts offering the online service as a free add-on to its face-to-face service. We find that a market-wide adoption of the online channel by competing experts in a duopoly setting intensifies price competition and thereby reduces overall profits. Furthermore, the rate of adoption is highest when the online service is moderately effective, whereas one of the experts refuses to offer the service when it is highly effective. These results provide theoretical support for the viability of online expert services as well as practical guidance on pricing strategies.
Keywords: channel management; expert services; expertise pricing; game theory; online expertise; pricing

The Risk Implications of Mergers and Acquisitions with Information Technology Firms - Chang, Young Bong; Cho, Wooje (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
We address the dynamics of post-merger risks for a firm acquiring an information technology (IT) company over a long-term horizon, and examine the impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) motives on its post-merger risks after controlling for its self-selection into the specific motives the acquiring firm seeks. We find that a strong run-up in risk occurs before M&A transactions are initiated, but this risk begins to decline over the post-merger period. However, post-merger risks tend to persist for firms seeking M&A transactions with a customer-side motive, whereas this does not occur with a production-side motive. While greater post-merger risks are associated with M&As with a customer-side motive, our results suggest that its association with post-merger risks is moderated by industry dynamism. Overall, our study sheds new light on the post-merger risk by addressing its dynamic nature and uncovering the potential interplay between M&A motives and industry dynamism when IT firms are acquired.
Keywords: information technology firms; mergers and acquisitions; post-merger risks; return volatility

Gamification in the Workplace: The Central Role of the Aesthetic Experience - Suh, Ayoung; Cheung, Christy MK; Ahuja, Manju; Wagner, Christian (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Although gamification in the workplace is burgeoning, organizations frequently have difficulty sustaining user engagement with a gamified information system (IS). The focus of this study is how a gamified IS in the workplace engages users and encourages them to continue system use. By proposing the concepts of flow experience (FE) and aesthetic experience (AE) as different ways to provide deep and meaningful user engagement, this study develops a model that explores the antecedents of FE and AE and their roles in explaining an individual’s continuance intention to use of a gamified IS. The model is tested using data collected from 178 users of a gamified IS in a global consulting company. The results demonstrate that although FE and AE are complementary forces, AE is more salient than FE for explaining continuance intention. The research proposes AE as a parsimonious yet powerful construct that extends the research on user engagement. The findings contribute to research on gamification by shifting scholarly attention from deep engagement characterized by FE to meaningful engagement characterized by AE.
Keywords: aesthetic experience; affordances; continuance of IT use; flow experience; gamification; user engagement; workplace gamification aesthetics in IT

Whose and What Social Media Complaints Have Happier Resolutions? Evidence from Twitter - Gunarathne, Priyanga; Rui, Huaxia; Seidmann, Abraham (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Many brands try to manage customer complaints on social media, helping their customers on a real-time basis. Inspired by this popular practice, in this study, we aim to understand whose and what complaints on social media are likely to have happier resolutions. We analyzed the complaint resolution experience of customers of a major U.S. airline, by exploiting a unique data set combining both customer–brand interactions on Twitter and how customers felt at the end of these interactions. We find that complaining customers who are more influential in online social networks are more likely to be satisfied. Customers who have previously complained to the brand on social media, and customers who complain about process-related rather than outcome-related issues are less likely to feel better in the end. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to identify the key factors that shape customer feelings toward their brand–customer interactions on social media. Our results provide practical guidance for successfully resolving customers’ complaints through the use of social media—an area that expects exponential growth in the coming decade.
Keywords: airline industry; CLASS methodology; complaint management; customer service; Klout score; online complaints; social influence; social media; Twitter

Smart Products for Sharing - Weber, Thomas A (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Sharing markets create mutual insurance for consumers who are unsure about their future needs for goods, thus rendering products more valuable both before and after the purchase. By embedding intelligence in their products, enabling them to sense, monitor, and authorize transfers between users, firms can economically participate in the collaborative consumption of their goods after they have been sold. Building on a dynamic model with overlapping generations of heterogeneous agents, we determine a firm’s jointly optimal product price and sharing tariff. The active use of product intelligence as a gatekeeper for collaborative consumption can narrow the gap between the retail and the equilibrium price in the sharing market. Because of its tendency to decrease the demand for ownership, the use of smart products with a positive sharing tariff does not always maximize the firm’s overall expected profits. A positive sharing tariff tends to be profitable with relatively high unit production cost and impatient consumers.
Keywords: aftermarket control; collaborative consumption; intelligent assets; Internet of things; product shareability; sharing economy; smart products

Beyond the Personalization–Privacy Paradox: Privacy Valuation, Transparency Features, and Service Personalization - Karwatzki, Sabrina; Dytynko, Olga; Trenz, Manuel; Veit, Daniel (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Digital services need access to consumers’ data to improve service quality and to generate revenues. However, it remains unclear how such services should be configured to facilitate consumers’ willingness to share personal information. Prior studies discuss an influence of selected individual traits or service configurations, including transparency features and service personalization. This study aims at uncovering how interactions among individuals’ privacy valuation, transparency features, and service personalization influence their willingness to disclose information. Building on information boundary theory, we conducted an experimental study with 286 participants on a data-intense digital service. In contrast to our expectation, we found no indication that providing transparency features facilitates individuals’ information disclosure. Relative to the personalization–privacy paradox, individuals’ privacy valuation is a strong inhibitor of information provision in general, not only for personalized services. Personalization benefits only convince consumers who exhibit little focus on privacy. Thus, service providers need to align their service designs with consumers’ privacy preferences.
Keywords: digital services; information boundary theory; information disclosure; information privacy; information-use transparency; personalization; privacy; transparency features; valuation of privacy

Predicting and Deterring Default with Social Media Information in Peer-to-Peer Lending - Ge, Ruyi; Feng, Juan; Gu, Bin; Zhang, Pengzhu (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
This study examines the predictive power of self-disclosed social media information on borrowers’ default in peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and identifies social deterrence as a new underlying mechanism that explains the predictive power. Using a unique data set that combines loan data from a large P2P lending platform with social media presence data from a popular social media site, borrowers’ self-disclosure of their social media account and their social media activities are shown to predict borrowers’ default probability. Leveraging a social media marketing campaign that increases the credibility of the P2P platform and lenders disclosing loan default information on borrowers’ social media accounts as a natural experiment, a difference-in-differences analysis finds a significant decrease in loan default rate and increase in default repayment probability after the event, indicating that borrowers are deterred by potential social stigma. The results suggest that borrowers’ social information can be used not only for credit screening but also for default reduction and debt collection.
Keywords: default probability; difference-in-differences; fintech; peer-to-peer lending; online P2P lending; lending industry; propensity score matching; online self-disclosure; social media; soft information; Weibo

Understanding the Information-Based Transformation of Strategy and Society - Clemons, Eric K; Dewan, Rajiv M; Kauffman, Robert J; Weber, Thomas A (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
The world economy is undergoing dramatic changes, largely driven by the new availability of fine-grained information. Innovative ways of using data—large and small—have also prompted a rethinking of the boundaries for the combination and use of knowledge. The strategic design of information flows in the economy has the upside of higher economic rents and competitive advantage, as well as the downsides of wealth inequality and abuse of power. This has brought a wide range of regulatory challenges. To understand the nature of these sweeping changes, it is important to examine the new ways information is used, and how information flows can be leveraged to create competitive advantage and dampen competition. The analysis in this article examines four economic entities that produce and consume value, as well as three determinants for the modes of their operations. The economic entities include consumers, producers, markets, and society, whose interactions are determined by viability, networks, and agency. In this framework, we paint a picture of the transformation of information-based strategy in the future and suggest promising research opportunities.
Keywords: consumers; economic theory; hyperdifferentiation; information flows; information politics; information strategy; intelligent assets; markets; producers; society transformation

Integrated Health Information Technology and the Quality of Patient Care: A Natural Experiment - Pinsonneault, Alain; Addas, Shamel; Qian, Christina; Dakshinamoorthy, Vijay; Tamblyn, Robyn (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Fragmentation of care delivery remains one of the main challenges of healthcare systems. In this study, we examine health information technology (HIT) that is electronically integrated across care physicians, specialists, hospitals, and pharmacists and its impact on quality of care. Drawing on the structure–process–outcome framework, we hypothesize that integrated HIT will have both a direct and an indirect effect on quality of care. By providing more complete information to physicians and allowing them to detect and manage health problems early in the care cycle, integrated HIT is expected to directly improve quality of care. Integrated HIT is also hypothesized to improve quality of care indirectly by increasing continuity of care and reducing the odds of therapeutic errors. We test these hypotheses through a contemporaneous natural experiment of a matched set of 15,626 outpatients receiving ambulatory care through an integrated HIT system and 15,626 outpatients in a control group. The results show that the patients treated with the integrated system had better quality of care in the follow-up period than patients of the control group. Integrated HIT also had an indirect effect on quality of care through an increase in continuity of care. Our study contributes to research by examining how an integrated HIT system—rather than specific HIT components—influences patient-related outcomes, and how this effect is mediated by two key processes: continuity of care and therapeutic duplication errors. Our work also helps decision makers to better understand the impact of HIT in a complex and highly decentralized and fragmented care delivery system.
Keywords: continuity of care; health information technology; I-HIT; information technology impact; integrated HIT; IT and healthcare; quality of care

How Doctors Gain Social and Economic Returns in Online Health-Care Communities: A Professional Capital Perspective - Guo, Shanshan; Guo, Xitong; Fang, Yulin; Vogel, Doug (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
An online health-care community (OHC) is a novel channel through which doctors share medical or health-care knowledge with patients. While the sustainable development of an OHC relies on doctors’ participation, we have limited information on how doctors can gain benefits from OHCs. In attempting to close this knowledge gap, we examine the determinants of social and economic returns of doctors at OHCs by extending the social exchange theory into the professional domain. The notion of professional capital, as a set of renewable resources for social professionals developed by good education within a territory of social practice, is introduced to understand the unique resources available to doctors for social exchange. Specifically, we examine the effects of status capital and decisional capital (two dimensions of professional capital) on doctors’ social and economic returns. Moreover, we explore how such effects differ across different doctor groups. The results show that, in addition to the widespread pursuit of celebrity doctors (who can be recognized by their high status capital) offline, the doctor’s decisional capital is also an important professional component in maintaining exchange returns at OHCs. This study provides empirical evidence of the relationship between professional capital and the exchange returns, and extends prior research on OHCs through a professional capital perspective with implications for theory and practice.
Keywords: online communities; online health-care community; professional capital; social exchange theory

