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PurposeConsumer adoption of online shopping continues to increase each year. At the same time, online retailers face intense competition and few are profitable. This suggests that businesses and researchers still have much to learn regarding key antecedents of online shopping adoption and success. Based on extensive past research that has focused on the importance of various online shopping antecedents, this work seeks to provide an integrative, comprehensive nomological network.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ a mixed-methods approach to develop a comprehensive model of consumers online shopping behavior. To that end, in addition to a literature review, qualitative data are collected to identify a broad array of possible antecedents. Then, using a longitudinal survey, the model of consumer shopping intentions and behaviors is validated among 9,992 consumers.FindingsThe authors identified antecedents to online shopping related to culture, demographics, economics, technology and personal psychology. Our quantitative analysis showed that the main drivers of online shopping were congruence, impulse buying behavior, value consciousness, risk, local shopping, shopping enjoyment, and browsing enjoyment.Originality/valueThe validated model provides a rich explanation of the phenomenon of online shopping that integrates and extends prior work by incorporating new antecedents.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied with a pandemic of fake news spreading over social media (SM). Fact checking might help combat fake news and a plethora of fact-checking platforms exist, yet few people actually use them. Moreover, whether fact checking is effective in preventing citizens from falling for fake news, particularly COVID-19 related, is unclear. Against this backdrop, we (a) examine potential antecedents to fact checking that can be a target for interventions and (b) establish that fact checking is actually effective for preventing the public from falling for harmful COVID-19 fake news. To do so, we use a representative U.S. sample collected in April of 2020. We find that awareness of fake news and patterns of active SM use (e.g., commenting on content on SM instead of just reading it) increases the fact checking of COVID-19 fake news, whereas SM homophily reduces fact checking and the effects of SM use as users are trapped in “echo chambers.” We also find that fact checking helps users identify and follow accurate information on how to protect themselves against COVID-19 instead of false and often harmful claims propagated on SM. These findings highlight the importance of fact checking for combating COVID-19 fake news and help identify potential interventions.

With a view toward improving the success of information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives in less developed countries in general and India in particular, this work seeks to uncover reasons for success and failure of ICT for development (ICT4D) initiatives. We drew on social networks theory in general and social contagion theory in particular, and examined the impact of advice network constructs on ICT kiosk use and the impact of ICT kiosk use on women’s health outcomes (i.e., seeking modern medical care and maternal mortality). A two-level model (i.e., village and individual) was developed to understand how women in rural India were influenced by other women in their advice networks to use ICT kiosks, and the effects of ICT kiosk use on seeking modern medical care and maternal mortality. At the village level, we proposed lead user network effects. At the individual level, we proposed structural network effects of other women in a focal woman’s network on individual outcomes of ICT kiosk use, seeking modern medical care, and maternal mortality. We focused on network position (i.e., centrality) and network tie strength (i.e., strong ties and weak ties) as explanatory variables. Specifically, we argued that strong tie centrality will have an adverse effect on ICT kiosk use, whereas weak tie centrality will have a favorable effect. We also argued ICT kiosk use will have a positive effect on seeking modern medical care and a negative effect on maternal mortality. Finally, we argued that seeking modern medical care will have a negative effect on maternal mortality. Our model was mostly supported in data collected about 6,710 women in 10 intervention group villages in rural India and 8,344 women in the control group villages over a period of approximately 7 years.

Agile methods are widely used in the software industry as a way to more rapidly develop and deliver new software. They define iterative work processes, advocate self-organization and openness for change, and prescribe how software developers interact with each other and external stakeholders. Despite their popularity, it is unclear how agile methods influence work exhaustion in software developers and how developer skills play into this effect. On the one hand, agile methods may reduce software developers’ work exhaustion by leveling out their workload across the entire duration of a project. On the other hand, agile methods exert a high level of pressure on software developers to continuously deliver working software, create many intensive social interactions, and to frequently adapt to changes. In light of these effects, prior research could not explain why some software developers become less exhausted from using agile methods, whereas others perceive the exact opposite. Based on the job demand-control model, we develop a theoretical model connecting agile method use to individual developer skills and to two established determinants of employee exhaustion: role conflict and role ambiguity. We tested our research model in a field study among 1,894 software developers in 217 project teams that used agile methods. The random coefficient modeling results show that agile method use facilitates the achievement of clear and unambiguous role perceptions and thereby reduces work exhaustion in developers, particularly if developers possess the organizational skills to effectively interact with others in their organization. We highlight implications for theory on the individual-level effects of software development methods and provide practical insights for software companies.

