Integrating online-offline interactions to explain societal challenges

Despite the wide literature on the consequences of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) use, the literature still lacks understanding about the societal consequences, positive or negative, intended or unintended. ICTs can yield the good and the bad. Consequences of technology usages on society are paradoxical. The paradoxical outcomes can be ta threat to the sustainability of society. Because interactions spread beyond the online space and its outcomes are paradoxical, societal challenges are complex problems. But not only complex problem, rather social complex problem. To harvest society, we need a better understanding of social complex problems. To do so, we adopted a multi-study dissertation model. To achieve that goal, the three studies of this doctoral work adopt a qualitative approach and a critical realist philosophy. This dissertation focuses on the societal implications of online phenomena that spillover offline. We look at a first case: The Arab Spring and aim at understanding how an online community that started on Facebook materialized in urban space, changing the political landscape (Study 2). Addressing these kind of contemporaneous events does not come without analytical challenges. Therefore, we use and extend a semiotic analytical tool to face the representational complexity of the data collected (Study 1) with a discussion of the underlying philosophical assumptions. Finally, online communities can also have social costs by providing an echo chamber to socially undesirable behaviors. We aim at offering a conceptual explanation of how these online interactions turn into offline behaviors with negative spillovers (Study 3)

Group Decision Making in OSS: A Dialectic Perspective on Herding

Herding behavior in group (collaborative) decision making has been studied purely as imitation of others and discounting own information. However, collaboration is a dynamic process and decision making should be viewed with this dynamic in mind. Drawing on the The Laws of Imitation from sociology, we offer a new perspective to understand herding behavior in group decision making. By acknowledging the tension between imitation (respectively counter-imitation) and invention, we conceptualize herd behavior as a dialectic process. This research-in-progress aims at offering a theoretical framework for explaining the dialectic relation between imitation (respectively counter-imitation) and invention. We describe the dialectic process of problem-solving using cases from GitHub. Our research contributes to existing literature by acknowledging that before convergence towards a solution i.e. herding as an outcome, there is a dialectic process. We are offering a research model for dialectic problem-solving within OSS context

Vicarious Learning in a Digital Environment: A Case Study at a Big Four

In the United States, $162 billion was spent on corporate development in 2012. Yet, some studies unveil a “The Great Training Robbery”, showing that no more than 10% of training expenses are effective. This research examines the misalignment between the investment in formal training settings and the actual learning behaviors which rely mostly on informal learning and digital tools (i.e. symbolic environment), empowered by an increasingly interconnected world. This research aims at understanding the emerging behaviors of learning in context among auditors and consultants from a French affiliate of a Big Four company. Based on Bandura’s work on learning in an ultra-connected universe, we identify and develop four informal vicarious learning behaviors based on symbolic media. Our work has implications for Human Resources’ value proposition which shifts away from offering content-based training to developing learning capacity

OFFERING ACCOUNTS OF COMPLEX IS-PHENOMENA: TOWARDS A COMBINATION OF MECHANISTIC PREDICTIONS AND GENERATIVE EXPLANATIONS

Information Systems (IS) phenomena have become increasingly volatile, complex and fast changing. Capturing their essence is an increasingly daunting task. Data science have emerged in awe to predict future outcomes. Decision-making thus becomes faster while data become bigger. Yet, in the wake of this promising path, many of these predictions lack accuracy due to the unpredictability of complex phenomena. That is why researchers promote the importance of thick qualitative data analysis as a way of seeking explanations of the generativity underlying complex phenomena. This approach is (in comparison) slow, but can answer why events occurred. Thus, we argue that sound accounts of complex IS-phenomena must come from a combinatory approach of fast predictions with slower accounts. Predictions apply laws theorized as causal mechanisms. When these outcomes do not arise, we suggest applying explanatory accounts that apply a different form of causality - generative mechanisms. Generative mechanisms can explain unpredictable outcomes, but can only be inferred through longitudinal qualitative studies. This paper opens up a research agenda for combinatory approaches of fast mechanistic predictions from big data and slower generative explanations from thick data. This combination will help capturing the essence of complex socio-technical phenomena in our capricious digitalized world

L'intégration des interactions en ligne/hors-ligne pour expliquer les défis sociétaux