The Effects of Process Orientations on Collaboration Technology Use and Outcomes in Product Development - Bala, Hillol; Massey, Anne P; Montoya, Mitzi M (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Notwithstanding interest in implementing information technologies (ITs) that facilitate collaboration among employees, there has been limited research that examines how such technologies influence collaboration in strategic business processes, such as new product development (NPD), and how this influence is contingent on the nature of the process. We develop and test a model that posits that employees’ collaboration technology use in NPD will influence collaboration outcomes, such as IT-enabled collaboration capability and collaboration satisfaction. The model postulates that NPD involves multiple process orientations—exploration, exploitation, and ambidexterity—and that these orientations have a moderating effect on the relationship between collaboration technology use and outcomes. We conducted two studies in a major pharmaceutical company (N = 1,749 and 1,454, respectively) and found support for our model. We found that the effects of collaboration technology use on outcomes were stronger for employees involved in the NPD process phase that had an ambidexterity orientation. Our findings contribute to theory and practice related to the use of collaboration technology in the NPD process by offering insights on how process orientations influence the dynamics of the relationship between employees’ use of collaboration technologies and associated outcomes.
Keywords: ambidexterity; collaboration technology; collaboration capability; collaboration satisfaction; innovation; information technology use; new product development

The Effect of Belongingness on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in the Use of Online Social Networks - James, Tabitha L; Lowry, Paul Benjamin; Wallace, Linda; Warkentin, Merrill (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Online social networks (OSNs) continue to have a transformative influence on how people socialize, partially because they help facilitate social contact that is crucial to fulfilling an innate need to belong. However, there is increasing evidence that some users suffer from OSN addiction, expressed as OSN obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Using the need-to-belong theory as our foundation, we seek a deeper understanding of the relationship between OSN belongingness and OSN OCD by examining the effects that OSN-specific uses and gratifications (U&Gs) and negative emotions have on it. We find that OSN belongingness is positively associated with use of the OSN to gratify needs for purposive value, self-discovery, maintaining interpersonal interconnectivity, social enhancement, and entertainment value. However, gratification of only the purposive value and social enhancement needs increases the likelihood of OSN OCD. Furthermore, we find that while OSN belongingness decreases the likelihood of OSN envy and anxiety, it slightly increases the likelihood of OSN fear of missing out; notably, all three of these negative emotions drive OSN OCD. Our findings indicate that healthy socialization use by well-adjusted individuals decreases OSN OCD risks, but those experiencing unstable emotional responses or unhealthy socialization on the OSN should avoid use.
Keywords: Facebook; need-to-belong theory; obsessive-compulsive disorder; online addiction; online belongingness; online social networks; social network sites; uses and gratifications theory

Training to Mitigate Phishing Attacks Using Mindfulness Techniques - Jensen, Matthew L; Dinger, Michael; Wright, Ryan T; Thatcher, Jason Bennett (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Phishing attacks are at a record high and are causing billions of dollars in losses. To mitigate phishing’s impact, organizations often use rule-based training to teach individuals to identify certain cues or apply a set of rules to avoid phishing attacks. The rule-based approach has improved organizational defenses against phishing; however, regular repetition of rule-based training may not yield increasing resistance to attacks. To expand the toolkit available to combat phishing attacks, we used mindfulness theory to develop a novel training approach that can be performed after individuals are familiar with rule-based training. The mindfulness approach teaches individuals to dynamically allocate attention during message evaluation, increase awareness of context, and forestall judgment of suspicious messages—techniques that are critical to detecting phishing attacks in organizational settings, but are unaddressed in rule-based instruction. To evaluate the efficacy of our approach, we compared rule-based and mindfulness training programs in a field study at a U.S. university that involved 355 students, faculty, and staff who were familiar with phishing attacks and received regular rule-based guidance. To evaluate the robustness of the training, we delivered each program in text-only or text-plus-graphics formats. Ten days later, we conducted a phishing attack on participants that used both generic and customized phishing messages. We found that participants who received mindfulness training were better able to avoid the phishing attack. In particular, improvement was observed for participants who were already confident in their detection ability and those who reported low e-mail mindfulness and low perceptions of Internet risk. This work introduces and provides evidence supporting a new approach that may be used to develop anti-phishing training.
Keywords: information security; mindfulness; mindlessness; phishing; security training; signal detection

An Agile Methodology for the Disaster Recovery of Information Systems Under Catastrophic Scenarios - Baham, Corey; Hirschheim, Rudy; Calderon, Andres A; Kisekka, Victoria (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
We explore the use of an agile methodology for improving the recovery of complex systems under catastrophic scenarios. Our adaptation of Kanban presents a novel, agile approach to overcoming the unique challenges that organizations face during disaster recovery. An action research study approach is employed to test the implementation of Kanban during a complex scenario at a large enterprise. The findings suggest that an adaptive and flexible methodology is required for an efficient disaster recovery in confronting unintended and cascading consequences. This research offers several contributions. First, to our knowledge, this is the first study to detail an approach for disaster recovery using an agile methodology. Second, this study uses a new combination of classic, canonical, and dialogical action research approaches to conduct the first empirical test of the effectiveness of an agile approach during an actual disaster recovery event. Third, in response to this Special Issue, the aforementioned research approach discusses the relationships between information systems researchers and research clients, demonstrating how action research can lead to improved organizational situations.
Keywords: action research; agile project management; catastrophic scenario planning; IS disaster recovery; Kanban

Reflective Technology Assimilation: Facilitating Electronic Health Record Assimilation in Small Physician Practices - Baird, Aaron; Davidson, Elizabeth; Mathiassen, Lars (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Effectively incorporating complex technology into organizational practices requires moving beyond initial plateaus of postadoption usage. However, achieving this is especially challenging for small businesses because competing priorities in addition to resource and attention constraints may lead to technology assimilation satisficing. With this context in mind, we conducted a four-year action research project in which we supported electronic health record (EHR) assimilation in 10 small physician practices by facilitating reflections to help these small organizations move beyond an initial plateau of postadoption EHR usage. Drawing from these results, we theorize reflective technology assimilation (RTA) as an emergent process of facilitating deeper learning and reflection within and across small resource- and attention-constrained organizations to enable ongoing technology assimilation. In addition, we articulate the foundational principles for reflective action research (RAR) as an approach in which researchers facilitate reflective problem solving while advancing theoretical knowledge.
Keywords: action research; community-of-practice; electronic health record (EHR); learning; reflective practice; technology assimilation

IT-Enabled Revenue Cycle Transformation in Resource-Constrained Hospitals: A Collaborative Digital Options Inquiry - Singh, Rajendra; Mindel, Vitali; Mathiassen, Lars (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Although hospitals increasingly consider solutions based on information technolgy (IT) for revenue cycle management, contextual constraints and numerous IT investment alternatives make it difficult to identify and realize appropriate solutions. Thus far, however, health IT theory has been silent on how IT can support financial and administrative purposes within hospitals, focusing instead on IT for clinical support. Against this backdrop, we report on an action research project involving IT-enabled revenue cycle transformation in a financially strapped rural hospital. Our research contributes to health IT theory by expanding the discourse to include revenue cycle transformation and by demonstrating how resource-constrained hospitals can improve their financial performance through selective investments in low-cost IT solutions across the revenue cycle. We also contribute to action research methodology by generalizing our interventions to propose digital options inquiry—a systematic approach to business process transformation that combines digital options theory with diagnostic process mapping—to help researchers and practitioners jointly understand and transform business processes.
Keywords: action research; collaborative practice research; digital options inquiry; health care; health IT; revenue cycle management

Enabling Effective Operational Risk Management in a Financial Institution: An Action Research Study - Ou Yang, Shirley; Hsu, Carol; Sarker, Suprateek; Lee, Allen S (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Action research (AR) is significant for its promise to bridge the chasm between rigor and relevance by seeking to solve real-world problems while building scientific knowledge. In this spirit, in our research project, we argue for a return to the essence of AR—that is, focusing on problem, action, and reflection. Adopting the style of AR known as dialogical AR, we address the issue of operational risk management as encountered by a financial institution in Taiwan. In this AR project, the researchers work collaboratively with workers in a bank to manage the knowledge creation process as part of an operational risk management program. Through three AR cycles, our findings demonstrate that ongoing knowledge creation facilitates the transformation of existing organizational culture and helps practitioners to identify different types of operational risks. We also highlight the conditions under which insights from reflective dialogues between practitioners and researchers can encourage managers to open themselves to new and different ways of thinking and acting. Finally, we offer principles for undertaking effective dialogical AR.
Keywords: action research; dialogical action research; information security management; operational risk management; principles of dialogical action research

Positivist Information Systems Action Research: Methodological Issues - Kock, Ned; Avison, David; Malaurent, Julien (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
We discuss the cyclical nature of action research (AR) in information systems (IS) and contrast it with other research approaches commonly used in IS. Often those who conduct AR investigations build on their professional expertise to provide a valuable service to a client organization while at the same time furthering knowledge in their academic fields. AR is usually conducted using an interpretive research approach, but many doctoral IS students, as well as junior and senior IS researchers, are likely to be expected to conduct research in a predominantly positivist fashion, even as they are determined to conduct an AR study that builds on their professional expertise. We argue that these IS researchers can successfully employ AR in their investigations as long as they are aware of the methodological obstacles that they may face, and have the means to overcome them. The following key obstacles are discussed: low statistical power, common-method bias, and multilevel influences. We also discuss two important advantages of employing AR in positivist IS investigations, from a positivist perspective: AR’s support for the identification of omitted variables and J-curve relationships. The study’s contribution is expected to enhance our knowledge of AR and foster its practice.
Keywords: action research; common-method bias; J-curve relationships omitted variables; positivist research; statistical power