Investors and companies have always aspired to make informed investment decisions by using diverse information sources. With the explosion of information sources on the web and emergence of predictive analytics, many investors moved beyond traditional financial measures, as key predictors of firm performance, to textual content from analysts’ reports. Empirical research suggests that these information sources complement each other by providing a clear picture of firm performance, but remains silent on the role of additional textual content that continues to emerge and reach more potential investors on the web. We build on this line of research to examine the effect of textual content from business journals in conjunction with summary measures on cumulative abnormal returns. We use sentiment analysis with machine learning and econometrics methods to examine content extracted from textual articles about S&P 500 index companies that are published in the Wall Street Journal (years 2013–2016). Textual analysis of business journals in conjunction with quantitative measures revealed direct and interaction effects on abnormal returns over time. We also tested for robustness by replicating the analysis with different variable operationalization and observe consistent patterns. Relative to positive sentiments, negative sentiments have more profound effects on cumulative abnormal returns. The effect of positive sentiments becomes weaker when past quantitative measures are high. As information sources continue to emerge on the web, this work makes key contributions to the practice of sentiment analysis in financial markets. Accepted version

Purpose Retailers are implementing technology-enabled mobile checkout processes in their stores to improve service quality, decrease labor costs and gain operational efficiency. These new checkout processes have increased customer convenience primarily by providing them autonomy in sales transactions in that store employee interventions play a reduced role. However, this autonomy has the unintended consequence of altering the checks and balances inherent in a traditional employee-assisted checkout process. Retailers, already grappling with shoplifting, with an estimated annual cost of billions of dollars, fear that the problem may be exacerbated by mobile checkout and concomitant customer autonomy. The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of mobile checkout processes in retail stores on cybercrime in the form of shoplifting enabled by a technology transformed the retail environment. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted an online survey of a US sample recruited from a crowdsourced platform. The authors test a research model that aims to understand the factors that influence the intention to shoplift in three different mobile checkout settings − namely, smartphone checkout settings, store-provided mobile device checkout settings, and employee-assisted mobile checkout settings − and compare it with a traditional fixed location checkout setting. Findings The authors found that, in a smartphone checkout setting, intention to shoplift was driven by experiential beliefs and peer influence, and experiential beliefs and peer influence had a stronger effect for prospective shoplifters when compared to experienced shoplifters; in a store-provided mobile devices checkout setting, experiential beliefs had a negative effect on shoplifters’ intention to shoplift and the effect was weaker for prospective shoplifters when compared to experienced shoplifters. The results also indicated that in an employee-assisted mobile checkout setting, intention to shoplift was driven by experiential beliefs and peer influence, and experiential beliefs had a stronger effect for prospective shoplifters when compared to experienced shoplifters. Originality/value This study is the among the first, if not first, to examine shoplifters’ intention to shoplift in mobile checkout settings. We provide insights into how those who may not have considered shoplifting in less favorable criminogenic settings may change their behavior due to the autonomy provided by mobile checkout settings and also provide an understanding of the shoplifting intention for both prospective and experienced shoplifters in different mobile checkout settings.

This paper examines the role of parenting behaviors in influencing children’s Internet addiction and the consequences of children’s Internet addiction on parents’ job outcomes. First, we draw on attachment theory to theorize that five parenting behaviors (i.e., parental control, monitoring, unstructured time, dissuasion, and rationalization) affect children’s Internet addiction and their effects are moderated by the children’s views of parent–child attachment. Second, we draw on research on the work–family interface to theorize that children’s Internet addiction affects parents’ job outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work exhaustion) and the effects are mediated by family-to-work conflict. We tested our hypotheses using an integrated research approach that includes quantitative and qualitative data. We conducted an online survey to collect quantitative responses from 776 parent–child dyads. The results of our model showed that the effects of parenting behaviors on children’s Internet addiction, except for dissuasion, were moderated by the children’s views of parent–child attachment. Also, family-to-work conflict mediated the effects of children’s Internet addiction on parents’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work exhaustion. We collected qualitative data via interviews from 50 parents to cross-validate the results from the quantitative study. Published version

This paper presents seven scholarly commentaries on Hirschheim’s “Against Theory” essay published in this issue of the Journal of the Association for Information Systems. Each commentary is written by a renowned IS researcher. Following the individual commentaries is Hirschheim’s response to the commentaries. Each commentary provides an insightful exegesis on theory in its own right and, collectively, the commentaries and response provide thought-provoking reflections for researchers in IS and beyond.

This research investigates an artifact-centric view of the telecommuting experience, examining how system use and software quality influence job outcomes of telecommuters. We develop and test our moderated mediation model in a cross-organizational study of 184 teleworkers. Results show the extensive use of telecommuting systems negatively impacts social exchange processes and job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job performance of telecommuters, underscoring limitations of virtual interactions. However, high-quality software can moderate this negative effect, because the negative relationship between telecommuting system use and job outcomes becomes nonsignificant, as telecommuting software quality increases. Accepted version Source info: Kuruzovich, J., Paczkowski, W., Golden, T., Goodarzi, S., and Venkatesh, V. “Telecommuting and Job Outcomes: A Moderated Mediation Model of System Use, Software Quality, and Social Exchange,” Information & Management, (58:3), 2021, 103431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2021.103431

