Introduction to the Minitrack on Advances in Trust, Identity, and Trusted Systems in Technology-Mediated Environments

Within the 52nd Hawaiian International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), we organize for the third time a minitrack on Trust, Identity, and Trusted Systems in Technology-mediated Environments. Trust is a pervasive concern not just with new technologies but also with established technologies as they become more complex and interdependent. Through five papers and an open discussion, the minitrack will discuss and debate when and to what degree trust matters, in what form(s), and with which consequences in the context of existing and emerging hardware and software technologies, e.g., biometric technologies, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, peer-to-peer networked platforms, and autonomous vehicles

Fall 2003 Vol. 6 No. 2

https://surface.syr.edu/ischool_news/1014/thumbnail.jp

Contemporary Issues in Digital Marketing

Web-marketing;Customer services;International busines

Exploring Blockchain Governance

Blockchain systems continue to attract significant interest from both practitioners and researchers. What is more, blockchain systems come in various types, such as cryptocurrencies or as inter-organizational systems in business networks. As an example of a cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, one of the most prominent blockchain systems to date and born at the time of a major financial crisis, spearheaded the promise of relying on code and computation instead of a central governing entity. Proponents would argue that Bitcoin stood the test of time, as Bitcoin continues to operate to date for over a decade. However, these proponents overlook the never-ending, heated debates “behind the scenes” caused by diverging goals of central actors, which led to numerous alternative systems (forks) of Bitcoin. To accommodate these actors’ interests in the pursuit of their common goal is a tightrope act, and this is where this dissertation commences: blockchain governance. Based on the empirical examples of various types and application domains of blockchain systems, it is the goal of this dissertation to 1) uncover governance patterns by showing, how blockchain systems are governed, 2) derive governance challenges faced or caused by blockchain systems, and, consequently, to 3) contribute to a better understanding to what blockchain governance is. This dissertation includes four parts, each of these covering different thematical areas: In the first part, this dissertation focuses on obtaining a better understanding of blockchain governance’s context of reference by studying blockchain systems from various application domains and system types, for example, led by inter-organizational networks, states, or an independent group of actors. The second part, then, focuses on a blockchain as an inter-organizational system called “cardossier”, a project I was involved in, and its governance as a frame of reference. Hereupon, for one, I report on learnings from my project involvement in the form of managerial guidelines, and, for two, I report on structural problems within cardossier, and problems caused by membership growth and how they can be resolved. The third part focuses on a wider study of blockchains as inter-organizational systems, where I summarize findings of an analysis of 19 blockchain consortia. The findings, for one, answer the question of why blockchain consortia adopt blockchain technology, and, for two, show internal and external challenges these systems faced to derive managerial recommendations. The fourth and last part studies blockchain governance’s evolution and contributes an analysis of blockchain’s governance features and its contrast to established modes of governance. These four parts, altogether, have scientific value as they increase our understanding on blockchain governance. Consequently, this dissertation contributes to the body of knowledge on modes of governance, distributed system governance, and blockchain governance in general. I do so, by grounding the concept of blockchain governance in empirical detail, showing how these systems are governed on various application domains and system types, and by studying empirical challenges faced or caused by these systems. This approach is relevant and necessary, as blockchain systems in general, but particularly outside of cryptocurrencies, mostly still are in pursuit of a sustainable blockchain governance. As blockchains can be expected to continue to mature, the upcoming years offer very fruitful ground for empirical research along the empirical insights and theoretical lines shown in this dissertation

Luxury retail brands and their consumers in emerging markets: developing mobile marketing and sustaining the brand value

Understanding an individual’s self-interests remains a challenging task for consumer marketing because brands have no direct access to individual’s inner mind in order to satisfy his or her consumption-related wants, needs and expectations. In the case of luxury brands, customer service experts only seek to maintain close relationships with wealthy and elite customers, and they cannot extend the same individualized services to mass-market consumers. Among the new middle classes in emerging markets, consumers do not have strong brand attachments, but they do have high purchasing power with regard to luxuries. To bridge this gap, mobile technology could be an ideal interface through which luxury brands could enhance interactive communication and engagement with consumers. Nevertheless, research findings have revealed major discrepancies in the adoption of technology. While luxury brands have been ‘slow’ in their adoption of such technologies, consumers have adopted mobile devices as extensions of themselves in the digital world, which greatly enrich their lifestyles. Therefore, a medium should be developed to bridge this gap. The Gearbox of Exchange is proposed to help integrate the consumer’s self-interests with those of luxury brands. Through conditional access with a mutually agreed-upon exchange value to balance privacy concerns and financial risks, the consumer might be willing to share customized information with the brands with which they trust to engage. The luxury brands will benefit from the sharing of this customized information, as they can better predict an individual’s preferences and choices. This virtual engagement will revitalize customization to activate personalized services for every individual. These mutually agreed-upon interactions will develop into a mutual interdependence, a B2B2C relationship. This bond will protect brands from severe competition. More importantly, their knowledge of customized information, which is provided through their direct access to consumers’ self-interests, will fill the black box of radical behaviourism and enhance these brands’ abilities to predict individual choices. Therefore, the knowledge generated from the Gearbox of Exchange will not be meaningless to transform consumer analysis into micro marketing

