A framework on information behaviour of SME managers for decision-making on emerging ICTs

The aim of this study is to explore the perceived information needs and information behaviours of manager of UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As technology advancement and innovation are changing rapidly affecting organisations in different ways, organization executives are introducing new technologies for their operations and business environment becomes more complex and dynamic, government introducing different policies to guide the use of these emerging ICTs. As a result, information becomes significant during adoption decision-making process for SME managers to make an inform decision. To achieve this aim, a framework is developed based on existing literature, using the technology organization environmental (TOE) model as the theoretical underpinning for empirical investigation on information behaviour of SME managers in this study. This study is qualitative in nature, and semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with twenty SME managers in the UK service sector. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Following Myers and Newman’s (2007) guidelines for qualitative interview and triangulation method were used to validate the conceptual framework and established the research rigour and quality. The research findings explained information behaviours of SME managers in the contexts of technology organisation environment as information behaviour triggered and perceived information needs during the adoption decision in SMEs. These findings provide further insight into ICT adoption in SMEs through information behaviours and highlighted the significant of sources of information and pre-information needed during the decision-making process. The research also contributes to theory in the information systems field by using relevant literature from information science field to explore information behaviours of SME managers. Future research can be done in other sectors of the economy to show more holistic behaviours of SME managers

Location and Adoption of ICT Innovations in the agri-food industry

This is an author's accepted manuscript of an article published in: “Applied Economics Letters"; Volume 21, Issue 6, 2014; copyright Taylor & Francis; available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2013.864032[EN] This article identifies the web technologies adoption pattern of agri-food industries considering a set of characteristics which include location, economic performance and previous history of adopting innovations. Our main results highlight that, together with certain firm characteristics, rural locations act as an accelerator for the adoption of web technology, compared to the slower adoption rate in urban areas.The authors are grateful for the support received from the Universitat Politècnica de València, (PAID-06-12)Doménech I De Soria, J.; Martinez Gómez, VD.; Mas Verdú, F. (2014). Location and Adoption of ICT Innovations in the agri-food industry. Applied Economics Letters. 21(6):421-424. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2013.864032S42142421

Nudging Toward the Herd: Understanding the Multidimensional Role of Perceived Uncertainty

Understanding how herd behavior phenomenon occurs IS context is important because it influences many choice decisions, is the main reason for some adoption decision anomalies, and explains the reasons behind the rapid rise or collapse of various technology fads. Perceived uncertainty is a key factor that triggers herd mentality (i.e. through imitation) and despite its influential role, the IS literature has not adequately conceptualized and operationalized this broad concept. This research aims to contribute to the literature by decomposing perceived uncertainty to its dimensions and analyzing the influence of each dimension on triggering individuals’ herd mentality

The Role of Trust in Promissory Organizations in IS Innovation Adoption – Development of a Research Model

Promissory organizations like IS analysis companies or academic institutions have started to play an increasingly important role in the way organizations make sense of IS innovations. Research has so far neglected how the trust that potential adopters place in these promissory organizations affects institutional pressures that promissory organizations exert on them. In this research-in-progress paper, we develop a research model to analyze the effects of different trusting beliefs – integrity, competence, and benevolence beliefs – in IS analysis companies and IS scholars, and how they affect potential adopters’ performance expectations in the early diffusion stages of an IS innovation. We expect this model to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the role of promissory organizations as a mechanism of producing institutional trust and the importance of institutional trust for potential adopter firms in IS innovation adoption

A quantitative investigation of students’ attitudes towards electronic book technology

The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that have an impact on technology adoption for e-books utilizing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Multiple Regression Analysis methods. Findings indicate that perceived usefulness and ease of use are the most significant determinants in using e-books. Of key significance is that AHP results show that consumers make pairwise comparisons, adding environmental concerns to the selection process. Recognizing the importance of all these factors is valuable to e-book developers and marketers in presenting products that meet all consumer choice criteria. AHP provides researchers with a more thorough decision making analysis

Langfristige versus periodische IT-Investitionsbewertung im Rahmen einer wertorientierten Unternehmensführung

IT-Investitionen machen häufig einen sehr großen Anteil an denInvestitionsausgaben einer Unternehmung aus und gelten darüberhinaus als besonders riskant. Bei der Bewertung von ITInvestitionensollte deshalb deren Beitrag zur langfristigen undnachhaltigen Steigerung des Unternehmenswerts unter integriertenErtrags- und Risikoaspekten berücksichtigt werden. Entgegendiesem Ziel der langfristigen Unternehmenswertsteigerung stehtin der Unternehmenspraxis jedoch häufig eine kurzfristige Orientierungan periodischen Ergebnissen im Vordergrund. In dervorliegenden Arbeit wird anhand eines Optimierungsmodells einelangfristige und eine periodische Steuerung von IT-Investitionenverglichen. Es wird gezeigt, dass eine rein periodische ITInvestitionssteuerungaufgrund der Vernachlässigung intertemporalerAbhängigkeiten bei der Bewertung risikobehafteter ITInvestitionenzu langfristig suboptimalen Entscheidungen führtund dem Ziel einer langfristigen Steigerung des Unternehmenswertsnur unzureichend gerecht wird. Dieser Bewertungsfehler derperiodischen Steuerung wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit als Kostender periodischen Steuerung quantifiziert. Anhand eines praxisnahenFallbeispiels wird der Einfluss zentraler Parameter aufdie Kosten der periodischen Steuerung veranschaulicht