Platform Structures, Homing Preferences, and Homophilous Propensities in Online Social Networks - Kwon, Hyeokkoo Eric; Oh, Wonseok; Kim, Taekyung (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
This study investigates how the attributes of online social platforms (e.g., open vs. closed, symmetric vs. asymmetric social networks) and user preferences regarding platform diversity (e.g., single-homing vs. multi-homing) moderate the influence of homophily on user behaviors across varied social segments. On the basis of panel data, we delve into the interplay among homophily, structural diversities across various online social networking services (SNSs), and users’ homing preferences in such social platforms. The data feature of the SNS consumption behaviors of 10,172 individual users are obtained over a period of 134 days. An agent-based simulation model is developed to further validate and generalize the empirical findings. The simulation and empirical results consistently indicate that propensity toward homophily differs significantly across platform types and users’ channel adoption behaviors. Online homophily is more pronounced in closed, private social networks than in open, public social networks. Users of asymmetric and symmetric SNSs exhibit weak and strong homophily, respectively. Moreover, whereas users who adopt a single SNS channel tend toward homophily, those who subscribe to multiple SNSs confirm the idea that “opposites attract.” These findings suggest that users of online SNS channels manifest complex human interactions typified by the combination of homophily, heterophily, and asymmetric social preference, although homophily is the most prominent disposition. Our findings suggest that homophily should be considered a dynamically changing human characteristic rather than a static attribute, and stakeholders should exploit the complex nature of users’ homophilous behaviors to address social problems in online SNSs and to enhance the effectiveness of social advertising.
Keywords: age homophily; agent-based simulation; gender homophily; homophilous relationships; multi-homing; negative binomial regression; panel data; platforms; SNS; social networking services; social segregation

The Impact of Mental Representations on ICT-Related Overload in the Use of Mobile Phones - Saunders, Carol; Wiener, Martin; Klett, Sabrina; Sprenger, Sebastian (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
The use of information and communication technology (ICT) can be accompanied by the epiphenomenon of ICT-related overload, or the emotional and cognitive state that occurs when individuals are unable to efficiently retrieve and process information delivered by or associated with these technologies. While prior research tends to ascribe this phenomenon to the amount of information delivered, this study presents and provides significant empirical support for an expanded cognitive perspective of ICT-related overload, which views individuals’ information-processing capabilities as being reliant on differences in mental representations associated with cultural, demographic, and experiential factors. Specifically, based on a survey with 1,004 mobile phone users, we find that (1) polychronic individuals experience less ICT-related overload than monochronics; (2) memories of past emotional and cognitive overload increase ICT-related overload; and (3) age has inverse effects on different overload dimensions. Altogether, our findings challenge myths about information overload and multitasking, support a multidimensional conceptualization of ICT-related overload, and suggest ways that managers can reduce overload and leverage polychronicity.
Keywords: cognitive overload; communication overload; emotional overload; feature overload; ICT-related overload; information overload; mental representations; mobile phone use; polychronicity

A Two-Stage Model of Generating Product Advice: Proposing and Testing the Complementarity Principle - Xu, David Jingjun; Benbasat, Izak; Cenfetelli, Ronald T (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Most extant research into product recommendations focuses on how advice from recommendation agents (RAs), consumers, or experts facilitates an initial (or single-stage) screening of available products and provides relevant product recommendations. The literature has largely overlooked the possibility and effects of the second stage of product advice using a recommendation improvement (RI) functionality, during which users can refine and improve the accuracy of the first-stage product recommendations. Thus, our understanding of how users make product choices is incomplete. To rectify this, we propose a two-stage model of generating product advice, and we use it to test what we propose as the complementarity principle. This principle posits that the first-stage recommendations (personalized or nonpersonalized) influence the impact of different types of second-stage RI functionality, which augment the first stage by facilitating either alternative-based or attribute-based processing. Results show that the complementary synergies between the two stages result in higher perceived decision quality, but at the expense of higher perceived decision effort. We contribute to the literature by helping researchers better understand users’ adoption of the second-stage RI functionality in conjunction with first-stage recommendations. In addition, e-commerce designers are advised to provide different and complementary types of recommendation sources and RI functionalities to facilitate online consumers’ decision making.
Keywords: online recommenders; perceived decision effort; perceived decision quality; personalized recommendations; product recommendations; recommendation improvement; recommendation sources

Using IT Design to Prevent Cyberbullying - Lowry, Paul Benjamin; Moody, Gregory D; Chatterjee, Sutirtha (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
The rise of social media has fostered increasing instances of deviant behavior. Arguably, the most notable of these is cyberbullying (CB), which is an increasing global concern because of the social and financial ramifications. This has necessitated a new line of research aimed at understanding and preventing CB. Although much progress has been made in understanding CB, little is known about how to prevent it, especially through the information technology (IT) design. Based on the need for a better causal theory and more effective empirical methods to investigate and mitigate this phenomenon, we leverage the control balance theory (CBT) for system design. Our model examines the causes of CB from several novel angles, including (1) the strong nonlinear influence of control imbalances on CB, and (2) using the concept of fit to understand how different design features of information technology artifacts influence factors such as deindividuation and accountability, thus affecting control imbalance. Using an innovative factorial survey method that enabled us to manipulate IT design features to obtain a nuanced view, we tested our model with 507 adults and found strong support for our model. The results show that IT design features create a strong CB opportunity for individuals who perceive that they are controlled by others. Whether this perception is real or imagined, it creates a sense of vulnerability, prompting them to engage in CB. We can thus propose specific IT design feature manipulations that can be used to discourage CB. These results should have salient implications for researchers and social media designers, especially in developing social media networks that are safe, supportive, responsible, and constructive.
Keywords: control balance; control balance theory; control deficit; control surplus; cyberbullying; cyberbullying prevention; monitoring; nonlinear mediation; nonlinear moderation; online anonymity; social anonymity; U-shaped curve

Impediments to Information Systems Replacement: A Calculus of Discontinuance - Furneaux, Brent; Wade, Michael (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Relatively little attention has been directed toward examining information system (IS) obsolescence and replacement despite the significant organizational resources invested in such systems. Current understanding is, as a result, both incomplete and relatively preliminary in nature. In particular, there is an important need for research that identifies impediments to system replacement. We therefore draw on protection motivation theory to formulate a model of IS discontinuance that explains how the replacement of obsolete systems is constrained by the risks associated with replacing these systems, the resources that have been invested in them, their complexity, and institutionalized norms that reflect dominant views concerning preferred IS solutions. Partial least squares (PLS) and covariance based structural equation modeling (SEM) of survey data obtained from 112 senior-level IS managers indicates that replacement risks contribute to decreased replacement intentions while system investments and complexity are linked to increased replacement risks. Institutional norms were also found to indirectly contribute to replacement risks through their positive influence on system investments. The proposed model of discontinuance calculus thus demonstrates the importance of managing risks, system complexity, and system investments to ensure that obsolete systems do not become a significant impediment to organizational effectiveness.
Keywords: discontinuance calculus; information system discontinuance; institutional norms; IS obsolescence; IS replacement; system complexity

Beyond Brainstorming: Exploring Convergence in Teams - Seeber, Isabella; De Vreede, Gert-Jan; Maier, Ronald; Weber, Barbara (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Collaborative brainstorming is often followed by a convergence activity where teams extract the most promising ideas on a useful level of detail from the brainstorming results. Contrary to the wealth of research on electronic brainstorming, there is a dearth of research on convergence. We used experimental methods for an in-depth exploration of two facilitation-based interventions in a convergence activity: attention guidance (focusing participants on procedures to execute a convergence task) and discussion encouragement (engaging participants in conversations to combine knowledge on ideas). Our findings show that both attention guidance and discussion encouragement are correlated with higher convergence quality. We argue that attention guidance’s contribution is in its support of coordination, information processing, and goal specification. Similar, we argue that discussion encouragement’s contribution is in its stimulation of idea clarification and idea combination. Contrary to past research, our findings further show that satisfaction was higher after convergence than after brainstorming.
Keywords: attention guidance; brainstorming; collaboration; collaborative brainstorming; discussion encouragement; idea convergence; idea quality; idea selection; ideation; satisfaction; team; teamwork

A Video-Based Screening System for Automated Risk Assessment Using Nuanced Facial Features - Pentland, Steven J; Twyman, Nathan W; Burgoon, Judee K; Nunamaker, Jay F; Diller, Christopher BR (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
This study investigates the development of an automated interviewing system that uses facial behavior as an indicator of the risk of given illicit behavior. Traditional facial emotion indicators of risk in semistructured dialogue may have limitations in an automated approach. However, an initial analysis of mock crime interviews suggests that the face may exhibit some form of rigidity during highly structured interviews. An interviewing system design using facial rigidity analysis was implemented and experimentally evaluated, the results of which further reveal that the rigidity is fairly generalized across the face. Whereas existing theory traditionally focuses on leakage of facial expressions, this study provides evidence that neutralization of facial expression may be a valuable alternative for automated interviewing systems. The proof-of-concept system in this study may help human risk assessment move beyond traditional boundaries, into fields such as auditing, emergency room management, and security screening.
Keywords: automated interviewing; credibility assessment; deception detection; facial expression recognition; facial rigidity analysis; risk assessment