There are both formal and informal cries that UTAUT and by association the stream of research on technology adoption has reached its limit, with little or no opportunities for new knowledge creation. Such a conclusion is ironic because the theory has not been sufficiently and suitably replicated. It is possible that the misspecifications in the various replications, applications, and extensions led to the incorrect conclusion that UTAUT was more robust than it really was and opportunities for future work were limited. Although work on UTAUT has included important variables, predictors and moderators, absent a faithful use of the original specification, it is impossible to assess the true nature of the effects of the original and additional variables. The present meta-analysis uses 25,619 effect sizes reported by 737,112 users in 1,935 independent samples to address this issue. Consequently, we develop a clear current state-of-the-art and revised UTAUT that extends the original theory with new endogenous mechanisms from different, other theories (i.e., technology compatibility, user education, personal innovativeness, and costs of technology) and new moderating mechanisms to examine the generalizability of UTAUT in different contexts (e.g., technology type and national culture). Based on this revised UTAUT, we present a research agenda that can guide future research on the topic of technology adoption in general and UTAUT in particular. Accepted version Source info: Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Forthcoming

We developed a contextualized model to predict the use of technology among the urban poor. Based on the core idea that, in developing countries, the urban poor face different challenges from those of the rural poor, we argued that five key facilitating conditions (FC)—namely, infrastructure, technical and support services, legal and regulatory framework, financial factors and affordability, and self-efficacy—are the central drivers of both non-instrumental and instrumental use of mobile devices. Situated in the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), these FC were found to be important drivers in our study conducted among 396 mobile phone users in a poor urban area in Malaysia. In addition to extending a key UTAUT construct to an important context, our results have important practical implications, in that, to increase non-instrumental and instrumental use, careful attention should be given to co-development of mobile phone friendly policies pertaining to FC in developing countries. Accepted version

The Internet of Things (IoT) is emerging as an integrated set of digital innovations with the potential to unleash unprecedented opportunities as well as to create significant challenges from both technological and societal perspectives. The emergence of IoT heralds a new dimension of a digital era with impact and influence that are not yet fully clear. This signals the opening of valuable opportunities for scholarly inquiries, particularly for information systems (IS) scholars. We posit that, as the IS discipline sits at the intersection of technical, business, and social applications of IT, which are also the essential dimensions of the impact of IoT, IS scholars are well positioned to understand and contribute to advancing research on this new topic and associated phenomena. This paper outlines the distinctive attributes of IoT and their implications for existing traditions of IS research. It further highlights some illustrative research perspectives from which IoT can be studied by IS scholars. We highlight a research agenda for IS in two different ways: first, by suggesting four categories of implications on IS research: (1) introduction of the physio-digital continuum; (2) multi-level exploration of IS; (3) composite affordances; and (4) heterogeneity; and second, by introducing four thematic impact domains: (1) impact on organizations; (2) impact on technology; (3) impact on individuals; and (4) impact on society.

The explosive growth of mobile devices and their widespread acceptance by customers along with the potential benefits of autoID technologies have prompted retailers to consider adoption of emerging...

We integrate control theory and the information systems (IS) project management literature using a multilevel lens to theorize the cross-level effects of technical IS project risk on individual developer outcomes—performance and psychological stress—and the mechanisms by which IS project managers’ project-related knowledge attenuates this relationship. We argue that IS project managers with project-related knowledge mitigate technical IS project risk by facilitating the enactment of internal and external process controls in their IS projects. Our empirical study involves data collected from 1,230 individual developers embedded in 130 IS project teams that are managed by 20 IS project managers. Our results provide strong support for the three-level model and its set of (a) cross-level main effects of technical IS project risk on individual developer outcomes; (b) cross-level main effects of IS project manager project-related knowledge on enacted internal and external process controls; and (c) cross-level moderation of the relationship between technical IS project risk and individual developer outcomes by IS project manager project-related knowledge through internal and external process controls. Our study provides insights on how IS project management, IS project process controls, and technical IS project risk must be managed as a system of multilevel dependencies to achieve the desired developer outcomes. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0723 .

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) has become increasingly important for organizations attempting to grow revenue by expanding into international markets. However, for multinational mobile retailers (m-retailers), one of the greatest challenges lies in carefully managing their websites across multiple national markets. This work advances cross-national research on m-retailing by (1) examining how value dimensions shape m-shoppers’ motivations, (2) analyzing differential effects of hedonic and utilitarian motivations on intention and habit, and (3) examining the competing roles of conscious (intentional) and unconscious (habitual) m-commerce use drivers across developed and developing countries. This research also examines the moderating role of m-commerce readiness at the country level on the effect of motivation on intention and habit, along with their impact on m-commerce use. Based on data from 1,975 m-shoppers in nine countries (Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam) across four continents, the results demonstrate differential relationships: consumers at an advanced (early) readiness stage are more likely to be hedonism-motivated (utility-motivated) when using m-commerce and tend to use it intentionally/consciously (habitually/unconsciously). In addition to advancing knowledge about m-commerce from a scientific perspective, the findings can help multinational firms decide whether to standardize or adapt m-shopping experiences when internationalizing. Accepted version Source info: Ashraf, A.R., Thongpapanl, N.T., Anwar, A., Lapa, L., and Venkatesh, V., “Perceived Values and Motivations Influencing M-Commerce Use,” International Journal of Information Management (59), 2021, 102318

