The paradoxical effects of legal intervention over unethical information technology use: A rational choice theory perspective

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. While the IS literature offers rich insights into the kinds, causes and consequences of unethical information technology use (UITU), we know little about the degree to which legal intervention may mitigate UITU. Our research aims at understanding how legal intervention could mitigate UITU by influencing the cost-benefit analysis in determining the decision to commit such unethical use of IT. Our contributions are twofold. First, we provide testable propositions on the role of legal intervention. Second, we offer an innovative take on intervention – conceived as a multi-mechanism process that adapts to UITU as well as to the way IT users negotiate the IT artifact

Understanding unethical behaviors in online environments

B2B online reverse auctions technology (ORAs) emerged as a popular tool for large buying firms in the late 1990s. However, its growing use has been accompanied by a corresponding increase in unethical behaviors to a point that it has been described as the technology that has triggered the most ethical concerns in the e-commerce arena. Online reverse auctions thus provide fertile ground for the study of ethical issues in virtual settings, particularly as there has been little investigation of these issues by the IS community. We adopted a qualitative approach based on a narrative study of a major French retailer and its suppliers. We held seventy interviews with three groups of informants (technology initiators, buyers and suppliers) to explore how these actors interpret and deal with the unethical use of the technology. Our main findings reveal that while there is a consensus on broad ethical criteria, divergences remain about how specific behaviors are interpreted as ethical or non-ethical. Sanctions, a formal ethical charter, learning and utilization strategies were developed as initial solutions to deal with the unethical use of ORAs. At the same time, factors such as public discourse and rumor influenced ethical criteria and the crafting of legal remedies to the unethical use of ORAs

Online reverse auctions and the dynamics of trust

This research explores the effect of the introduction of online reverse auctions (ORAs) on interorganizational trust between buyers and suppliers in the retail industry. Building upon the notion of the spirit of the technology and the organizing vision, we shed light on the "equivoque" nature of ORAs. In an integrative model, we show how the desocialization associated with the introduction to ORAs can lead to distrust. Our findings show specifically the importance of the role played by technical problems and rumors. © 2008 M.E. Sharpe, Inc

Electronic reverse auctions: emerging from the shadows?

NoThis chapter examines the role of business-to-business electronic reverse auctions (eRAs), one tool in the armoury of e-purchasing used by businesses including retailers. It tracks the development of this particular technology through the hype cycle and presents some propositions to maximise the use of eRAs as an effective e-purchasing tool. It also explains the damaging effect of the early negative perceptions and underlines the difficulty in overcoming them