Promoting the System Integration of Renewable Energies: Toward a Decision Support System for Incentivizing Spatially Diversified Deployment - Piel, Jan-Hendrik; Hamann, Julian FH; Koukal, André; Breitner, Michael H (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
The system integration of intermittent renewable energies (RE) poses an important challenge in the transition toward sustainable energy systems. Their intermittency introduces variability into electricity generation, leading to high ancillary service costs and technical issues impairing grid stability and supply reliability. These issues can be mitigated through spatially diversified capacity deployment, as RE intermittency can be geographically smoothed over sufficiently large regions. Following a design science research approach, we develop a model for the quantification of location-based investment incentives in RE support mechanisms to foster spatially diversified capacity deployment. We evaluate the modeling approach in a simulation study with focus on diversifying wind energy deployment in Mexico under an idealized auction mechanism and demonstrate how location-based investment incentives reduce resource-dependent competition among projects. Our research contributes a nascent design theory that combines the kernel theories for identifying favorable spatial distributions of RE capacity with current policy designs to support capacity expansion management
Keywords: design science; energy policy; green information systems; policy decision support; renewable energy; renewable energy auctions; sustainable energy planning; wind energy

Exploring Emerging Hacker Assets and Key Hackers for Proactive Cyber Threat Intelligence - Samtani, Sagar; Chinn, Ryan; Chen, Hsinchun; Nunamaker, Jay F (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Cyber attacks cost the global economy approximately $445 billion per year. To mitigate attacks, many companies rely on cyber threat intelligence (CTI), or threat intelligence related to computers, networks, and information technology (IT). However, CTI traditionally analyzes attacks after they have already happened, resulting in reactive advice. While useful, researchers and practitioners have been seeking to develop proactive CTI by better understanding the threats present in hacker communities. This study contributes a novel CTI framework by leveraging an automated and principled web, data, and text mining approach to collect and analyze vast amounts of malicious hacker tools directly from large, international underground hacker communities. By using this framework, we identified many freely available malicious assets such as crypters, keyloggers, web, and database exploits. Some of these tools may have been the cause of recent breaches against organizations such as the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The study contributes to our understanding and practice of the timely proactive identification of cyber threats.
Keywords: cyber attack identification; cyber threat intelligence; hackers; hacker forums; hacker tools; proactive; social networks; topic modeling

A Data-Mining Approach to Identification of Risk Factors in Safety Management Systems - Shi, Donghui; Guan, Jian; Zurada, Jozef; Manikas, Andrew (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Incident reporting and investigation are components of safety management systems. Timely and accurate identification of risk factors is crucial to effective prevention strategies. However, risk factor identification is often hampered by size, complexity, and the need for human involvement in categorizing incident data. We present a data-mining approach to incident risk factor identification and analysis using data from the Aviation Safety Reporting System, which is part of the Federal Aviation Administration. Our approach is an attempt to overcome obstacles related to labor intensive manual identification of risk factors as well as incomplete data. First, topical mining techniques convert underused textual data (incident narratives) to serve as model input. Second, data-streaming algorithms are used to incrementally build and test classification models for risk factor identification. Three different classification algorithms were tested providing overall accuracy rates ranging from 76 percent to 88 percent, demonstrating the potential for effective use of large and unstructured incident data in safety management. Our research presents and demonstrates an approach to automated incident type identification and contributes to our understanding of the use of text-mining and data-streaming technologies in improving safety management systems.
Keywords: automated incident identification; data stream; clustering; incident cause evaluation; incident cause identification; safety management systems; text mining; topic mining

Information Security Control Theory: Achieving a Sustainable Reconciliation Between Sharing and Protecting the Privacy of Information - Anderson, Chad; Baskerville, Richard L; Kaul, Mala (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Contemporary organizations operate in highly interconnected environments where they are frequently confronted by the challenge of balancing the protection of information resources with the need for sharing information. This tension between the expected benefits and the potential security risks inherent in the information sharing process, exists in many domains, including business, health care, law enforcement, and military—yet it is not well-understood. We propose an information security control theory to explain and manage this tension. We evaluate this theory through a longitudinal case study of the iterative development of the information security policies for a health information exchange in the western United States. Our study shows that the theory offers a good framework through which to understand the information security policy development process, and a way to reconcile the tension between information sharing and information protection. The theory has practical applicability to many business domains.
Keywords: ethical control; health care; health information exchange; information security; security control theory; security exposure control; security policy development

Risks and Controls in Internet-Enabled Reverse Auctions: Perspectives from Buyers and Suppliers - Sambhara, Chaitanya; Rai, Arun; Keil, Mark; Kasi, Vijay (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Internet-enabled reverse auctions (RAs) are touted as a means of making the procurement process more effective and efficient, but as is often the case with information technology (IT), there can be risks that managers need to be aware of and mitigate in order to realize the benefits. Using the Delphi methodology followed by semistructured interviews, we identify buyer and supplier perspectives on risk factors associated with RAs and the controls that can address key risk factors. We find that the risk factors map to (1) auction process governance, (2) organizational contingency, (3) buyer–supplier relationship, and (4) agency and transaction cost. Drawing on the findings, we advance an RA risk-control integrative model and formulate corresponding propositions (1) comparing buyers’ and suppliers’ perspectives on risks associated with RA use and (2) identifying controls to mitigate the risks. Our research contributes to theory by (1) surfacing that RAs introduce novel risks and that buyers and suppliers can have either similar or remarkably different views regarding particular risks, (2) showing how both buyers and suppliers can create information asymmetry and act opportunistically, and (3) uncovering the role of input controls, a type of control that has not received much attention in the literature on controls for IT initiatives, as an effective means of addressing most of the key risk factors. For practitioners, our study provides guidance about a wide range of risk factors that both parties could face when using RAs, the adverse consequences of these risk factors, and the controls that can be established to mitigate the key risk factors.
Keywords: auctions risks; Delphi methodology; interfirm governance; intrafirm governance; online auctions; online controls; principal opportunism; process governance; reverse auctions; reverse information asymmetry

Assessing the Credibility of Decisional Guidance Delivered by Information Systems - Hardin, Andrew; Looney, Clayton A; Moody, Gregory D (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
This work investigates the independent and joint influences of suggestive guidance and credibility indicators in a repeated choice environment laden with risk and uncertainty. Consistent with expectations, results from two studies reveal that aggressive and conservative suggestive guidance influence participant decision making. Credibility indicators partially moderate these relationships such that low credibility indicators lead to increased risk taking when suggestive guidance is conservative and decreased risk taking when suggestive guidance is aggressive. Post hoc analyses designed to examine differences in results across the two studies reveal unexpected differences in risk trends across participant type. Together, these findings contribute to the decision support system (DSS) literature by illustrating how credibility indicators can push users toward or away from either beneficial or detrimental suggestive guidance, and further, by challenging the commonly held assumption that inexperienced and experienced decision makers accept similar levels of risk in DSS settings where risk and uncertainty prevail.
Keywords: computer-supported decision making; credibility indicators; decision biases; decision guidance; decision support systems

A Temporal Study of the Effects of Online Opinions: Information Sources Matter - Huang, Jianxiong; Boh, Wai Fong; Goh, Kim Huat (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
This study examines when and why online comments from different sources and platforms influence a movie’s box office receipts over time. Premised on the theory of information search, we hypothesize that consumers are more likely to engage in active search in the early stages of a movie’s release due to greater choice uncertainty, and passive attention is more likely to kick in for later stages of a movie’s release, as uncertainty decreases. To test the proposed hypotheses, we tracked over 1,500 sources of online expert and consumer reviews for cinematic movies released for an entire year and continuously monitored major social media sites (e.g., Twitter) for comments. We text-mined the comments to elucidate the sentiments and analyzed the data. Confirming our hypotheses, the results showed that expert reviews and pull-based peer comments have a significant influence in early stages of a movie’s release, and the effects decrease over time. In contrast, the volume of comments from push-based microblog platforms have a significant influence on later box office receipts. Our research demonstrates that online opinions are not always persuasive and useful, and our findings provide insights into when consumers are likely to pay attention to which types of online opinions.
Keywords: cinematic movies; electronic word-of-mouth; eWOM; movie reviews; movie success; online comments; online reviews

User Motivations in Protecting Information Security: Protection Motivation Theory Versus Self-Determination Theory - Menard, Philip; Bott, Gregory J; Crossler, Robert E (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2017)
Managers desiring to protect information systems must understand how to most effectively motivate users to engage in secure behaviors. Information security researchers have frequently studied individuals’ performance of secure behaviors in response to threats. Protection motivation theory (PMT) has been used to explain individuals’ propensity to engage in voluntary secure behaviors, but the adaptation of this theory has yielded inconsistent results. Motivation as a measurable construct, as derived from self-determination theory (SDT), has never been included in or compared against PMT. In this study, we construct security messages that appeal to individuals’ intrinsic motivation, rather than fear, as a way to elicit secure responses. Using three sets of respondents, we integrated the SDT and PMT models and compared the native models in the context of security behaviors. We demonstrate that by using data- and individual-focused appeals and providing choices for users, managers may observe greater intention to engage in secure behavior among employees.
Keywords: information security; protection motivation theory; security model comparison; self-determination theory; user security behaviors

Team Processes in Virtual Knowledge Teams: The Effects of Reputation Signals and Network Density - Havakhor, Taha; Sabherwal, Rajiv (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Virtual knowledge teams (VKTs) depend on team processes that facilitate expertise coordination. VKTs use technology to map expertise, and thereby address the lack of familiarity among members. Despite the considerable interest in studying expertise coordination in teams, expertise coordination in VKTs is less understood. Moreover, technology’s role in expertise coordination in VKTs and the team processes, including expertise coordination, has received limited attention. This study argues and shows—through an online experiment—that technology enables VKTs by: connecting individuals through network ties; helping individuals to locate expertise, providing reputation signals; improving interpersonal processes through enhanced ties and signals; and enabling better performance through improved ties, signals, and processes. It contributes to theory by providing insights into how IT enhances expertise coordination and performance of VKTs. It contributes to practice by providing insights into the reputation signals that broadcast team members’ expertise and the effects of technology on team processes.
Keywords: event sequence analysis; network ties; process research; reputation signals; team expertise; team performance; team processes; virtual knowledge teams; virtual teams

