HCI Research: Future Challenges and Directions

This commentary reflects my personal views of the future research challenges and directions in human-computer interaction (HCI) research in the field of Management Information Systems (MIS). It may be that many in our community do not share my concerns about the issues I consider important and the challenges we face. My intent here is not to argue that others should pursue approaches similar to mine, or to predict what type of work would be most fruitful and important in the future. Rather, my intent is to share some of the principles and ideas I would like to follow in my future research. I hope that these comments will lead to a debate (in this AIS Transactions) about how our community should plan for the future in HCI research and how we can make it more relevant, interesting and exciting

INTRODUCTION TO MINI-TRACK: PERSPECTIVES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH

During the past ten years, researchers in information systems (IS) have paid increasing attention to improving the quality of their research methodologies. They have studied reference disciplines to adopt as well as adapt theories and models to support their research, focused more carefully on developing instruments with acceptable psychometric qualities, and expanded their repertoire of tools for examining empirical data. There have been two encouraging developments in this respect. First, leading journals in IS have published papers which have discussed construct and instrument development, and the relative merits of different research methods, especially qualitative ones which have not been well understood or used by a substantial portion of the IS research community. Second, tile editors and reviewers of leading research journals have demanded that empirical work exhibit a good theoretical foundation and a high quality instrument development process. Along the same lines, the objective of this mini-track on research methods is to impart IS researchers with the knowledge to improve the quality of empirical research. The emphasis is on a topic which has not been discussed in detail in the literature, namely, the tools and the methods researchers can utilize to make sense out of empirical observations. The two panels in this track will focus on the two extremes of the empirical continuum - qualitative data and quantitative data. Within each of these two broad categories, the panelists will explain the different methods to examine data and point out the strengths and weaknesses of each. It is hoped that the audience will acquire an appreciation of the subtleties involved in collecting and analyzing data, be in qualitative or quantitative, as well as a respect for the difficulties faced by researchers when conducting empirical research of any kind

A Guiding Framework for Developing Theories Investigating the Design Drivers of IT Use and Value

Understanding the benefits individuals derive from information systems (IS) is a long-standing theoretical and practical issue. To address it, a recommended approach is to investigate how individuals use these systems to better achieve their goals. Such an approach can be implemented via focusing on the distinctive object of study of our field, i.e., the information technology (IT) artifact.Hence, this paper is motivated by the lack of existing guidance on how to theorize about IS use when the research intent is to better specify the role of IT artifact design criteria. We provide assistance to scholars in identifying and relating key constructs based on which design-focused system use theories can be developed. To do so, we build on key assumptions and ideas from the Philosophy of Technology about the nature, the use, and the design of technical artifacts. These suggest that a better understanding of the design-related factors involved in the study of IT use and effects can be gained by studying (i) whether designers create IT artifacts that have the potential to support users\u27 goal-oriented actions, and (ii) whether users can exploit these IT artifacts in a way that enables them to reach their goals. Following on these ideas, the paper specifies the key building blocks that could be used by scholars when developing theories explaining the effects derived from using a given class of information systems. It also identifies the key gaps preventing the achievement of users\u27 goals that arise from both (i) the design of IT artifacts for goal-oriented tasks and (ii) the enactment of these artifacts by individuals. Finally, it proposes a series of steps to help researchers theorize about the influence of design-related aspects involved in IT use and IT value

The Effects of Interactivity and Vividness of Functional Control in Changing Web Consumers\u27 Attitudes

The study proposed will investigate the effects of functional control on online consumers’ attitude formation. Functional control is an interactive interface feature that allows consumers to virtually try different functions of online products. An attitude formation model for analyzing and assessing the influences of functional control is proposed based on existing theories of vividness and interactivity, which are the two fundamental technological characteristics of functional control. The model suggests that functional control has direct effects on both attitudes toward online product presentation and attitudes toward products themselves, and that attitudes toward different online product presentation partly mediate the effects of functional control on attitudes toward products. A laboratory experiment has been designed to test the model. We expect that the results of the study will identify particular areas deserving attention for applying functional control to improve e-commerce environments

The Effects of Trust-assuring Arguments on Consumer Trust in Internet Stores

The difficulty Internet stores face in developing consumer trust is an ongoing impediment to the proliferation of Internet shopping. In order to develop consumer trust, many e-commerce strategies and Website features have been proposed in the IS discipline. Trust-assuring arguments are one proposed feature and refer to a statement or statements offering support for a claim made by an Internet store to address trust related issues. Although trust-assuring arguments are often found in Internet stores, to date little research has examined the effects of the arguments in building consumer trust. To fill the gap, this paper examines the effects of trust- assuring arguments on consumer trust in Internet stores

Explaining Customers’ Utilitarian and Hedonic Perceptions in the Context of Product Search within Social Network-Enabled Shopping Websites

Online social networks and e-Commerce have recently begun to converge into hybrid configurations via which online users search for products in the context of their social relationships. The present study explains how shoppers’ differences in two aspects of their social capital (centrality: their number of online friends, and quality: the relevance of these friends) influence the extent to which their product search experiences are perceived to be useful and enjoyable. For that matter, three value-creation paths (social network activation, effort reduction, and curiosity arousal) are proposed as the main explanatory mechanisms. Providing insights into this process is important as it will help develop a clearer understanding of the mechanisms via which digital networks influence customers’ product search experiences

Quo vadis TAM?

The Technology Acceptance model (TAM) is one of the most influential theories in Information Systems. However, despite the model\u27s significant contributions, the intense focus on TAM has diverted researchers’ attention away from other important research issues and has created an illusion of progress in knowledge accumulation. Furthermore, the independent attempts by several researchers to expand TAM in order to adapt it to the constantly changing IT environments has lead to a state of theoretical chaos and confusion in which it is not clear which version of the many iterations of TAM is the commonly accepted one. The present commentary discusses these concerns, speculates on the possible contributions to the current state of affairs, and makes several suggestions to alleviate the problems associated with TAM and to advance IT adoption research to the next stage