A Survey of Simulation Research in Information Systems Discipline

Along with the increasing number of companies introducing Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) in recent years, research on ESN user behaviour has proliferated. Yet, a detailed analysis of factors driving ESN user behaviour, that is, how users participate in ESN, is missing. Addressing this gap, in this paper, we explore ESN user behaviour and factors influencing usage in an Australian professional services firm. Based on a case study including 14 interviews with regular users of the case company’s ESN, we identify and characterise six general dimensions of ESN user behaviour. In addition, our analysis indicates ESN user behaviour to be influenced by a mix of individual factors and organisational factors. The contributions of this paper include a conceptualisation of user behaviour as well as a set of factors shaping ESN usage. For the management of ESN communities, our findings are hoped to inform initiatives aiming at reinforcing user engagement over time

Examining the Effect of Self-selection Bias on Consumer Satisfaction: A Product Type Perspective

Prior studies have evidenced that consumers can self-select themselves in submitting online reviews, thus introducing biases in the distribution of online review ratings. This kind of bias is termed self-selection bias. This research aims to explore the specific influences of self-selection bias on consumer satisfaction from a product type perspective. The adopted product classification system combines search and experience differentiation, as well as vertical and horizontal differentiation. An agent-based modeling approach is employed to systematically examine the combined effects of different types of self-selection bias and products. Based on experiment analysis, a novel theory is developed arguing that self-selection bias can have nuanced influences on consumer satisfaction with different kinds of products, by affecting the usefulness of online reviews in suggesting product quality information

Opportunity Costs during PhD Enrolment: An Innovative Information Systems Research Training Programme

Organisations are looking for new definitions and guidelines for innovation direction due to the changing nature of technology, user behaviour, competition and market trends. Data sources, types and analysis mechanisms have changed dramatically in the last few years, and there are pieces of evidence that these are influencing the level of innovation in a firm. We found that it is very important to explore how telecom companies capture, analyse and make innovation insights from big data. Our review shows a clear scarcity of research on this topic. The study aims to use qualitative methods of both interviews and documents review in three telecom companies in Jordan, with an opportunity to extend the study to different regions and countries. The understanding of how big data and its analysis are carried out by companies will support our effort in building more systematic procedures and guidelines for companies who wish to utilise big data for different types of innovation with different levels of maturity indicators

Can online reviews represent product quality in the digital economy?

This thesis examines the usefulness of online reviews. The theoretical foundation is expectation-confirmation theory and cognitive biases. Propositions are evaluated using novel interpretivist agent-based modelling (simulation). The study first synthesizes a conceptualiasation of review utility from fragmented online review literature, then conducts computational experiments to explain how, from a multilevel perspective, review utility can be impaired. It finds that customer’s different product needs, the voluntary nature of consumer behaviour in submitting reviews, and the platform’s algorithmic logic, are three main antecedents of review utility. This research progresses both our understanding of the online review quality concept, and of interpretive simulation

A survey of simulation research in information systems discipline

Simulation is a research method that abstracts real-world phenomena into laboratory experiments, through computational modeling. Despite its widespread adoption in natural sciences, simulation is less prevalent in social sciences, and rare in Information Systems (IS). To facilitate IS simulation research, this study conducts a literature review through content analysis, focusing on the use of simulation methods in IS. Coding schemes are developed to characterize literature from the AIS basket-of-eight plus Information & Management. Results demonstrate the adoption of simulation method is limited in IS, in amount, geographic range, topic-spread, and techniques employed. At the same time, findings too suggest strong simulation research into certain topics and in multilevel theorizing

TUTORIAL ON NK MODEL

NK model, proposed by Kauffman (1993), is a strong simulation framework to study competing dynamics. It has been applied in some social science fields, for instance, organization science. However, like many other simulation methods, NK model has not received much attention from Management Information Systems (MIS) discipline. This tutorial, thus, is trying to introduce NK model in a simple way and encourage related studies. To demonstrate how NK model works, this tutorial reproduces several Levinthal’s (1997) experiments. Besides, this tutorial attempts to make clear the relevance between NK model and agent-based modeling (ABM). The relevance can be a theoretical basis to further develop NK model framework for other research scenarios. For example, this tutorial provides an NK model solution to study IT value cocreation process by extending network structure and agent interactions

SIMULATION DESIGN IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH: EXAMPLE OF STUDYING IT VALUE COCREATION WITH NK MODEL

As an emerging research method that has showed promising potential in several research disciplines, simulation received relatively few attention in information systems research. This paper illustrates a framework for employing simulation to study IT value cocreation. Although previous studies identified factors driving IT value cocreation, its underlying process remains unclear. Simulation can address this limitation through exploring such underlying process with computational experiments. The simulation framework in this paper is based on an extended NK model. Agent-based modeling is employed as the theoretical basis for the NK model extensions

Organizational Robustness and Information Systems

The concept of robustness is critically analyzed. Although robustness has been widely adopted across scientific disciplines, no comprehensive and systematic conceptualization on robustness exists. This paper develops a framework to conceptualize organizational robustness. The framework outlines mechanisms of organizational robustness in three layers – strategical mechanisms, functional mechanisms, and infrastructure mechanisms. The complex role of information systems for organizational robustness is also discussed