Despite the wide literature on the consequences of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) use, the literature still lacks understanding about the societal consequences, positive or negative, intended or unintended. Consequences of technology usages on society are paradoxical. The paradoxical outcomes can be threat to the sustainability of society. Because interactions spread beyond the online space and its outcomes are paradoxical, societal challenges are complex problem. To harvest society, we need a better understanding of social complex problems. To do so, we adopted a multi-study dissertation model. The three studies of this doctoral work adopt a qualitative approach and a critical realist philosophy.We look at a first case: The Arab Spring and aim at understanding how an online community that started on Facebook materialized in urban space, changing the political landscape. Addressing these contemporaneous events does not come without analytical challenges. Therefore, we use and extend a semiotic analytical tool to face the representational complexity: Finally, online communities can also have social costs by providing an echo chamber to socially undesirable behaviors.Malgré une littérature abondante sur les conséquences des technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC), cette littérature n'aborde que trop peu les conséquences sociétales, qu'elles soient positives ou négatives, intentionnelles ou non. Parce que les interactions se propagent au-delà de l'espace en ligne et de ces conséquences paradoxales, les défis sociétaux sont un problème complexe. C'est pour ces raisons que nous avons besoin d'une meilleure compréhension des problèmes sociaux complexes. Pour ce faire, nous avons adopté le modèle de la thèse sur travaux. Les trois études de ce travail de doctorat adoptent une approche qualitative et un positionnement réaliste critique. Nous examinons un premier cas : celui du Printemps Arabe et l'utilisation de Facebook. Etudier ces types d'événements contemporains ne vient pas sans difficultés analytiques. Par conséquent, nous utilisons un outil d'analyse sémiotique pour faire face à la complexité représentationnelle des données recueillies. Enfin, les communautés en ligne peuvent également générer des coûts sociaux en fournissant un espace se faisant l'écho à des comportements socialement indésirables

An Identity Driven Escalation of Commitment to Negative Spillovers

The technological advances of the World Wide Web led it to become a highly interactive medium on which billions of individuals share not only their information but also their thoughts and beliefs. While it is an ideal tool to bring people together and expand horizons by connecting remote communities, sadly it is also dangerously effective in spreading diseases or hate crime. Such poor awareness on how such paradoxical outcomes arise is a societal challenge. This conceptual paper focuses on concealable stigmatized identities; i.e., culturally devalued identities that are not visible to others. When acted upon they produce socially questionable activities that incur social penalties and generate (tangible and intangible) societal costs. We explain how cognitive dissonance about one’s identity refines our current understanding of the relationship between (increased) Internet access and (increased) societal negative spillovers. We offer a process model explaining how online escalation-of-commitment leads to offline negative spillovers

Examining the case of French hesitancy toward IDaaS solutions: Technical and social contextual factors of the organizational IDaaS privacy calculus

International audienceIdentity-as-a-service (IDaaS) is a cloud security service to which companies can outsource the identity and access management (IAM) functions that administer their employee's access to organizational resources. Engaging with the information systems (IS) privacy literature, our qualitative analysis develops a framework for an organizational privacy calculus that informs French organizational consumers’ decisions to pursue IDaaS solutions. We collect data from employees of a multinational IDaaS provider operating in Europe but headquartered in the US. Our case study reveals the organizational privacy calculus associated with transferring control of a primary security control to a multinational cloud service provider

Using semiotics to analyze representational complexity in social media

International audienceData from social media offer us multimedia data brimming with multiple layers of meanings. Social media enable rapid-fire digital communications. These communications are incredibly complex in content, form and meaning. This representational complexity is a stumbling block in data analysis that stands in the way of deeper explanations. These unstructured data, rich in social meanings, are as complex as the phenomena they represent. While it is possible to formulate an entire research methodology around semiotics, it is not always necessary. We can adapt semiotic analysis within existing methodologies. This paper offers and illustrates an analytical technique to address representational complexity that can be used in conjunction with other methodologies such as case study, ethnography, etc. This analytical technique espouses a critical realist philosophy to develop much needed, deeper explanations from qualitative data

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AFFORDANCES IN ACTIVATING NORMATIVE SELF-PRESENTATION BEHAVIOUR ACROSS MULTIPLE PLATFORMS

People use social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for impression management (i.e., self-presentation). They use social media to present information about themselves intended to curate a particular image, for example, by posting work accomplishments on LinkedIn or vacation photos on Instagram. As self-presentation on social media becomes increasingly complex and time-consuming to manage, it is important for researchers to better understand what drives selfpresentation behaviours across platforms. Drawing from the focus theory of normative conduct, we introduce the self-presentation affordance-norms-behaviour framework to examine normative selfpresentation behaviours across social media platforms. Specifically, we outline a qualitative study utilizing both interviews and netnography to examine how social media affordances for selfpresentation may activate different personal or social norms for self-presentation, which guide the self-presentation behaviours users employ on different social media platforms. Our study promises to improve researchers’ understanding of how norms differ across social media platforms and how selfpresentation affordances drive self-presentation behaviour through the norms the affordances activate. Such knowledge is important for better informing design and use of social media platforms and can provide insight into self-presentation behaviours that could help stymie negative consequences of social media such as cyberbullying and addiction