Investigating the Influence of Perceived Uncertainty on Protection Motivation: An Experimental Study

IS users and organizations must take necessary measures to adequately cope with security threats. Considering the importance and prevalence of these issues and challenges, IS security research has extensively investigated a variety of factors that influence IS users’ security intentions/behaviors. In this regard, protection-motivated behaviors are primarily based on individuals’ personal cognitive evaluations and vigilance. In reality, however, many users reach security hygiene decisions through various non-rational and non-protection-motivated processes. Such users may not necessarily rely on their own cognitive appraisals and information processing, but proceed to make decisions without careful cognitive assessments of security threats and coping responses. One promising lens for assessing these behaviors that may not be informed by rational and personal assessments of threats and responses is Herd Theory, which describes the phenomenon in which individual decisions are often influenced by other users’ decisions about their behaviors. Drawing on this theory, this study seeks to answer the following research questions by using an experimental design:. In uncertain circumstances, are individuals more likely to cope with security threats by following the herd

Influences of Seawater Flows on the Degradation of Organic Coatings Applied on Offshore Wind Turbines

The regular protection methods of offshore wind structures consist of the application of two or three layers of epoxy-based coatings with a polyurethane topcoat. The coating systems of offshore wind turbines are mostly tested on-site, where different coated samples are exposed to the sea water at the specific locations planned for the installations of the turbines. Despite several advantages of laboratory testing, the majority of laboratory-based tests have been limited to the exposure of coated or unprotected metals to stationary electrolytic solutions, while the flow-induced corrosion measurements have not received enough attention until recently. The focus of our work is to investigate the influence of applied mechanical stresses due to the water flow on the degradation of organic coatings. In order to resemble the condition of coated monopile structures in shallow water flow, an impingement chamber device and a wave tank were designed and constructed. The Electrochemical Impedance Stereoscopy (EIS) method was utilized for monitoring the electrochemical processes occurred during the degradation of coatings. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) method, as well as Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) tests were utilized in order to calculate the magnitude of applied stresses on the coating surfaces. Atomic Force Microscopy method (AFM) was employed for characterizations of coating? surfaces. The theory of thermo-activated processes in combination with the thermoelasticity equations were derived in a way to calculate the influence of applied stresses on different electrochemical parameters of the coatings? degradation. The afore-mentioned experimental methods and the developed analytical procedure can potentially predict the behavior of organic coatings applied on offshore wind turbines at different exposure zones with respect to the sea water flow

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

Continuance Intention on Using Mobile Banking Applications: A Replication Study of Information Systems Continuance Model

One of the most significant factors to the survival of many service-based firms such as banks and insurance companies is customers’ continuous use of their IT services. The focus of this paper is on replicating IS Continuance Model (Bhattacherjee, 2001) in the mobile banking context. We collected data by surveying 256 college students who were users of mobile banking applications of multiple banks in the U.S. The hypotheses were also tested using Structural Equation Modeling technique (SEM), with AMOS version 23. All five hypotheses of the model were supported, with 67% explained variance for the “continuance intention,” as the dependent variable. Our findings show that the IS Continuance Model, which was originally tested by surveying the users of web-based banking services of one bank, is supported in a modern related context and is generalizable to the mobile banking applications users

Detecting Deception in Computer Mediated Communication: Understanding the Role of Popularity Information and Media

With wide-spread adoption of technology in our private and business communications, people seldom make decisions in isolation. How does exposure to observation of others’ decisions affect our own judgement, especially in the context of deception detection in computer-mediated communication? We investigate this question through the theoretical prism of herd behavior. We review the literature on herd behavior and deception detection in computer-mediated communication and investigate how popularity information influences deception detection accuracy and how media differences moderate this relationship (Figure 1). We propose an experimental research design where we manipulate popularity information and measure participants’ responses to full audio-visual and text only stimuli. The findings from our study can have important implications for both research and practice

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

On rings whose modules have nonzero homomorphisms to nonzero submodules

We carry out a study of rings R for which HomR (M;N) 6= 0 for all nonzero N ≤ MR. Such rings are called retractable. For a retractable ring, Artinian condition and having Krull dimension are equivalent. Furthermore, a right Artinian ring in which prime ideals commute is precisely a right Noetherian retractable ring. Retractable rings are characterized in several ways. They form a class of rings that properly lies between the class of pseudo-Frobenius rings, and the class of max divisible rings for which the converse of Schur's lemma holds. For several types of rings, including commutative rings, retractability is equivalent to semi-Artinian condition. We show that a Kothe ring R is an Artinian principal ideal ring if and only if it is a certain retractable ring, and determine when R is retractable

The Human-Information-Processor Model View of e-Government

Without a universally accepted definition of what e-Government really is, e-Government research has focused on Government e-services; which are but a peripheral part of e-Government. ICT use in provision of Government e-services and the attendant issues are not unique to e-Government; rather, they are part of any other deployment of information systems and technologies. _x000D_ This treatise is a two-level conceptual discussion in which, first, a proposed approach to defining e-Government using the Stimulus-Organism-Response Model is proposed. And second, a representation of e-Government using the Human Information Processor Model is demonstrated. The cognitive mapping of Government functions onto the Human Information Processor model presents new lenses through which a holistic view of e-Government emerges - with the potential of providing a shared cognitive focal view for e-Government research._x000D