A key objective of knowledge management system (KMS) implementations is to facilitate job outcomes, such as job performance and job satisfaction. Prior KMS research indicates many KMS implementations have failed to achieve their intended job outcomes, such as job performance and job satisfaction, and one important reason for failure could be that employees do not know how to use a KMS to enhance job outcomes. Given that research on this topic is scant and the findings inconsistent, this paper sought to develop a better understanding of the topic. Specifically, we examine how employees can use a small number of KMS features to get a majority of their job tasks done. Limited research has used a systematic approach to identify these features, examined drivers of using these features, and impacts of the use of such features on job outcomes. Based on a literature review, we first identified several KMS features. Then, these features were examined using a qualitative study among 35 employees in a large organization in the finance industry to identify the key KMS features that could contribute positively to job outcomes. We then developed a nomological network of KMS feature use. Leveraging social network theory, we present peer support ties in general, and help-seeking ties and help-providing ties in particular, as key drivers of the use of these features and job outcomes. We also present various competing hypotheses for the effects from peer support to KMS feature use, KMS feature use to job outcomes, and peer support to job outcomes. We conducted a quantitative study (n = 1,441) in the same organization (noted above) to validate our model. Results indicated that our model was largely supported.

This paper draws from communication research and negative asymmetry theory to examine how employee social network ties at work affect deep structure use and job performance in the context of an ent...

Drawing on expectation confirmation research, we develop hypotheses regarding the effect of compensation on key customer outcomes following a major data breach and consequent service recovery effor...

Drawing from a total rewards perspective, we introduce three work outcomes (namely, extrinsic, social, and intrinsic) as determinants of person-organization (PO) and person-job (PJ) fit perceptions...

The recent phenomenon that has come to be known as the European refugee crisis is in reality a global problem. Accordingly, issues regarding refugee integration have become a central topic of debate worldwide. In this paper, we try to understand how refugees use information and communication technology (ICT) in different regions of the world to understand how ICT is supporting refugees’ desperate journey to safety, their stay in temporary settlement camps, and their post-settlement inclusion in host countries. With this goal in mind, we first conducted a series of interviews with Syrian refugees in Berlin, Germany to collect preliminary insights. Then, we organized panel discussions at two key information systems conferences (ICIS 2016 and ECIS 2017) involving participants from various countries. The panel discussions revealed seven key research themes: accessibility to information; availability of education and linguistic resources; admissibility to labor markets and entrepreneurship opportunities; communicability with home country; connectedness with local population; interactivity with host government; and volunteer coordination. We discuss how ICT might help to address issues related to each theme, present research questions relevant to each theme, and supply an illustration of how ICT has been employed to address an aspect of each theme. Insights gathered lead to: theoretical implications and future opportunities for research in the field of Information Systems; practical implications to be considered by different stakeholders interested in refugee integration; and social implications related to refugee crisis that cannot be ignored.

Developing countries, such as India and China, are the fastest growing economies in the world. The successful implementation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in these countries is likely to hinge on a set of institutional factors that are shaped by the environmental tension between two competing forces, emergent catalysts, such as new economic policies and reform programs, and traditional challenges, such as infrastructure and traditional value systems. To unearth the temporal dynamics underlying the success and failure of ICT implementations in organizations in developing countries, we conducted a two-year multimethod study of an ICT implementation at a large bank in India. Based on data collected from over 1,000 employees and over 1,000 customers, we found, relative to preimplementation levels for up to two years postimplementation, that we characterized as the shakedown phase (1) operational efficiency did not improve, (2) job satisfaction declined, and (3) customer satisfaction declined. In-depth interviews of approximately 40 members of top management, 160 line employees, and 200 customers indicated that these outcomes could be attributed to the strong influence of a set of institutional factors, such as ICT-induced change, labor economics, Western isomorphism, parallel-manual system, and technology adaptation. The interplay between these institutional factors and the environmental tension posed a formidable challenge for the bank during our study that led to the poor and unintended outcomes.

Research on information technology (IT) adoption and use, one of the most mature streams of research in the information science and information systems literature, is primarily based on the intentionality framework. Behavioral intention (BI) to use an IT is considered the sole proximal determinant of IT adoption and use. Recently, researchers have discussed the limitations of BI and argued that behavioral expectation (BE) would be a better predictor of IT use. However, without a theoretical and empirical understanding of the determinants of BE, we remain limited in our comprehension of what factors promote greater IT use in organizations. Using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology as the theoretical framework, we develop a model that posits 2 determinants (i.e., social influence and facilitating conditions) of BE and 4 moderators (i.e., gender, age, experience, and voluntariness of use) of the relationship between BE and its determinants. We argue that the cognitions underlying the formation of BI and BE differ. We found strong support for the proposed model in a longitudinal field study of 321 users of a new IT. We offer theoretical and practical IT implications of our findings. Accepted version

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) is a little over a decade old and has been used extensively in information systems (IS) and other fields, as the large number of citations to the original paper that introduced the theory evidences. In this paper, we review and synthesize the IS literature on UTAUT from September 2003 until December 2014, perform a theoretical analysis of UTAUT and its extensions, and chart an agenda for research going forward. Based on Weber's (2012) framework of theory evaluation, we examined UTAUT and its extensions along two sets of quality dimensions; namely, the parts of a theory and the theory as a whole. While our review identifies many merits to UTAUT, we also found that the progress related to this theory has hampered further theoretical development in research into technology acceptance and use. To chart an agenda for research that will enable significant future work, we analyze the theoretical contributions of UTAUT using Whetten's (2009) notion of cross-context theorizing. Our analysis reveals several limitations that lead us to propose a multi-level framework that can serve as the theoretical foundation for future research. Specifically, this framework integrates the notion of research context and cross-context theorizing with the theory evaluation framework to: 1) synthesize the existing UTAUT extensions across both the dimensions and the levels of the research context and 2) highlight promising research directions. We conclude with recommendations for future UTAUT-related research using the proposed framework. ; Department of Management and Marketing

