DEFINING ICT AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

There is a widespread belief that information and communication technologies (ICT) canplay a significant role in the socio-economic development of a nation. ICT has the potential toaffect many aspects of economic and societal activity such as GDP growth, employment,productivity, poverty alleviation, quality of life, education, and healthcare. While the literaturefrom various disciplines provides a myriad of definitions and elements of socio-economicdevelopment, the fundamental question of what constitutes socio-economic development,specifically one that is ICT-driven, from the perspective of ordinary citizens, remainsunanswered. This study focuses on the citizens’ view in describing ICT-driven socio-economicdevelopment is a developing country. The paper also makes a methodological contribution tothe IS field by its use of the narrative research method, one which is very appropriate for thistype of research. Narratives allow deeper and profound insights into participants\u27 beliefs aboutthe role of ICT in their socio-economic development. Using the narrative research method, amodel of the dimensions of socio-economic development is formulated. Furthermore, theresearch introduces several innovations in qualitative research

More Enduring Questions in Cognitive IS Research

In the April 2012 issue of the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Michael Davern, Teresa Shaft, and Dov Te’eni published an article titled “Cognition Matters: Enduring Questions in IS Research”. Their paper reviewed much of the history of cognitive research in the IS discipline, especially that related to human-computer interaction and decision support systems. While we believe their article is excellent in many respects, we also believe that it omitted a great deal of the most basic cognitive research performed in the IS domain over the past 10-15 years, especially work in the area of systems analysis and design. Our purpose in this paper is to supplement the work of Davern et al. by discussing much of this recent work. We use two theoretical lenses to organize our review: basic cognition and behavioral decision-making research. Our review provides many illustrations of IS research in these areas, including memory and categorization (basic cognition) and heuristics and biases (behavioral decision making). The result, we believe, is a fuller picture of the breadth of cognition-based work in the IS discipline in general and systems analysis and design in particular. The paper provides further evidence of the importance of cognitive research in IS and suggests additional enduring questions for future investigations

EXPLORING TARIFF-CHOICE PREFERENCES IN B2B ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE ACQUISITION SETTINGS

The acquisition of packaged software is gaining importance. The most crucial task during enterprise software acquisition is the selection of a software product and accompanying license model. The license model (or tariff) chosen severely impacts the total costs of the purchased solution over its life cycle and, thus, should be evaluated carefully. Existing literature from different decision contexts suggests that tariff choices are often times biased, leading to non-optimal decisions and costs. With this paper, we explore whether certain tariff-choice preferences and biases exist in the context of software acquisition. Hence, we analyse data from a multiple case study with five cases in four large organisations and base our findings on interviews with 19 decision-makers from IT, business, and procurement. The insights we gain from six interviewees especially point to the existence of both flat rate and pay-per-use biases in organizational contexts. Additionally, we find initial support for the relevance of prospect- theoretical reference points as a cause for tariff-choice biases. Therefore, our research can help practitioners to optimize their tariff choices in organizational buying situations and we present new avenus for future research

Is it COVID or a Cold? An Investigation of the Role of Social Presence, Trust, and Persuasiveness for Users\u27 Intention to Comply with COVID-19 Chatbots

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the existing healthcare system by demanding potential patients to self-diagnose and self-test a potential virus contraction. In this process, some individuals need help and guidance. However, the previous modus-operandi to go to a physician is no longer viable because of the limited capacity and danger of spreading the virus. Hence, digital means had to be developed to help and inform individuals at home, such as conversational agents (CA). The human-like design and perceived social presence of such a CA are central to attaining users’ compliance. Against this background, we surveyed 174 users of a commercial COVID-19 chatbot to investigate the role of perceived social presence. Our results provide support that the perceived social presence of chatbots leads to higher levels of trust, which are a driver of compliance. In contrast, perceived persuasiveness seems to have no significant effect

A Motivational Framework For Understanding IS Use And Decision Performance

Despite the considerable resources that have been devoted to the study of information systems (IS) use and decision performance, much remains unknown about variables that provide valuable insight into these two important constructs.  We propose a comprehensive research framework for understanding IS use and decision performance.  In particular, we focus on the significant role of the motivation factor in explaining IS use and decision performance.  We develop our research framework based on a review of motivation, systems, decision performance, information processing, and auditing literatures.  A new stream of research is presented based on our motivational framework

Dimensions of Information Systems Success

The value added by an organization\u27s IT assets is a critical concern to both research and practice. Not surprisingly, a large number of IS effectiveness measures can be found in the IS literature. What is not clear in the literature is what measures are appropriate in a particular context. In this paper we propose a two-dimensional matrix for classifying IS Effectiveness measures. The first dimension is the type of system studied. The second dimension is the stakeholder in whose interests the system is being evaluated. The matrix was tested by using it to classify IS effectiveness measures from 186 empirical papers in three major IS journals for the last nine years. The results indicate that the classifications are meaningful. Hence, the IS Effectiveness Matrix provides a useful guide for conceptualizing effectiveness measurement in IS research, and for choosing appropriate measures, both for research and practice

A qualitative inquiry of ICT based socio-economic development in developing countries: the case of Pakistan.