Detecting Review Manipulation on Online Platforms with Hierarchical Supervised Learning - Kumar, Naveen; Venugopal, Deepak; Qiu, Liangfei; Kumar, Subodha (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Opinion spammers exploit consumer trust by posting false or deceptive reviews that may have a negative impact on both consumers and businesses. These dishonest posts are difficult to detect because of complex interactions between several user characteristics, such as review velocity, volume, and variety. We propose a novel hierarchical supervised-learning approach to increase the likelihood of detecting anomalies by analyzing several user features and then characterizing their collective behavior in a unified manner. Specifically, we model user characteristics and interactions among them as univariate and multivariate distributions. We then stack these distributions using several supervised-learning techniques, such as logistic regression, support vector machine, and k-nearest neighbors yielding robust meta-classifiers. We perform a detailed evaluation of methods and then develop empirical insights. This approach is of interest to online business platforms because it can help reduce false reviews and increase consumer confidence in the credibility of their online information. Our study contributes to the literature by incorporating distributional aspects of features in machine-learning techniques, which can improve the performance of fake reviewer detection on digital platforms.
Keywords: deceptive online reviews; digital platforms; fake reviews; hierarchical supervised-learning; information credibility; machine learning; online reviews; review manipulation

Social Product-Customization Systems: Peer Input, Conformity, and Consumers’ Evaluation of Customized Products - Schlager, Tobias; Hildebrand, Christian; Häubl, Gerald; Franke, Nikolaus; Herrmann, Andreas (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Many product-customization systems enable consumers to obtain input from their peers during the customization process. The design characteristics of these customization systems vary significantly, and some systems provide consumers with the opportunity to receive peer input only privately (i.e., unobservable to fellow consumers) while others allow consumers to receive peer input publicly (i.e., observable to other consumers). Building on prior research on thinking styles and social impact theory, the current work examines the interplay between user, social network, and system design characteristics in social product-customization systems as drivers of whether consumers conform to input received from others on their customized products and of their evaluation of these products. Evidence from one field study and four experiments shows that consumers with more holistic (vs. analytic) thinking styles make more conforming product modifications when receiving public rather than private peer input, and this greater conformity to peer input boosts (vs. diminishes) consumers’ evaluation of customized products when they feel close (vs. distant) to input providers. These findings offer novel insights into how the design of social product-customization systems affects consumers’ evaluation of customized products.
Keywords: conformity; electronic commerce; information processing; product customization; similarity-attraction theory; social impact theory; social networks; thinking styles

The Role of Provision Points in Online Crowdfunding - Burtch, Gordon; Hong, Yili; Liu, De (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Extending recent work on market mechanisms in new fintech offerings, we explore the implications of a key mechanism in online crowdfunding-the use of a provision point. Under a provision point mechanism (otherwise known as all-or-nothing or fixed fundraising scheme), the fundraiser, typically an entrepreneur, only receives funds pledged toward his or her campaign if a preregistered fundraising target is met, rather than keeping everything that is raised. Provision points may weaken contributors' reliance on prior capital accumulation for judging a project's potential for success, by eliminating their concerns about a partial fundraising outcome and by signaling the project or entrepreneur's quality. Yet, provision points may also induce attention to prior capital accumulation, because the materialization of one person's contribution depends explicitly on sufficient contributions from others (a network effect). We assess this tension empirically, leveraging proprietary data from a leading crowdfunding platform that allows entrepreneurs to opt into a provision point. We consider the effects of prior capital accumulation on visitors' conversion and contribution decisions, and the moderating influence of a provision point. We find that provision points weaken the association between prior capital accumulation and visitor contribution, implying a reduction in potential herd behavior.
Keywords: crowdfunding; fintech; fundraising; market mechanisms; mechanism design; provision point mechanism; social proof

On the Fintech Revolution: Interpreting the Forces of Innovation, Disruption, and Transformation in Financial Services - Gomber, Peter; Kauffman, Robert J; Parker, Chris; Weber, Bruce W (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
The financial services industry has been experiencing the recent emergence of new technology innovations and process disruptions. The industry overall, and many fintech start-ups are looking for new pathways to successful business models, the creation of enhanced customer experience, and approaches that result in services transformation. Industry and academic observers believe this to be more of a revolution than a set of less influential changes, with financial services as a whole due for major improvements in efficiency, customer centricity, and informedness. The long-standing dominance of leading firms that are not able to figure out how to effectively hook up with the “Fintech Revolution” is at stake. We present a new fintech innovation mapping approach that enables the assessment of the extent to which there are changes and transformations in four areas of financial services. We discuss: operations management in financial services and the changes occurring; technology innovations that have begun to leverage the execution and stakeholder value associated with payments, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and cross-border payments; multiple innovations that have affected lending and deposit services, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, and social media use; issues with respect to investments, financial markets, trading, risk management, robo-advisory and services influenced by blockchain and fintech innovations.
Keywords: business models; digital banking; financial services; Fintech Revolution; lending; markets; market operations; payments; process transformation; technology disruption; technology innovation

The Innovation Mechanisms of Fintech Start-Ups: Insights from SWIFT’s Innotribe Competition - Gozman, Daniel; Liebenau, Jonathan; Mangan, Jonathan (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
The emergence of financial technology around the globe is driven by efforts to deconstruct and reimagine business models embedded within financial services. Entrepreneurial endeavours to this end are diverse. Indeed, the propensity toward complexity is considerable, bridging a range of financial services, markets, innovations, industry participants, infrastructures, and technologies. This study aims to improve comprehension of the global fintech landscape. It is based on the analysis of start-ups that participated in SWIFT's Innotribe competition. We used cluster analysis to group 402 fintech start-up firms, and then selected representative cases to create a foundational understanding of the structure of the fintech landscape. The main findings of this work are: (1) the development of fintech clusters to classify core services, business infrastructures, and underlying component technologies, which characterize fintech; (2) an analysis of how fintechs synthesize different technologies to restructure flows of financial information through competitive and cooperative mechanisms of disinter-mediation, extension of access, financialization, hybridization, and personalization; (3) an analysis of related strategies for value creation connected with the competitive and cooperative mechanisms that were identified. Collectively, our results offer new insights into the diversity and range of emergent innovations and technologies that are transforming the financial services industry worldwide.
Keywords: business models; cluster analysis; data analytics; financialization; fintech start-ups; SWIFT innotribe; technological innovation; technology ecosystems; value propositions

Investor Platform Choice: Herding, Platform Attributes, and Regulations - Jiang, Yang; (Chad) Ho, Yi-Chun; Yan, Xiangbin; Tan, Yong (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, one of the most successful technology-enabled initiatives in the fintech revolution, has drastically changed the way individual investors and borrowers meet and transact. While prior research has found herding among investors at the listing level, such social behavior has been underexplored at a macro, platform level. In this study, we attempt to fill this gap by examining whether subsequent investors follow their predecessors’ actions when choosing which platform to invest, and if so, how various platform attributes and regulations moderate herding behavior. We collected a novel data set from leading platforms in a large P2P lending market. Our baseline analysis reveals that herding exists at the platform level. Using a multilevel model, we further identify several interesting moderators: the investor’s herding behavior is accentuated by platforms’ market share and the cumulative amount funded, but attenuated by their time in operation. Finally, we find that government regulatory events dampen the magnitude of the herding effect, suggesting that more information disclosure and stricter operation standards reduce the value of observational learning. The results from our analysis provide implications for P2P lending investors, platform designers, and policymakers.
Keywords: crowdfunding; fintech; herding; multilevel models; peer-to-peer lending, regulations

Disentangling Digital Platform Competition: The Case of UK Mobile Payment Platforms - Kazan, Erol; Tan, Chee-Wee; Lim, Eric TK; Sørensen, Carsten; Damsgaard, Jan (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Digital platforms confer competitive advantage through superior architectural configurations. There is, however, still a dearth of research that sheds light on the competitive attributes that define platform competition from an architectural standpoint. To disentangle platform competition, we opted for the mobile payment market in the United Kingdom as our empirical setting. By conceptualizing digital platforms as layered modular architectures and embracing the theoretical lens of strategic groups, this study supplements prior research by deriving a taxonomy of platform profiles that is grounded on the strategic dimensions of value creation and value delivery architectures. We discover that mobile payment platforms could be delineated based on: (1) whether they are integrative or integratable on their value creation architecture; and (2) whether they have direct, indirect, or open access on their value delivery architecture. The preceding attributes of value creation architecture and value delivery architecture aided us in identifying six profiles associated with mobile payment platforms, which in turn led us to advance three competitive strategies that could be pursued by digital platforms in network economies.
Keywords: digital infrastructures; digital platforms; financial technologies; mobile payments; network economies; online competition; strategic groups

How Does Social Media Impact Bitcoin Value? A Test of the Silent Majority Hypothesis - Mai, Feng; Shan, Zhe; Bai, Qing; Wang, Xin (Shane); Chiang, Roger HL (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Bitcoin’s emergence has the potential to pave the way for a technological revolution in financial markets. What determines its valuation is an important open question with far-reaching business and policy implications. Building on information systems and finance literature, we examine the dynamic interactions between social media and the monetary value of bitcoin using textual analysis and vector error correction models. We show that more bullish forum posts are associated with higher future bitcoin values. Interestingly, social media’s effects on bitcoin are driven primarily by the silent majority, the 95 percent of users who are less active and whose contributions amount to less than 40 percent of total messages. In addition, messages on an Internet forum, relative to tweets, have a stronger impact on future bitcoin value. Overall, our findings reveal that social media sentiment is an important predictor in determining bitcoin’s valuation, but not all social media messages are of equal impact. This study offers new insights into the digital currency market and the economic impact of social media.
Keywords: bitcoin; cryptocurrencies; digital currency; fintech; social media; text mining; vector error correction model

Cheap Talk? The Impact of Lender-Borrower Communication on Peer-to-Peer Lending Outcomes - Xu, Jennifer J; Chau, Michael (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
The limited information provided by peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms often is not sufficient for lenders to determine if a borrower is trustworthy and able to repay the loan. Using a unique dataset from a P2P lending platform, which allows lenders to seek information directly from borrowers and borrowers to respond to the questions and comments, we examine the impact of lender-borrower communication on funding outcomes and loan performance. Our results show that not only the amount but also the content of such direct communication matters. Specifically, the number of lender comments is negatively associated with funding success, while the number of borrower responses is positively associated with funding success, although only comments help reduce the final interest rate. The role of the communication is even stronger for listings with poor credit grades. Moreover, lenders are influenced by other lenders’ (positive or negative) comments and the quality of the information disclosed in borrower responses can affect funding outcomes. Loan performance (e.g., default ratio), however, cannot be predicted based on the amount of lender borrower communication. This research broadens and deepens our understanding of the roles of information disclosure, social influence, information quality, and trust in economic exchanges in online settings.
Keywords: information quality; lender-borrower communication; online trust; P2P lending; peer-to-peer systems; social influence

Creating Strategic Business Value from Big Data Analytics: A Research Framework - Grover, Varun; Chiang, Roger HL; Liang, Ting-Peng; Zhang, Dongsong (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Despite the publicity regarding big data and analytics (BDA), the success rate of these projects and strategic value created from them are unclear. Most literature on BDA focuses on how it can be used to enhance tactical organizational capabilities, but very few studies examine its impact on organizational value. Further, we see limited framing of how BDA can create strategic value for the organization. After all, the ultimate success of any BDA project lies in realizing strategic business value, which gives firms a competitive advantage. In this study, we describe the value proposition of BDA by delineating its components. We offer a framing of BDA value by extending existing frameworks of information technology value, then illustrate the framework through BDA applications in practice. The framework is then discussed in terms of its ability to study constructs and relationships that focus on BDA value creation and realization. We also present a problem-oriented view of the framework—where problems in BDA components can give rise to targeted research questions and areas for future study. The framing in this study could help develop a significant research agenda for BDA that can better target research and practice based on effective use of data resources.
Keywords: big data; big data analytics; big data capabilities; big data infrastructure; research framework; strategic business value

How Big Data Analytics Enables Service Innovation: Materiality, Affordance, and the Individualization of Service - Lehrer, Christiane; Wieneke, Alexander; vom Brocke, Jan; Jung, Reinhard; Seidel, Stefan (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
The article reports on an exploratory, multisite case study of four organizations from the insurance, banking, telecommunications, and e-commerce industries that implemented big data analytics (BDA) technologies to provide individualized service to their customers. Grounded in our analysis of these four cases, a theoretical model is developed that explains how the flexible and reprogrammable nature of BDA technologies provides features of sourcing, storage, event recognition and prediction, behavior recognition and prediction, rule-based actions, and visualization that afford (1) service automation and (2) BDA-enabled human-material service practices. The model highlights how material agency (in the case of service automation) and the interplay of human and material agencies (in the case of human-material service practices) enable service individualization, as organizations draw on a service-dominant logic. The article contributes to the literature on digitally enabled service innovation by highlighting how BDA technologies are generative digital technologies that provide a key organizational resource for service innovation. We discuss implications for research and practice.
Keywords: affordances; agency; big data analytics; digital innovation; materiality; service-dominant logic; service innovation; services

Leveraging Financial Social Media Data for Corporate Fraud Detection - Dong, Wei; Liao, Shaoyi; Zhang, Zhongju (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Corporate fraud can lead to significant financial losses and cause immeasurable damage to investor confidence and the overall economy. Detection of such frauds is a time-consuming and challenging task. Traditionally, researchers have been relying on financial data and/or textual content from financial statements to detect corporate fraud. Guided by systemic functional linguistics (SFL) theory, we propose an analytic framework that taps into unstructured data from financial social media platforms to assess the risk of corporate fraud. We assemble a unique data set including 64 fraudulent firms and a matched sample of 64 nonfraudulent firms, as well as the social media data prior to the firm’s alleged fraud violation in Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases (AAERs). Our framework automatically extracts signals such as sentiment features, emotion features, topic features, lexical features, and social network features, which are then fed into machine learning classifiers for fraud detection. We evaluate and compare the performance of our algorithm against baseline approaches using only financial ratios and language-based features respectively. We further validate the robustness of our algorithm by detecting leaked information and rumors, testing the algorithm on a new data set, and conducting an applicability check. Our results demonstrate the value of financial social media data and serve as a proof of concept of using such data to complement traditional fraud detection methods.
Keywords: corporate fraud; financial social media; fraud detection; social media platform; systemic functional linguistics theory; text analytics

The Effect of Big Data and Analytics on Firm Performance: An Econometric Analysis Considering Industry Characteristics - Müller, Oliver; Fay, Maria; vom Brocke, Jan (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
The emergence of big data has stimulated enormous investments into business analytics solutions, but large-scale and reliable empirical evidence about the business value of big data and analytics (BDA) remains scarce. This article presents the results of an econometric study that analyzes the direction, sign, and magnitude of the relationship between BDA and firm performance based on objective measurements of BDA assets. Using a unique panel data set that contains detailed information about BDA solutions owned by 814 companies during the time frame from 2008 to 2014, on the one hand, and their financial performance, on the other hand, we estimate the relationship between BDA assets and firm productivity and find that live BDA assets are associated with an average of 3–7 percent improvement in firm productivity. Yet we also find substantial differences in returns from BDA when we consider the industry in which a firm operates. While firms in information technology-intensive or highly competitive industries are clearly able to extract value from BDA assets, we did not detect measurable productivity improvement for firms outside these industry groups. Taken together, our findings provide robust empirical evidence for the business value of BDA, but also highlight important boundary conditions.
Keywords: big data analytics; econometric analysis; firm performance; IT business value; productivity

Measuring Customer Agility from Online Reviews Using Big Data Text Analytics - Zhou, Shihao; Qiao, Zhilei; Du, Qianzhou; Wang, G Alan; Fan, Weiguo; Yan, Xiangbin (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Large volumes of product reviews generated by online users have important strategic value for product development. Prior studies often focus on the influence of reviews on customers‘ purchasing decisions through the word-of-mouth effect. However, little is known about how product developers respond to these reviews. This study adopts a big data analytical approach to investigate the impact of online customer reviews on customer agility and subsequently product performance. We develop a singular value decomposition-based semantic keyword similarity method to quantify customer agility using large-scale customer review texts and product release notes. Using a mobile app data set with over 3 million online reviews, our empirical study finds that review volume has a curvilinear relationship with customer agility. Furthermore, customer agility has a curvilinear relationship with product performance. Our study contributes to innovation literature by demonstrating the influence of firms‘ capability of utilizing online customer reviews and its impact on product performance. It also helps reconcile inconsistencies found in literature regarding the relationships among the three constructs.
Keywords: big data; customer agility; electronic word of mouth; mobile apps; online reviews; product development; text analytics

Advanced Customer Analytics: Strategic Value Through Integration of Relationship-Oriented Big Data - Kitchens, Brent; Dobolyi, David; Li, Jingjing; Abbasi, Ahmed (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
As more firms adopt big data analytics to better understand their customers and differentiate their offerings from competitors, it becomes increasingly difficult to generate strategic value from isolated and unfocused ad hoc initiatives. To attain sustainable competitive advantage from big data, firms must achieve agility in combining rich data across the organization to deploy analytics that sense and respond to customers in a dynamic environment. A key challenge in achieving this agility lies in the identification, collection, and integration of data across functional silos both within and outside the organization. Because it is infeasible to systematically integrate all available data, managers need guidance in finding which data can provide valuable and actionable insights about customers. Leveraging relationship marketing theory, we develop a framework for identifying and evaluating various sources of big data in order to create a value-justified data infrastructure that enables focused and agile deployment of advanced customer analytics. Such analytics move beyond siloed transactional customer analytics approaches of the past and incorporate a variety of rich, relationship-oriented constructs to provide actionable and valuable insights. We develop a customized kernel-based learning method to take advantage of these rich constructs and instantiate the framework in a novel prototype system that accurately predicts a variety of customer behaviors in a challenging environment, demonstrating the framework’s ability to drive significant value.
Keywords: big data; customer acquisition; customer analytics; customer expansion; data integration; data management; design science; IT strategic value; relationship marketing; customer retention

Content Sampling, Household Informedness, and the Consumption of Digital Information Goods - Hoang, Ai-Phuong; Kauffman, Robert J (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Technology and media are delivering content that is transforming society. Providers must compete for consumer attention to sell their digital information goods effectively. This is challenging, since there is a high level of uncertainty associated with the consumption of such goods. Service providers often use free programming to share product information. We examine the effectiveness of content sampling strategy used for on-demand series dramas, a unique class of entertainment goods. The data were extracted from a large set of household video-on-demand (VoD) viewing records and combined with external data sources. We extended a propensity score matching (PSM) approach to handle censored data, which permitted us to explore the main causal relationships. Relevant theories in the marketing and information systems disciplines informed our research on consumer involvement and informedness for decision making under uncertainty, the consumption of information goods, and seller strategies for digital content. The results show that content sampling stimulates higher demand for series dramas, but in a more nuanced way than was expected. Samples of the series reveal quality information to consumers and allow them to assess preference fit directly. As a result, they become more informed about their purchase decisions. Also, households seem to be willing to pay more to be better informed, and informed households tend to purchase more. This suggests that content providers should invest in strategies that help consumers to understand the preference fit of information goods.
Keywords: content sampling; data censoring; digital entertainment; household informedness; information asymmetry; information goods; online content; preference fit; propensity score matching; video-on-demand

The Rise of the Promoters: User Classes and Contribution Patterns in Enterprise Social Media - Bulgurcu, Burcu; Van Osch, Wietske; Kane, Gerald C (Jerry) (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
The proliferation of enterprise social media (ESM) has created opportunities for employees to self-organize around common goals or interests. However, little is known about the different user classes that exist in ESM and the factors that drive contributions to ESM communities. Using multilevel analyses of secondary data from the ESM of a global organization, we find that (1) although ESM communities reflect a core-periphery structure similar to that identified in other forms of online communities, nearly two-thirds of the users represent promoters—a distinct class of users who use the platform primarily to post promotional content without viewing existing content created by others; and (2) despite individual differences in user type, the actual contribution to an ESM community is the result of an intricate interaction between a user’s disposition for participation and a set of group characteristics. Our findings suggest that recognizing the unique contribution patterns of different user groups is key to understanding participation in ESM communities.
Keywords: collaboration; enterprise social media; group size; group visibility; online communities; promoters; social media participation

Strategic Visibility in Enterprise Social Media: Implications for Network Formation and Boundary Spanning - Van Osch, Wietske; Steinfield, Charles W (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Effective workgroups engage in team boundary spanning, that is, using communication ties as conduits to critical external resources. The proliferation of enterprise social media (ESM) and the associated increase in visibility of people, content, and interactions, has resulted in a widespread assumption that unlimited visibility improves boundary spanning. Consequently, the ESM literature has generally ignored the sentry functions of teams and failed to examine the possible strategic nature of visibility choices by ESM groups. Using log and content data from 655 ESM-based workgroups at a multinational enterprise, we contribute a deeper understanding of the distinct ways that ESM visibility—bounded or unbounded—is leveraged strategically to evoke diverse network structures, which in turn have implications for distinct boundary-spanning activities. Practically, these findings show that ESM present a unique opportunity for workgroups to simultaneously sustain multiple virtual spaces—with varying levels of visibility—through which they can manage their diverse boundary-spanning goals.
Keywords: enterprise social media; group-level analysis; knowledge management; network structure; social media; team boundary spanning; teams; visibility; workgroups

The Role of Corporate Reputation and Crisis Response Strategies in Data Breach Management - Gwebu, Kholekile L; Wang, Jing; Wang, Li (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Despite the significant financial losses associated with data breaches, little is known about the (in)effectiveness of the tools that firms have to protect their value following a breach. Drawing on cognitive dissonance theory and the research on cue diagnosticity and crisis management, this study examines the relative efficacy of firm reputation and a range of post-breach response strategies. The results indicate that firm reputation is an important asset in protecting firm value. However, only certain response strategies are found to mitigate the negative financial impact of a breach on lower-reputation firms, and response strategies are found to matter less for high-reputation firms. These findings offer practitioners evidence-based guidance for protecting firm value following data breaches and underscore the need for developing more nuanced strategies for managing breaches. The theoretical arguments developed here serve as a conceptual base for examining the efficacy of various data breach response strategies.
Keywords: crisis response strategies; damage control strategies; data breach; firm reputation

A Strategic Value Appropriation Path for Cloud Computing - Kathuria, Abhishek; Mann, Arti; Khuntia, Jiban; Saldanha, Terence JV; Kauffman, Robert J (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Cloud-based information management is one of the leading competitive differentiation strategies for firms. With the increasing criticality of information management in value creation and process support, establishing an integrated capability with cloud computing is vital for organizational success in the changing landscape of business competition. These issues have received scant attention, however. We draw on the resource-based view, dynamic capability hierarchy concepts, and the perspective of operand and operant resources to suggest a cloud value appropriation model for firms. We argue that, to appropriate business value from cloud computing, the firm needs to effectively deploy cloud computing and leverage cloud operant resources as firm capabilities in a hierarchical fashion toward the development of cloud computing-based service models in order to reliably achieve the desired business outcomes. We propose a model encompassing the principles of infrastructure and cloud platform deployment, integration and service orientation, and alignment with business processes that explain the linkage from cloud computing to firm performance. We test this approach to value creation with a cloud computing implementation assessment model using a sample of 147 firms that have implemented cloud computing in India. Our analysis uncovers a strategic value appropriation path from cloud technological capability to firm performance via cloud integration capability, cloud service portfolio capability, and business flexibility. This research offers new insights regarding the underlying mechanisms for how cloud computing affects firm performance via cloud-enabled capabilities and the business functions that are supported by cloud capabilities.
Keywords: : Cloud computing; firm capabilities; IT services; IT strategy; organizational management; operand and operant resources; resource-based view; synchronization; technology implementation; strategic value appropriation path

Key Affordances of Platform-as-a-Service: Self-Organization and Continuous Feedback - Krancher, Oliver; Luther, Pascal; Jost, Marc (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Although software development teams increasingly use Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), a minimal amount is known regarding the impact of PaaS on software development. We explored the impact of PaaS on software development through a grounded-theory study, conducting 48 interviews in 16 teams. The data turned our attention to the affordances, or potentials for action, that PaaS provides to software development teams. Two key affordances emerging from our data analysis were self-organizing and triggering continuous feedback. Actualizing these affordances helped accelerate the collective learning processes that underlie software development, thus supporting software development teams in their quest for agility. Our emerging theory explains how, why, and when these affordances arise. The key contribution of our paper lies in unveiling how the use of cloud computing technology can transform technology-mediated collective learning activities by helping to remove barriers to rapid feedback. Our findings also imply that organizations can leverage PaaS to facilitate the transition to agile and continuous software development practices, in particular in conjunction with cross-functional team designs.
Keywords: cloud computing; platform-as-a-service; software development; feedback; collective learning; IT affordances; agile software development; agility; continuous integration; continuous delivery; DevOps; lean software development

Harnessing the Power of the Cloud: Revenue, Fairness, and Cloud Neutrality - Joe-Wong, Carlee; Sen, Soumya (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Cloud computing is a transformational technology that reduces upfront infrastructure costs, democratizes access to computing and storage capacity, and helps businesses innovate and compete in the digital economy. However, the distribution of these significant social and economic benefits among the various stakeholders in the cloud ecosystem will critically depend on pricing and resource allocation decisions made by cloud providers. These decisions impact not only the provider revenue, but also the fairness of resources allocated among cloud users and the overall social welfare. Several unique features of cloud computing (e.g., the presence of multiple, nonfungible resources and heterogeneous users) make the interplay between these competing objectives hard to understand. To truly harness the power of cloud computing and to establish regulatory benchmarks, there is a need for frameworks that quantify how resource allocation and pricing choices affect different objectives. In this work, we introduce an analytical model that incorporates user utility, endogenous pricing, fairness among heterogeneous users, social welfare, and cloud provider revenue. We identify conditions under which there is a tradeoff between fairness and revenue, and quantify the extent of this tradeoff by formulating an optimization problem in which a cloud provider maximizes its revenue, subject to constraints on the desired level of fairness. Our work provides an initial step toward developing regulatory policies for cloud neutrality to ensure an equitable distribution of the transformative benefits of the cloud.
Keywords: cloud computing; fairness; revenue distribution; social welfare; resource allocation; cloud neutrality; IT regulation

Doubly-Bound Relationship Between Publisher and Retailer: The Curious Mix of Wholesale and Agency Models - Kim, Antino (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Since the time the industry for e-books transitioned from the wholesale to the agency model, several interesting observations have been made. For instance, despite its revenue-sharing approach that is supposed to be effective in addressing channel coordination issues present in wholesaling, the agency model has curiously led to higher prices and less demand in the e-book market. The main purpose of the current study is to provide insights into this curious market phenomenon by focusing on: (i) the substitutability between the printed- and e-book versions, and (ii) the interaction between the wholesale model (for printed books) and the agency model (for e-books). In this exploration, using a game-theoretic model, we discover that an increase in the agency fee that the retailer collects in the e-book market can depress the vitality of the market, which not only ends up hurting the publisher, but also the retailer. This is a telltale sign that retailers should perhaps be moderate in their effort to get a bigger cut in the agency arrangement. In addition, the complex interplay between the two parties across two retail channels is explained along with how it may lead to a counterintuitive equilibrium outcome. Some of the interesting observations from practice may, in fact, stem from a large agency fee in the e-book market. Reducing this fee can lead to a win-win outcome for both the publisher and the retailer.
Keywords: agency; online markets; books; e-books; economic theory; retailing; revenue sharing; product substitutes; wholesale markets

Role of Monetary Incentives in the Digital and Physical Inter-Border Labor Flows - Gong, Jing; Hong, Yili; Zentner, Alejandro (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
By allowing individuals to engage in remote relationships with foreign employers, online labor markets have the potential to mitigate the inefficiency costs due to the legal barriers and other frictions deterring international physical migration. This study investigates how the supply of foreign labor in digital and physical markets responds differently to monetary incentives. We use a unique data set containing information on digital labor flows from a major global online labor platform in conjunction with data on physical labor flows. We exploit short-term fluctuations in the exchange rate as a source of econometric identification: a depreciation of a country’s currency against the U.S. dollar increases the incentives of its workers to seek digital and physical employment from employers based in the United States. Using a panel count data model, we find that monetary incentives induced by depreciations of foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar are positively associated with the supply of foreign labor in digital markets, as expected from the frictionless nature of electronic markets. However, we fail to find a positive relationship between monetary incentives and the supply of foreign labor in physical markets, which might be expected due to the substantial bureaucratic restrictions and transaction costs associated with physical migration. We further examine how countries’ income and information and communications technologies development levels moderate the positive relationship between monetary incentives and digital labor flows. Our findings are useful for gauging the extent to which digital labor flows can alleviate the economic inefficiencies from the restrictions on physical migration.
Keywords: economics of information systems; electronic markets; income elasticity; information policy; monetary incentive theory; online labor markets; outsourcing; remote employment; digital labor markets