This paper investigates how citizens’ uncertainty in e-government services can be managed. First, we draw from uncertainty reduction theory, and propose that transparency and trust are two key means of reducing citizens’ uncertainty in e-government services. Second, we identify two key sets of relevant drivers of e-government service use: (1) information quality characteristics, i.e., accuracy and completeness; and (2) channel characteristics, i.e., convenience and personalization. We propose that the means of uncertainty reduction, information quality characteristics, and channel characteristics are interrelated factors that jointly influence citizens’ intentions to use e-government. We tested our model with 4,430 Hong Kong citizens’ reactions to two e-government services: government websites and online appointment booking. Our results show that the information quality and channel characteristics predict citizens’ intentions to use e-government. Furthermore, transparency and trust mediate as well as moderate the effects of information quality and channel characteristics on intentions. A follow-up survey found that citizens’ intentions predict use and ultimately, citizens’ satisfaction.

Highlights • COVID-19 has caused far-reaching changes to people’s work and home lives. • There is a moral imperative for science to help people battle this difficult time and eventually recover. • Unique research opportunities tied to work and home life impacts are outlined. • Important general issues and special considerations for researchers, editors, and reviewers are identified., Grounded in the vast changes to work life (jobs) and home life that people are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic (hereinafter COVID), this article presents five research directions related to COVID’s impacts on jobs—i.e., job loss, job changes, job outcomes, coping, and support—and five research directions related to COVID’s impact on home life—i.e., home life changes, children, life-related outcomes, social life, and support. In addition to this, I discuss overarching possible research directions and considerations for researchers, editors, and reviewers, as we continue our scientific journey to support people through this pandemic and beyond. I organize these directions and considerations into two sets of five each: focal groups that should be studied—i.e., underprivileged populations, different countries and cultural contexts, women (vs. men), workers in healthcare (frontline workers), elderly and at-risk—and five general issues and special considerations—i.e., role of technology as the oxygen, pre- vs. mid- vs. post-COVID studies, constraints on data collection/research due to COVID, evolution of COVID, and focus on contextualization (generalizability is irrelevant).

The success of information systems development (ISD) projects depends on the developers who deliver them. However, developers face many challenges in bringing an ISD project to successful completion. These projects are often large and highly complex, with volatile targets, creating a stressful environment for developers. Although prior literature has considered how technical ISD risk factors, such as project size, complexity, and target volatility, affect team- and project-level outcomes, their effects on developers have received limited attention. This gap in the literature is problematic for two reasons: (1) the interplay between developers and project characteristics are unaccounted for, resulting in an incomplete picture of ISD; and (2) developer stress has been shown to reduce team performance. In this research, we examine the role of empowering leadership in reducing developer stress in ISD. We develop a multilevel model of the effect of empowering leadership on the relationship between technical ISD risk factors and developers’ role perceptions, and explore the consequences for developers’ stress. The model was tested in a field study of 350 developers in 73 ISD teams from a large U.S.-based firm. Results showed that empowering leadership ameliorated the negative effects of project size and target volatility on role ambiguity as well as the negative effects of project size, complexity, and target volatility on role conflict and stress. We also found that empowering leadership reduced role ambiguity, role conflict, and stress directly, and that role ambiguity and role conflict increased stress. Project size, complexity, and target volatility were found to increase empowering leadership behaviors. We conclude that empowering leadership can be an effective means of helping developers cope with technical ISD risk factors and discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0716 .

This paper examines the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) service innovation and its complementary strategies on brand equity and customer loyalty toward ICT service providers. We draw from research on brand equity and customer loyalty, ICT innovation management, and strategy complementarity to propose a model that includes new constructs representing ICT service innovation, i.e., service leadership, and its two complementary strategies, i.e., customization-personalization control and technology leadership, and how their interactions influence customer loyalty through customer-based brand equity. We test our model using data from an online survey of 1,210 customers of mobile data services. The results show that service leadership and customization-personalization control have significant direct impacts on ICT service providers' brand equity. Moreover, when either the level of technology leadership or the level of customization-personalization control is high, the impact of service leadership on brand equity is enhanced. In turn, brand equity has significant impacts on consumers' affective loyalty and conative loyalty, but not on cognitive loyalty. Our study contributes to the literature on service management and service science, and in particular to the management of ICT service innovation in a consumer technology market.