The role of information communication technologies (ICT) growth in citizens’ political participation, socio-economic development, and poverty alleviation is an active area of study within information systems (IS) research in developing countries. This dissertation contributes in (1) developing an historical perspective of ICT growth, (2) identifying antecedents of ICT growth, (3) proposing extensions in ‘design-actuality gaps framework’ (for ICT policy analysis), (4) extending dimensions of ICT based socio-economic development, and (5) in integrating relationship between ICT growth and socio-economic development. The data collection was done in three phases from December 2006 to January 2009 in Pakistan. A total of 54 officials who made or influenced government’s ICT policies and 46 citizens participated. The qualitative analysis shows that government’s policies play an important role in ICT growth. However, political instability and lack of citizens’ involvement in policy design leads to inconsistent policies which can impede realization of the benefits of ICT growth. The findings have practical implications for government’s ICT policy design and evaluation, understanding of the antecedents of ICT growth, and ICT based socio-economic development. The recommendations for ICT policy design in this research can potentially benefit governments in increasing citizens’ quality of life, socio-economic development, and poverty alleviation

Kognitiva förenklingar vid förmågebedömning - Identifiering av faktorer och metoder för att motverka dessa

The aim of this thesis is to detect the influence from biases on capability assessments and methods to prevent them. Evaluation of the influence from biases are based on literature studies and interviews. The result suggests that some of the biases are more likely to occur depending on the context. Three biases occurred most frequently both in the literature studies and during the interviews and these were: anchoring, availability and overconfidence. There are many different methods to prevent each bias and the author suggests an overall method to prevent many biases at once. Further problems were identified during the interviews regarding the implementation and use of data. Two different methods are suggested to improve the approach to data, depending on the context.Människor använder sig av kognitiva förenklingar vid beslutsfattande under osäkerheten. I en riskkontext skulle detta kunna leda till en bristande fördelning av resurser och härigenom en oförmåga att hantera uppkomna händelser. För att kunna handskas med dessa faktorer är det därför viktigt att vetskapen om kognitiva förenklingar tydliggörs och att människor erbjuds olika metoder och strategier för att motverka problemet. Världen vi lever i är under ständig utveckling och ett oändligt antal variabler påverkar utkomsten. Utveckling kan göra att situationer och förutsättningar ser annorlunda ut i framtiden, vilket försvårar valen och ställer höga krav på beslutsfattare. En åtgärd för att kunna hantera framtida scenarion och händelser är genom att utföra förmågebedömningar. Detta menar till att uppskatta hur väl krav ställda i framtiden kan mötas och vad som krävs för detta. Många utav de förmågebedömningar som utförs i Sverige genererar just beslut under osäkerhet. Det här i kombination med människans kognitiva begränsningar gör att beslut fattas där fel kan uppkomma, så kallade bias. Vilka bias som uppkommer beror delvis på personen men även typen och kontexten av problemet. Det är därför intressant att undersöka vilka bias som uppkommer vid förmågebedömningar för att därigenom ha en möjlighet att motarbeta dem. Med hjälp av olika metoder för att motarbeta bias är förhoppningen att förmågebedömningarna kan bli bättre och mer rättvisa. Det här skulle förutom en större möjlighet att hantera uppkomna situationer även kringgå onödig resursallokering. Utifrån två olika implikationsområden av förmågebedömning i två olika lagstiftningar sker även en jämförelse huruvida tidsdistansen till en händelse kan påverka beslutsfattandet och uppkomsten av bias. Via litteraturstudier identifierades tio bias som anses ha störst påverkan på förmågebedömningar, samt olika metoder för att motverka bias, så kallade debias. Under intervjustudien, som genomfördes inom ramen för examensarbetet, var det 3 bias som framträdde: förankring, tillgänglighet och övertro. Dessa var även vanligast förekommande under litteraturstudien, vilket indikerar att de har störst inverkan vid förmågebedömningar. Då det finns en mängd olika metoder för att motarbeta bias föreslås en övergripande metod. Med hjälp av en tillbakariktad, inåtriktad och framåtriktad granskning tillsammans med olika hjälpsystem kan en stor del av problematiken kringgås. Värdefulla tillägg är tillfogandet av djävulens advokat, kontrafaktiskt tänkande, visuella presentationer, scenarioplanering, samt utbildning och träning. Ytterligare nyttiga komponenter att inkludera är återkoppling av tidigare bedömningar, samt involvering av fler personer i beslutsprocessen som kan granska det utförda arbetet. Under intervjuerna blev dessutom en större problembild synlig och det var arbetet med statistik. I den ena lagstiftningen utgår arbetet till stor del ifrån tidigare händelser och statistik. Det här kan göra att angreppsmetoden blir alltför smal, vilket skulle kunna resultera i en alltför statisk förmåga. I den andra lagstiftningen är problembilden annorlunda, här finns det istället väldigt lite underlag i form av statistik. För att motverka problemet föreslås ett tydligare och bättre nyttjande av kommunernas incidentrapporteringssystem, vilket skulle kunna ge ett statiskt underlag och visa var strömningar och problematik i samhället sker