The Role of Contextual Factors in the Influence of ICT on Street-Level Discretion

Public service workers in the frontline have traditionally enjoyed a wide freedom to make decisions during policy implementation. Research shows that technology has both constraining and enabling effects on public service workers affecting their ability to exercise discretion. What remains unclear is under which circumstances discretion is influenced by technology. Using a case study approach and drawing on neo-institutional theory, this paper studies a court to identify contextual factors affecting the phenomenon. Findings show that technology has no unilateral effect on street-level discretion, and is found moderated by contextual factors such as the degree of social complexity in a case, skills possessed by public service workers, and the need for face-to-face contact. Furthermore, the influence of technology on street-level discretion depends on the technology in use

Antecedents and consequences of problematic smartphone use: A systematic literature review of an emerging research area

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Progress and Stewardship in Information Systems Research: Addressing Barriers to Cumulation through Active Process Ownership

Scientific cumulation is regarded as the goal of the information systems field but is challenged by complex and unaligned incentives operating differently at both institutional and individual level. Few studies have explored how incentives create barriers to scientific cumulation and how these can be addressed to achieve improved scientific progress. To adress this, we introduce a process model of scientific cumulation and combine this with the perspective of business process management to describe the scientific process that must be managed and to show how active process ownerhip can contribute to stewardship of the scientific process. We argue that unaligned incentives that influence the IS field can best be managed with the goal of scientific progress and cumulation in mind, where process owners and many levels actively address barriers to cumulation

Smartphone usage among older adults

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Digitizing Discretionary Practices in Public Service Provision: An Empirical Study of Public Service Workers’ Attitudes

Public service workers have traditionally enjoyed a wide freedom to make decisions about clients. With the increased use of ICT in public service provision, discretionary practices are influenced or replaced by computerized routines, known as digital discretion. Based on the assumption that public service workers are motivated by helping individual clients, this paper focuses on characteristics of public service provision that can explain their digital discretion acceptance. To find out, we surveyed public service workers (n=125) within several types of public service provision and used structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). We conclude that professional motivations and the nature of public service provision make it difficult to completely digitize discretionary practices. Policy implications include paying special attention to the opportunities that technological innovations can create and the potential inability of public service workers to fully utilize digital tools due limited training and age

AI for Situational Awareness in Situations With High Uncertainty: An Explorative Case Study

Often, the police experience scenarios with much uncertainty. These scenarios can be characterized by high time pressure, huge amounts of information, and potentially severe consequences. In this paper, we study whether artificial intelligence (AI) can be a fit for the information processing needs of the police helping them achieve situational awareness and make better decisions. Given the potential severity of police situations, AI can potentially reduce the risk of fatal outcomes and wrong decisions. Investigating this issue with police officers and AI experts as our informants, our findings suggest that our informants are positive to AI as a support tool, but more skeptical to whether AI can make an impact in their daily police work due to the complexity of their work. The importance of implementing AI to suitable tasks is emphasized

Technology-Mediated Learning for Resilience

Resilience is a topic of steadily increasing interest. It particularly gains importance when discussing how communities (e.g. municipalities) can prepare themselves for potential future disruptions. A resilient community will overcome immediate shocks, such as an earthquake, as well as stresses, such as the successive outbreak of a pandemic. Due to the novelty of the topic, research particularly exists on theoretical aspects of resilience. Targeting learning - and thereby the local population - is a rather new emergence. To effectively reach, involve, and engage citizens, technology can play a key role. Based on four actual cases from communities we analyse the impact technology has on learning about resilience. We then scrutinize the effectiveness and propose future steps. Thereby, we seek to provide practical advice to local governments and to enrich the theory at the same time

A Boundary Spanning Perspective of Practical Impact: The Case of IS Practitioner Doctorates

IS research often seeks to deliver practical impact, in addition to the traditional requirement for theoretical contribution. While an admirable goal, it is nevertheless a challenging prospect, as key questions remain around how to best facilitate a relationship between IS academic and practitioner communities. To explore this question, our paper investigates boundary spanning by ‘practitioner doctorates’ - PhD students with professional experience who seek to span the fields of academia and practice during their research. Drawing on in-depth interviews with practitioner doctorates, our findings point towards several factors for practical impact such as researcher legitimacy, expectation management, and adapting to changes in industry requirements. In doing so, we contribute towards an understanding of engaged scholarship in IS and take steps towards addressing the dearth of research on doctoral studies in the IS field to date

Role of the Neutral Amino Acid Transporter SLC7A10 in Adipocyte Lipid Storage, Obesity and Insulin Resistance

Elucidation of mechanisms that govern lipid storage, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance may lead to improved therapeutic options for type 2 diabetes and other obesity-related diseases. Here, we find that adipose expression of the small neutral amino acid transporter SLC7A10, also known as alanine-serine-cysteine transporter-1 (ASC-1), shows strong inverse correlates with visceral adiposity, insulin resistance, and adipocyte hypertrophy across multiple cohorts. Concordantly, loss of Slc7a10 function in zebrafish in vivo accelerates diet-induced body weight gain and adipocyte enlargement. Mechanistically, SLC7A10 inhibition in human and murine adipocytes decreases adipocyte serine uptake and total glutathione levels and promotes reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Conversely, SLC7A10 overexpression decreases ROS generation and increases mitochondrial respiratory capacity. RNA sequencing revealed consistent changes in gene expression between human adipocytes and zebrafish visceral adipose tissue following loss of SLC7A10, e.g., upregulation of SCD (lipid storage) and downregulation of CPT1A (lipid oxidation). Interestingly, ROS scavenger reduced lipid accumulation and attenuated the lipid-storing effect of SLC7A10 inhibition. These data uncover adipocyte SLC7A10 as a novel important regulator of adipocyte resilience to nutrient and oxidative stress, in part by enhancing glutathione levels and mitochondrial respiration, conducive to decreased ROS generation, lipid accumulation, adipocyte hypertrophy, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes.acceptedVersio