Expectation confirmation research in general, and in information systems (IS) in particular, has produced conflicting results. In this paper, we discuss six different models of expectation confirmation: assimilation, contrast, generalized negativity, assimilation-contrast, experiences only, and expectations only. Relying on key constructs from the technology acceptance model (TAM), we test each of these six models that suggests different roles for expectations and experiences of the key predictor-here, perceived usefulness- and their impacts on key outcomes-here, behavioral intention, use, and satisfaction. Data were collected in a field study from 1,113 participants at two points in time. Using polynomial modeling and response surface analysis, we provide the analytical representations for each of the six models and empirically test them to demonstrate that the assimilation-contrast is the best existing model in terms of its ability to explain the relationships between expectations and experiences of perceived usefulness and important dependent variables-namely, behavioral intention, use, and satisfaction-in individual-level research on IS implementations. Accepted version Source info: Brown, S.A., Venkatesh, V., and Goyal, S. 'Expectation Confirmation in Information Systems Research: A Test of Six Competing Models,' MIS Quarterly (38:3), 2014, 729-756. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2014/38.3.05

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

By distinguishing between employees' online and offline workplace communication networks, this paper incorporates technology into social network theory to understand employees' job performance. Specifically, we conceptualize network ties as direct and indirect ties in both online and offline workplace communication networks, thus resulting in four distinct types of ties. We theorize that employees' ties in online and offline workplace communication networks are complementary resources that interact to influence their job performance. We found support for our model in a field study among 104 employees in a large telecommunication company. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications.

Mixed methods research is an approach that combines quantitative and qualitative research methods in the same research inquiry. Such work can help develop rich insights into various phenomena of interest that cannot be fully understood using only a quantitative or a qualitative method. Notwithstanding the benefits and repeated calls for such work, there is a dearth of mixed methods research in information systems. Building on the literature on recent methodological advances in mixed methods research, we develop a set of guidelines for conducting mixed methods research in IS. We particularly elaborate on three important aspects of conducting mixed methods research: (1) appropriateness of a mixed methods approach; (2) development of meta-inferences (i.e., substantive theory) from mixed methods research; and (3) assessment of the quality of meta-inferences (i.e., validation of mixed methods research). The applicability of these guidelines is illustrated using two published IS papers that used mixed methods.

In this paper, we extend the guidelines of Venkatesh et al. (2013) for mixed-methods research by identifying and integrating variations in mixed-methods research. By considering 14 properties of mixed-methods research (e.g., purposes, research questions, epistemological assumptions), our guidelines demonstrate how researchers can flexibly identify the existing variations in mixed-methods research and proceed accordingly with a study design that suits their needs. To make the guidelines actionable for various situations and issues that researchers could encounter, we develop a decision tree to map the flow and relationship among the design strategies. We also illustrate one possible type of mixed-methods research in information systems in depth and discuss how to develop and validate meta-inferences as the outcomes of such a study. Accepted version Source info: Venkatesh, V., Brown, S.A., and Sullivan, Y.W. 'Guidelines for Conducting Mixed-methods Research: An Extension and Illustration,' Journal of the AIS (17:7), 2016, 435-495. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00433

The United Nations' Millennium Development Goals listed high infant mortality rates as a major problem in developing countries, especially in rural areas. Given the powerful information dissemination capabilities, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been suggested as interventions to build infant care awareness and to modify healthcare behaviors. We examine how the use of one ICT intervention-specifically, eHealth kiosks disseminating authenticated and accessible medical information-can alleviate the problem of high infant mortality in rural India. We investigate how mothers' social networks affect their use of eHealth kiosks, seeking professional medical care for their infants and, ultimately, infant mortality. Drawing on the social epidemiology and social networks literatures, we focus on advice and hindrance from both strong and weak ties as the conduit of social influence on mothers' health-related behaviors for the care of their infants. Over a period of 7 years, we studied 4,620 infants across 10 villages where the eHealth kiosks were implemented along with support resources for proxy use. The results revealed that (1) eHealth kiosk use promotes seeking professional medical care and reduces infant mortality, (2) mothers are especially vulnerable to hindrance from both strong and weak ties as they choose to maintain the status quo of traditional infant healthcare practices (e.g., reliance on untrained personnel, superstitions, fatalism) in villages, and (3) advice from both strong and weak ties offers the potential to break down misplaced beliefs about infant healthcare practices and to develop literacy on seeking professional medical care. In contrast, in a comparative group of 10 neighboring villages, the reduction in infant mortality was not as pronounced and the effect of professional medical care in reducing infant mortality was lower. Our findings suggest that an ICT intervention can effectively address one of society's most important problems (i.e., infant mortality) even in parts of the world with limited resources and deep suspicion of technology and change. Overall, we believe such an ICT intervention will complement other investments being made, including the facilitation of use (proxy use) and provision of professional medical facilities to reduce infant mortality. Accepted version

Despite increasing organizational interest and investment in virtual worlds (VWs), there is a lack of research on the benefits of VWs. When and how does the use of VW systems engender better organizational outcomes than traditional collaborative technologies? This paper investigates the value of VWs for team collaboration. Team collaboration is particularly relevant in studying VWs given the rich interactive nature of VWs and an increasing organizational reliance on virtual teamwork. To understand the value of VW use for team collaboration, we examine the relationship between a team's disposition toward IT, their general disposition (personality) and VW use in influencing team cohesion and performance. We conducted a field study that compares two collaborative technology systems - one that is based on a traditional desktop metaphor and one that is grounded in the principles of a virtual world. We tracked the use of the systems for one year. We analyzed data at the team level and the results generally support our model, with agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and computer self-efficacy interacting with time and technology type to positively influence team technology use. We also found that the use of the virtual world system positively influenced the relationship between technology use and team cohesion, which, in turn, predicts team performance. The model explains 57 percent, 21 percent, and 24 percent of the variance in team technology use, team cohesion, and team performance, respectively.