ICT-driven interactions: on the dynamics of mediated control

Interactions driven by Information Communications Technologies (ICT) have gained significant acceptance and momentum in contemporary organisational settings, this is illustrated by their massive adoption and varied deployment across the various levels of an organisation’s hierarchy. ICTs such as mobile telephones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), videoconferencing, BlackBerries and other forms of portable and immovable computing technologies provide enduring bases for mediated interactions in human activities. This thesis looks into the dynamics of ICT-driven interactions and, distinctively, focuses on the manifestations and implications of mediated control in a collaborative environment. The study draws on the concept of administrative behaviour which leads to the observation that the nature of mediated control is not static, but evolutionarily dynamic that springs from highly unpredictable contexts of work. Thus, interactions driven by ICTs influence and change the dynamics of mediated control against the background of the rhythm, structure and direction of an organisation’s purposeful undertakings. Findings indicate, quite paradoxically, that networks set up through the instrumentality of technology mediated interaction discourage domination and inspire individual discretion in spite of their promise of electronic chains. The analysis reflects the notion that mediated control is not only about the predetermination of targets that are attained at the subordinate level. Indeed, the study advocates a fundamental conceptualisation of mediated control as double-sided concept, integrating the use of discretion that, occasionally, makes subordinates drive and initiate key control techniques that steer organisational life. Therefore, through the application of philosophical hermeneutics for a rigorous data interpretation, this study develops an innovative and holistic understanding of mediated control which not only adds to, but also extends, the current organisational perception of control by the incorporation of discretion and, in the process, makes a distinctive contribution to scholarship

Blockchain Value Creation Logics and Financial Returns

With its complexities and portfolio-nature, the advent of blockchain technology presents several use cases to stakeholders for business value appropriation and financial gains. This 3-essay dissertation focuses on three exemplars and research approaches to understanding the value creation logics of blockchain technology for financial gains. The first essay is a conceptual piece that explores five main affordances of blockchain technology and how these can be actualized and assimilated for business value. Based on the analysis of literature findings, an Affordance-Experimentation-Actualization-Assimilation (AEAA) model is proposed. The model suggests five affordance-to-assimilation value chains and eight value interdependencies that firms can leverage to optimize their value creation and capture during blockchain technology implementation. The second essay empirically examines the financial returns of public firms\u27 blockchain adoption investments at the level of the three main blockchain archetypes (private-permissioned, public-permissioned and permissionless. Drawing upon Fichman\u27s model of the option value of innovative IT platform investments, the study examines business value creation through firm blockchain strategy (i.e., archetype instances, decentralization, and complementarity), learning (i.e., blockchain patents and event participation), and bandwagon effects using quarterly data of firm archetype investments from 2015 to 2020. The study\u27s propensity score matching utilization and fixed-effects modeling provide objective quantification of how blockchain adoption leads to increases in firm value (performance measured by Tobin\u27s q) at the archetype level (permissionless, public permissioned, and private permissioned). Surprisingly, a more decentralized archetype and a second different archetype implementation are associated with a lower Tobin\u27s q. In addition, IT-option proxy parameters such as blockchain patent originality, participation in blockchain events, and network externality positively impact firm performance, whereas the effect of blockchain patents is negative. As the foremost and more established use case of blockchain technology whose business value is accessed in either of the five affordances and exemplifies a permissionless archetype for financial gains, bitcoin cryptocurrency behavior is studied through the lens of opinion leaders on Twitter. The third essay this relationship understands the hourly price returns and volatility shocks that sentiments from opinion leaders generate and vice-versa. With a dynamic opinion leader identification strategy, lexicon and rule-based sentiment analytics, I extract sentiments of the top ten per cent bitcoin opinion leaders\u27 tweets. Controlling for various economic indices and contextual factors, the study estimates a vector autoregression model (VAR) and finds that finds that Bitcoin return granger cause Polarity but the influence of sentiment subjectivity is marginal and only stronger on bitcoin price volatility. Several key implications for blockchain practitioners and financial stakeholders and suggestions for future research are discussed

Exploring Digital Government transformation in the EU

This report presents the findings of the analysis of the state of the art conducted as part of the JRC research on “Exploring Digital Government Transformation in the EU: understanding public sector innovation in a data-driven society” (DIGIGOV), within the framework of the “European Location Interoperability Solutions for eGovernment (ELISE)" Action of the ISA2 Programme on Interoperability solutions for public administrations, businesses and citizens, coordinated by DIGIT. The results of the review of literature, based on almost 500 academic and grey literature sources, as well as the analysis of digital government policies in the EU Member States provide a synthetic overview of the main themes and topics of the digital government discourse. The report depicts the variety of existing conceptualisations and definitions of the digital government phenomenon, measured and expected effects of the application of more disruptive innovations and emerging technologies in government, as well as key drivers and barriers for transforming the public sector. Overall, the literature review shows that many sources appear overly optimistic with regard to the impact of digital government transformation, although the majority of them are based on normative views or expectations, rather than empirically tested insights. The authors therefore caution that digital government transformation should be researched empirically and with a due differentiation between evidence and hope. In this respect, the report paves the way to in-depth analysis of the effects that can be generated by digital innovation in public sector organisations. A digital transformation that implies the redesign of the tools and methods used in the machinery of government will require in fact a significant change in the institutional frameworks that regulate and help coordinate the governance systems in which such changing processes are implemented.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom