Are Citations to Academic Journal Articles a Measure of Quality or Something Else? An Exploratory Analysis with Emphasis on Design Science and IS Technical Research

One pervasive belief about scholarly citations that underlies several studies appearing in the IS literature is that the number ofcitations to a paper reflects the quality of the study. For example, a paper that receives 200 citations is perceived as havinghigher quality than another study that receives 50 citations. While most experts acknowledge that there are other factors thatdrive citations, such as the number of years a paper was available to be cited – or possibly “gaming” of citations by authorswho cite themselves frequently (author self-citations) or over-zealous editors who incent prospective authors to cite theirjournals (journal self-citations), there is an underlying assumption that, barring such unscrupulous behavior, citations are ameasure of research quality. This paper critically examines this assumption using a validated typology identifying 13 distinctsubject areas that characterize IS research. Results show that papers on some topics (e.g., IT adoption and use; newmeasurement development and validation) consistently receive more citations than average – while some topics consistentlyreceive below-average citation rates (e.g., IS development; IT project/risk management). Unless one assumes that all paperson a given topic are consistently of higher quality than all papers on other topics, our data suggest that a key driver ofcitations are the subject area of the study and, in turn, the size of the research community that conducts research on the topic

Does Dormant Faultline Still Matter in Distributed Teams? Extending the Faultline Concept to Distributed Environment

Subgroup divisions based on demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and race (the notion of dormant team fautlines) have been found to influence team processes and outcomes in face-to-face teams. This research extends the faultline concept to distributed environment, by proposing that recognized faultlines, instead of dormant faultline, will have a negative impact on distributed team performance and an important team cognitive process – Transactive Memory Systems (TMS). The research model was tested based on survey data collected from 156 MBA students in 42 distributed teams. Our results show that in distributed teams where each team member locates at a different location and never meet face-to-face, recognized faultlines have a negative relationship to both team performance and TMS, while dormant faultlines only have a negative link to TMS, but no significant relationship to team performance. Implications for research and practice are discussed together with potential avenues for future research

Co-authorship, Homophily, and Scholarly Influence in Information Systems Research

Information Systems (IS) researchers have increasingly focused attention on understanding the identity of our field (Hirschheim & Klein 2003; Lyytinen & King 2004). One facet of any discipline’s identity is the social aspect of how its scholars actually conduct their work (DeSanctis 2003), which is formally labeled as the study of sociology of science. Contributing to this tradition of work, we empirically examine scholarly influence (Acedo et al., 2006); scientific collaboration, including metrics that capture the prevalence of c-oauthored work; antecedents to co-authorship; and the effect of co-authorship on subsequent citations. Based on analyzing five leading IS journals for a period of seven years, we found that co-authored papers have become increasingly common in leading IS journals and that co-authoring continues to be more prevalent in journals published in North America compared to European journals. Moreover, we found significant effects of homophily related to gender, homophily/proximity, and geography. IS scholars worldwide exhibit a stronger preference for collaborating with co-authors of the same sex and those who attended the same PhD program than one would expect by chance. We also examined differences among journals and found some intriguing results for the effect of co-authorship on citations. Overall, we found evidence that the number of co-authors was positively related to citations although there was some variance across journals. These findings point to a need for more research to better understand both the processes of collaboration and the drivers and downstream benefits associated with it

An Empirical Study on the Adoption of Instant Messages for Work Purposes

Instant messenger (IM), a communication technology originally used by individuals in their personal lives, has been increasingly adopted and used to facilitate work-related activities. Up to now, empirical research on IM use is still lacking. We conducted a qualitative study collecting interview data from a work group using IM for work purposes. We found that people have formed various patterns of IM adoption. Drawing on the theory of structure and agency, we explained that the adoption patterns are formed by both the group-level structures (peer pressure, social impact, managerial rules) and the individual-level agency factors (users’ free choice based on their technology use history, age, and use habits)

The Influence of Carbohydrate vs. Carbohydrate plus Protein Supplementation on Muscle Force Production After Exercise Induced Muscle Damage

Consuming a protein (PRO)-carbohydrate (CHO) supplement is a common way to reduce muscle soreness and speed up muscle recovery post exercise. While most research focuses on measuring muscle force production as a marker of recovery post aerobic exercise, the present study aims to examine this effect after anaerobic muscle damaging exercise. Utilizing a parallel, double blind design, two groups of 6 healthy active males participated in this study. The participants were instructed not to perform any type of exercise and consumed only the food provided to them by the study. The participants receive either a control supplement containing only CHO or a PRO-CHO supplement (2:1 ratio). The supplements are consumed twice a day for four days prior to the muscle damaging exercise and three days post exercise. Two supplements are also consumed immediately following the damaging bout of exercise. Baseline muscle force production and peak muscle torque are measured on day one before a bout of damaging exercise using the ACES and Biodex machines. Muscle force and torque are then monitored for three days post damage using the same protocol as the baseline measurements. The ACES is a multi-joint, closed chain exercise device which measures muscle force in lbs*deg*sec-1 and responds accordingly (Williams et al., 2013)and the Biodex is an isokinetic dynamometer that measures peak torque of the leg muscles during leg extension and flexion in ft*lbs-1. It is hypothesized that the muscle force and torque will return to baseline faster in the participants consuming the PRO-CHO supplement, thus muscle force in the damaged muscles will return to baseline at a faster rate

Implementing Radical Change: Gradual versus Rapid Pace

This paper explores the question of how radical changes are implemented ir, organizations. Tie literature either does not directly address this issue or implies that radical change can only be implemented rapidly. In fact, to speak of the gradual implementation of radical change may at first glance appear paradoxical: how can radical change be implemented slowly? We examine the assumptions underlying various notions of radical change and suggest that it may be useful for both conceptua and managerial reasons to distinguish, a1 least analytically, between the nature or degree of orgafiizational change (radical or iIicremental) and the pace or speed of its implementation (rapid or graduai). Drawing on the findings of a field study that investigated the implementation of radical changeiil system development, we show thaE the gradual implementation of radical change may not only be feasible, but also effective in some situations. Specifically, we identify characteristics of the organizational context and the technological innovation that can indicate the conditions under which gradual implementation of radical changes may be appropriate

Analyzing IT Outscoring Relationships as Alliances among Multiple Clients and Vendors

As the business environment become more uncertain and competitive, many organizations are seeking ways to gain economic efficiency and share in business and technology risk. Despite wide differences in the reference disciplines applied to outsourcing research, the vast majority of it assumes a one-to-one relationship between the client and the outsourcing vendor. This paper examines the economic, strategic, and organizational issues involved in IT outsourcing when more complex arrangements are considered - such as multi-vendor alliances, co-sourcing, and complex multi-vendor, multi-client relationships. In this paper, we identify a taxonomy of four classes of outsourcing relationships (based on how many clients and vendors are involved in the outsourcing relationship, and illustrate each with recent business examples. Grounded in this taxonomy, we develop a theoretical framework that identifies both enabling and constraining forces that may influence client firms in choosing among the four types of outsourcing relationships. This paper provides insights regarding how the variations in the nature of these outsourcing relationships may shape the benefits and risks be achieved from outsourcing, as well as the ongoing complexity of managing outsourcing relationships.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Towards a deeper understanding of system usage in organizations: A multi-level perspective

The objective of this paper is to contribute towards a deeper understanding of system usage in organizations by examining its multilevel nature. Past research on system usage has suffered from a levels bias, with researchers studying system usage at single levels of analysis only, e.g., the individual, group, or organizational level. Although single-level research can be useful, we suggest that studying organizations one level at a time will ultimately lead to an unnatural, incomplete, and very disjointed view of how information systems are used in practice. To redress this situation, we draw on recent advances in multilevel theory to present system usage as a multilevel construct and provide an illustration for what it takes for IS researchers to study it as such. The multilevel perspective advanced in this article offers rich opportunities for theoretical and empirical insights and suggests a new foundation for in-depth research on the nature of system usage, its emergence and change, and its antecedents and consequences

Expanding the Frontiers of Information Systems Research: Introduction to the Special Issue

An introduction to the Expanding the Frontiers of Information Systems Research special issue