This study presents two extensions to the two-stage expectation-confirmation theory of information systems (IS) continuance. First, we expand the belief set from perceived usefulness in the original IS continuance model to include three additional predictors identified in the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, namely effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions. Second, we ground the IS continuance model in the context of transactional systems that involve transmission of personal and sensitive information and include trust as a key contextual belief in the model. To test the expanded IS continuance model, we conducted a longitudinal field study of 3159 Hong Kong citizens across two electronic government (e-government) technologies that enable citizens' access to government services. In general, the results support the expanded model that provides a rich understanding of the changes in the pre-usage beliefs and attitudes through the emergent constructs of disconfirmation and satisfaction, ultimately influencing IS continuance intention. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the expanded model.

While technology adoption is a major stream of research in information systems, few studies have examined the antecedents and consequences of mandatory adoption of technologies. To address this gap, we develop and test a model of mandatory citizen adoption of an e-government technology. Based on a framework that outlines the key stages associated with the launch of technology products, we identify various external factors as antecedents of four key technology adoption variables from the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), i.e., performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions, which ultimately impact citizen satisfaction. The four stages of technology launch and the salient antecedents in each stage are: market preparation stage - awareness; targeting stage - compatibility and self-efficacy; positioning stage - flexibility and avoidance of personal interaction; and execution stage - trust, convenience, and assistance. We test our model in a two-stage survey of 1,179 Hong Kong citizens, before and after they were issued a mandatory smart card to access e-government services. We find that the various factors tied to the different stages in launching the technology predict key technology adoption variables that, in turn, predict citizen satisfaction with e-government technology. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications for governments implementing technologies whose use by citizens is mandated.

In this paper, we draw on control theory to understand the conditions under which the use of agile practices is most effective in improving software project quality. Although agile development methodologies offer the potential of improving software development outcomes, limited research has examined how project managers can structure the software development environment to maximize the benefits of agile methodology use during a project. As a result, project managers have little guidance on how to manage teams who are using agile methodologies. Arguing that the most effective control modes are those that provide teams with autonomy in determining the methods for achieving project objectives, we propose hypotheses related to the interaction between control modes, agile methodology use, and requirements change. We test the model in a field study of 862 software developers in 110 teams. The model explains substantial variance in four objective measures of project quality—bug severity, component complexity, coordinative complexity, and dynamic complexity. Results largely support our hypotheses, highlighting the interplay between project control, agile methodology use, and requirements change. The findings contribute to extant literature by integrating control theory into the growing literature on agile methodology use and by identifying specific contingencies affecting the efficacy of different control modes. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our results.

Research on individual-level technology adoption is one of the most mature streams of information systems (IS) research. In this paper, we compare the progress in the area of technology adoption with two widely-researched streams in psychology and organizational behavior: theory of planned behavior and job satisfaction. In addition to gauging the progress in technology adoption research, this allows us to identify some fruitful areas for future research. Based on our comparison, we conclude that there has been excellent progress in technology adoption research. However, as a next step, we call for research focused on interventions, contingencies, and alternative theoretical perspectives (to the largely social psychologybased technology adoption research. Also, we believe it would be important to use the comparisons discussed here as a basis to develop a framework-driven set of future research directions to guide further work in this area.

We identified 7 theoretical models that have been used to explain technology adoption and use. We then examined the boundary conditions of these models of technology adoption when applied to the household context using longitudinal empirical data from households regarding their purchase and use decisions related to household technologies. We conducted 2 studies and collected 1,247 responses from U.S. households for the first study and 2,064 responses from U.S. households for the second study. Those households that had adopted household technologies were surveyed regarding their use behavior. Potential adopters (i.e., those who had currently not adopted) were surveyed regarding their purchase intentions. This allowed us to identify the most influential factors affecting a household's decision to adopt and use technologies. The results show that the model of adoption of technology in the household provided the richest explanation and explained best why households purchase and use technologies. Accepted version Source info: Brown, S.A., Venkatesh, V., and Hoehle, H. “Technology Adoption Decisions in the Household: A Seven-model Comparison,” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (66:9), 2015, 1933-1949. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23305

This paper presents a mobile application usability conceptualization and survey instrument following the 10- step procedure recommended by MacKenzie et al. (2011). Specifically, we adapted Apple's user experience guidelines to develop our conceptualization of mobile application usability that we then developed into 19 firstorder constructs that formed 6 second-order constructs. To achieve our objective, we collected four datasets: content validity (n = 318), pretest (n = 440), validation (n = 408), and cross-validation (n = 412). The nomological validity of this instrument was established by examining its impact on two outcomes: continued intention to use and mobile application loyalty. We found that the constructs that represented our mobile application usability conceptualization were good predictors of both outcomes and compared favorably to an existing instrument based on Microsoft's usability guidelines. In addition to being an exemplar of the recent procedure of MacKenzie et al. to validate an instrument, this work provides a rich conceptualization of an instrument for mobile application usability that can serve as a springboard for future work to understand the impacts of mobile application usability and can be used as a guide to design effective mobile applications. Accepted version Source info: Hoehle, H. and Venkatesh, V. “Mobile Application Usability: Conceptualization and Instrument Development,” MIS Quarterly (39:2), 2015, 435-472. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2015/39.2.08