Can Secure Behaviors Be Contagious? A Two-Stage Investigation of the Influence of Herd Behavior on Security Decisions

IT users often make information security-related decisions in complex and multidimensional environments, which could lead to phenomena like behavioral anomalies. For instance, under uncertain circumstances, users may discount their own limited information about a security technology and make their adoption decisions based on what the majority of users’ decisions are in this regard. In this context, imitation can become a legitimate and rational strategy for making security-related decisions. Current behavioral security theories generally assume that users possess sufficient information about security technologies before making security-related decisions. This theory assumption limits our understanding of how security decisions are made in various real-world circumstances. Our research is focused on security behaviors under uncertain circumstances. We investigate how providing popularity information can trigger herd behavior and can subsequently influence security behaviors. We also provide insights into security-related decisions that are influenced by herd mentality and investigate whether they persist over time. Additionally, we conceptualize and operationalize two constructs that can be used in future research to better examine post-adoption security behaviors. The findings of this multistage experiment show that in uncertain circumstances, when users are aware of the widespread use of a certain security technology, they develop a significantly higher intention to engage in protection-motivated behaviors. Furthermore, the results show that at the post-adoption stage, users rely more heavily on their own information about their continuous use of security technologies and put less emphasis on herd-related factors

Popular Concepts beyond Organizations: Exploring New Dimensions of Information Technology Innovations

The abundance of innovation concepts in the world of information technology and their differentiated influence on the design, production, and use of IT in organizations make it important that we understand what shapes these concepts themselves. Taking the perspective that an IT innovation concept emerges and evolves beyond organizational boundaries in a community, I argue that the prevalence or popularity of the concept in IT discourse positively influences the adoption of the underlying innovation. Then with the aim to explore what makes an IT innovation concept popular, my empirical analysis of the once highly popular concept ERP (enterprise resource planning) suggests that (1) the popularity of ERP was influenced positively by the prevalence of highlighted business problems that ERP was claimed to solve; (2) ERP’s popularity was influenced negatively by the prevalence of related innovation concepts; and (3) these influences largely disappeared after ERP passed its peak popularity. These results imply that the popularity of an IT innovation concept responds to the broader climate of business and relies on the right type of attention drawn and released by other concepts in a network of concepts. Going beyond the dominant paradigm, this paper helps broaden IT innovation research along two new dimensions: toward the innovation concept, as a complement to material innovation, and toward community-level analysis, as an extension of the traditional organizational analysis. The paper also suggests that practitioners evaluate an innovation concept’s fit with the broader environment and relationship with other popular concepts, as a way to make sense of the innovation and anticipate its impact on IT practice

Agent-level determinants of price expectation formation in online double-sided auctions

For an auctioneer, it is of utmost importance to design an auction mechanism that gives robust price signals which in turn increases auction performance. Information architecture and forward trading platforms are the two main information sources that could generate these price signals. However the traditional presumption that agents form rational expectations by accurately processing all available information in the online trading environment and forming their expectations accordingly has found mixed support. We develop a research model that empirically tests the impact of agents’ attitudes on their price expectation through their trading behaviour. Using a unique data set, we tested our hypotheses on real ex ante forecasts, evaluated ex post, in an electricity day ahead auction context. This paper is one of the first to take an information-based view to study the trading behaviour of agents and their price expectations, with results that suggest a re-consideration of some of the conventional concepts

Using Prospect Theory to Investigate Decision-Making Bias within an Information Security Context

Information security is an issue that has increased in importance over the past decade. In this time both practitioner and academic circles have researched and developed practices and process to more effectively handle information security. Even with growth in these areas there has been little research conducted into how decision makers actually behave. This is problematic because decision makers in the Department of Defense have been observed exhibiting risk seeking behavior when making information security decisions that seemingly violate accepted norms. There are presently no models in the literature that provide sufficient insight into this phenomenon. This study used Prospect Theory as a framework to develop a survey in an effort to obtain insight into how decision makers actually behave while making information security decisions. The survey was distributed to Majors in the Air Force who represented likely future information security decision makers. The results of the study were mixed, showing that prospect theory had only limited explanatory power in this context. The most significant finding showed that negatively connotated decision frames result in significantly more risk seeking behavior. These results provide insight into decision maker behavior and highlight the fact that there are biases in information security decision making