Differential Innovativeness Outcomes of User and Employee Participation in an Online User Innovation Community - Yan, Jie (Kevin); Leidner, Dorothy E; Benbya, Hind (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Firm-hosted online user innovation communities (OUICs) have emerged as a vital source of knowledge and expertise for innovation and new product development. Prior research on OUICs has primarily focused on participation of external product users and benefits obtained from their contributions. However, the role of internal employees of the host firm, albeit essential for the community’s long-term success, has not yet received much attention. This study attempts to bridge this gap by investigating the innovation outcomes of employees participating in OUICs. By analyzing a longitudinal data set collected from Salesforce.com’s IdeaExchange community, we find that accessing product user ideas with diverse and well-codified content drives idea promotion and generation of participating employees. Moreover, ideas contributed and promoted by employees are more likely to be implemented than those contributed and only promoted by product users. We discuss important implications of our study for the online innovation community literature and for the development of overall employee engagement in OUICs.
Keywords: Online user innovation communities; employee innovativeness; crowdsourcing; co-creation; online communities; online ideation

Central Role of Moral Obligations in Determining Intentions to Engage in Digital Piracy - Hashim, Matthew J; Kannan, Karthik N; Wegener, Duane T (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Piracy is a significant source of concern facing software developers, music labels, and movie production companies, to name a few. Digital goods producers and government entities argue that there are victims of piracy, whereas pirates may perceive their actions to be victimless. Regarding implications of our research, we extend the theory of planned behavior (TPB) by theorizing that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control could influence perceptions of moral obligations as a consequence of the desire to rationalize unethical behavior. Unlike prior literature, we manipulate the rationalization of moral obligations due to the victimless view toward piracy and show how moral obligations become important determinants of piracy behavior. Accordingly, our demonstrated malleability of morals may be an important path through which individuals are able to continue past behaviors. We also conduct a second study to identify the effect of implementing an educational message from a fictitious software company to exogenously nudge the pirate and influence the impact of perceived moral obligations on intentions to pirate. Our results show that the introduction of an exogenous educational message is an effective piracy mitigation strategy.
Keywords: digital piracy; software piracy; information ethics; morals; norms; victimless crime; theory of planned behavior; piracy mitigation

Impact of Online Word of Mouth on Channel Disintermediation for Information Goods - Brian Lee, Ho Cheung; Li, Xinxin (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
With the recent advances in digital technology, creators of information goods such as books, songs, or videos can now self-publish and sell their work directly to consumers, without the help of traditional publishers. In this study, we construct an analytical model to examine the role of online word of mouth in this trend of disintermediation. Online word of mouth can reveal product quality for experience goods and raise awareness to accelerate product diffusion. Intuitively, one would expect that with online word of mouth, creators would be more likely to skip publishers and sell directly to consumers. However, our results suggest that online word of mouth may, in fact, encourage more creators to use publishers for high quality work. Our model also makes predictions on the conditions under which online word of mouth benefits publishers and for what types of products and creators it has the most impact.
Keywords: information goods; content goods; self-publishing; channel disintermediation; online word of mouth; eWOM

Impact of Formal Controls on Client Satisfaction and Profitability in Strategic Outsourcing Contracts - Langer, Nishtha; Mani, Deepa (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
The reach and impact of outsourcing has grown rapidly to include a variety of strategic objectives. Significant issues of cooperation and coordination in strategic outsourcing necessitate investments in formal controls that specify and monitor execution of the outsourced task to mitigate unforeseen contingencies and improve predictability in the attainment of desirable goals. In this study, we investigate the nature of formal controls in strategic outsourcing contracts and their impact on client satisfaction and financial performance. Specifically, using rich field data on 390 strategic outsourcing contracts, we examine the differential impact of output controls, activity controls, and capability controls on client satisfaction and vendor profitability. We find that activity and capability controls are positively associated with client satisfaction and profitability; in contrast, output controls differentially impact satisfaction and profitability, reflecting potential tradeoffs between the two outcomes. Our results, in addition to contributing to the research in control theory, provide actionable insights for technology vendors into the appropriate strategy and tactics required to compete efficiently and effectively in strategic services markets.
Keywords: outsourcing; strategic outsourcing; formal controls; client satisfaction; profitability; IT outsourcing; outsourcing controls

Distant but Fair: Intra-Team Justice Climate and Performance in Dispersed Teams - Magni, Massimo; Ahuja, Manju K; Maruping, Likoebe M (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
In an attempt to take advantage of distributed knowledge, organizations are increasingly relying on dispersed teams--teams of individuals who primarily utilize information and communication technology (ICT) to collaborate to achieve a shared objective. Team context has often been recognized as an important factor in affecting performance in dispersed team settings. Recent research has called for the consideration of intra-team justice climate in dispersed teams; yet, how it shapes performance for teams at different degrees of dispersion remains unresolved. Drawing on and integrating extant justice climate and Information Systems (IS) literature on team dispersion, we develop a model to better understand the precise nature of the role played by intra-team procedural justice climate in the relationship between team member dispersion and team performance. Responses from 468 team members and supervisors belonging to 101 work teams were used to test the research model. We found that team dispersion and procedural justice climate affect team performance, and that procedural justice alleviates the negative effect of dispersion on performance, indicating that intra-team procedural justice climate can be a lever for mitigating the challenges posed by ICT-based interaction among members. These findings make important contributions to the extant IS literature on dispersed teams by outlining how organizations may mitigate some of the challenges of dispersion and improve team performance by creating an intra-team environment based upon fairness.
Keywords: dispersed teams; virtual teams; procedural justice climate; team performance; intra-team justice; organizational fairness

The “Darth” Side of Technology Use: An Inductively Derived Typology of Cyberdeviance - Venkatraman, Srinivasan; M. K. Cheung, Christy; Lee, Zach W Y; D. Davis, Fred; Venkatesh, Viswanath (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Cyberdeviance, intentional use of information technology (IT) in the workplace that is contrary to the explicit and implicit norms of the organization and that threatens the well-being of the organization and/or its members, is an important research stream that has gained attention in academia and industry. Prior studies have treated different forms of cyberdeviance as different phenomena, resulting in a lack of a collective underlying conceptualization of cyberdeviance. This work inductively and empirically derives a typology of cyberdeviance with 439 respondents across three phases. Our results suggest that cyberdeviance varies along 3 dimensions: cyberdeviant behaviors that are minor versus serious; cyberdeviant behaviors that target individuals versus organizations; and cyberdeviant behaviors that require low versus high technical skill. We thus provide a comprehensive framework that fosters a logical linkage of various research programs related to cyberdeviance to guide future research investigation. The typology will help managers to distinguish different cyberdeviant behaviors and implement suitable interventions depending on the behavior.
Keywords: : cyberdeviance; workplace deviance; typology; systematics; multidimensional scaling; IS security threats; IS use; cyberslacking; cyberloafing; cyberaggression; unauthorized IT use; computer abuse; inductive approach

The Persuasive Power of Algorithmic and Crowdsourced Advice - Gunaratne, Junius; Zalmanson, Lior; Nov, Oded (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Prior research has shown that both advice generated through algorithms and advice resulting from averaging peers’ input can impact users’ decision-making. However, it is not clear which advice type is more closely followed and if changes in decision-making should be attributed to the source or the content of the advice. We examine the effects of algorithmic and social advice on decision-making in the context of an online retirement saving system. By varying both the advice’s message and the attributed messenger, we assess what it is about the advice that people follow. We find that both types of advice have a positive effect on users’ saving performance, and that users follow advice presented as coming from an algorithmic source more closely than advice presented as crowdsourced. Our results shed light on how people view and follow online advice, and on information systems’ persuasive effects under conditions of uncertainty.
Keywords: and phrases: online advice; algorithmic advice; crowdsourcing; decision-making; investment advice; personal finance; retirement portfolios; crowdsourced advice; online persuasion; uncertainty

Combining Geographical and Social Influences with Deep Learning for Personalized Point-of-Interest Recommendation - Guo, Junpeng; Zhang, Wenxiang; Fan, Weiguo; Li, Wenhua (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Personalized point-of-interest (POI) recommendation is important to location-based social networks (LBSNs) for helping users to explore new places and for helping third-party services to launch targeted advertisements. Discovering effective features or representations from check-in data is the key to POI recommendation. Deep learning is a representation-learning method with multiple levels for discovering intrinsic features to better represent user preferences. We analyzed users’ check-in behavior in detail and developed a deep learning model to integrate geographical and social influences for POI recommendation tasks. We used a semi-restricted Boltzmann machine to model the geographical similarity and a conditional layer to model the social influence. Experiments with real-world LBSNs showed that our method performed better than other state-of-the-art methods. Theoretically, our study contributes to the effective usage of data science and analytics for social recommender system design. In practice, our results can be used to improve the quality of personalized POI recommendation services for websites and applications.
Keywords: : location-based recommendations; social recommendations; POI recommendation; deep learning; auto-encoder; semi-RBM; Boltzmann machine; geographical similarity; social networks; location-based commerce

Active Community Participation and Crowdworking Turnover: A Longitudinal Model and Empirical Test of Three Mechanisms - Ma, Xiao; Khansa, Lara; Kim, Sung S (Journal of Management Information Systems, 2018)
Crowdworkers, such as Mturk workers, face challenging work conditions, including low pay and unfair treatment. To overcome a lack of means to share information with other workers, they often self-organize in independent online communities, for example, TurkerNation. Although prior research has explored both the crowdwork and online community contexts, it has largely ignored crowdworkers’ dual-context roles. This research provides evidence for the dual-context phenomenon. We propose three theory-driven mechanisms―embeddedness, cross-influence, and moderated heuristics―that, together with the conventional model and the sequential-update mechanism, explained up to 72% of key behavioral outcomes in both contexts. Moreover, crowdworkers’ active participation in online communities had a persistent mitigating effect on their desires to quit working in the crowdworking environment. These findings add to a richer understanding of crowdworkers’ integrated and evolving psychology within the dual-context environment. From a managerial perspective, our findings suggest that crowdwork platforms can better retain their workers by facilitating―and actively engaging with―their discussions in an embedded online community.
Keywords: crowdwork; Amazon Mechanical Turk; Mturk, online communities; crowdworking turnover; turnover intention; two-wave panel; embeddedness; moderated heuristics; co-creation