As most mobile applications are tailored for worldwide consumption, it is a significant challenge to develop applications that satisfy individuals with various cultural backgrounds. To address this issue, we drew on a recently developed conceptualization and associated instrument of mobile application usability to develop a model examining the impact of mobile social media application usability on continued intention to use. Drawing on Hofstede's five cultural values, we incorporated espoused cultural values of masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation into our model as moderators. To test the model, we collected data from 1,844 consumers in four countries - the U.S., Germany, China, and India - who use mobile social media applications on their smartphones. The results provided support for the role of espoused national cultural values in moderating the impact of mobile social media application usability on continued intention to use and the model, with espoused cultural values explaining significantly more variance in continued intention to use (i.e., 38%) than the main effects-only model (i.e., 19%). Interestingly, our results demonstrated that culture at the national level did not play a significant role in affecting the relationship between usability constructs and continued intention to use, thus underscoring the importance of espoused culture. Accepted version Source info: HKUST Business School Research Paper No. 2021-043

The healthcare.gov website, popularly called the Obamacare website, was off to a rough start. Although infrastructure issues received a great deal of media attention, the site has had its fair share of interface design problems. Drawing on the usability guidelines on the government site of usability.gov, we developed a survey instrument that comprised 16 dimensions to form overall usability. Based on a survey of 374 citizens, we found that usability strongly predicted citizen satisfaction with the website and intention to use the website. Six out of the 16 dimensions of usability emerged as significant in driving overall usability perceptions. In addition to key theoretical implications for e-government and usability research, our work offers practical implications for the healthcare.gov website and e-government web applications in general. Accepted version Source info: Venkatesh, V., Hoehle, H., and Aljafari, R. “A Usability Evaluation of the Obamacare Website,” Government Information Quarterly (31:4), 2014, 669-680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2014.07.003

Enterprise system implementations often create tension in organizations. On the one hand, these systems can provide significant operational and strategic benefits. On the other hand, implementation of these systems is risky and a source of major disruptions. In particular, employees experience significant changes in their work environment during an implementation. Although the relationship between ES implementations and employees' jobs has been noted in prior research, there is limited research on the nature, extent, determinants, and outcomes of changes in employees' job characteristics following an ES implementation. This paper develops and tests a model, termed the job characteristics change model (JCCM), that posits that employees will experience substantial changes in two job characteristics (i.e., job demands and job control) during the shakedown phase (i.e., immediately after the rollout) of an ES implementation. These changes are theorized to be predicted by work process characteristics, namely perceived process complexity, perceived process rigidity, and perceived process radicalness, that in turn will be influenced by technology characteristics (i.e., perceived technology complexity, perceived technology reconfigurability, and perceived technology customization). JCCM further posits that changes in job characteristics will influence employees' job satisfaction. Longitudinal field studies conducted in two organizations (N = 281 and 141 respectively) provided support for the model. The scientific and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Digital divide initiatives in developing countries are an important avenue for the socioeconomic advancement of those countries. Yet little research has focused on understanding the success of such initiatives. We develop a model of technology use and economic outcomes of digital divide initiatives in developing countries. We use social networks as the guiding theoretical lens because it is well suited to this context, given the low literacy, high poverty, high collectivism, and an oral tradition of information dissemination in developing countries. We test our model with longitudinal data gathered from 210 families in a rural village in India in the context of a digital divide initiative. As theorized, we found that the social network constructs contributed significantly to the explanation of technology use (R2 = 0.39). Also as we predicted, technology use partially mediated the effect of social network constructs on economic outcomes (R2 = 0.47). We discuss implications for theory and practice.

Notwithstanding potential benefits, such as quality of interorganizational relationships and operational and strategic gains, adoption of information technology (IT)-enabled interorganizational business process standards (IBPS) is still limited. Given that these standards are designed for interorganizational business processes, we suggest that adoption of these standards depends not only on the factors pertinent to a focal firm but also on factors that represent synergies between a focal firm and its trading partners. In this paper, building on the technological, organizational, and environmental (TOE) framework and interorganizational theories, we propose a model that postulates that a set of TOE factors will have synergistic effects (i.e., interactions between a focal firm's and its partner's factors) on IBPS adoption. We tested our model in a study of 248 firms (124 dyads) in the high-tech industry implementing RosettaNet-based IBPS and found that three TOE factors (i.e., process compatibility, standards uncertainty, and technology readiness) had synergistic effects and two factors (i.e., expected benefits and relational trust) had direct effects on IBPS adoption. We also found that IBPS adoption led to greater relationship quality (i.e., partnering satisfaction) and operational efficiency (i.e., cycle time). Further, we found that IBPS adoption mediated the effect of TOE factors on partnering satisfaction and cycle time.