Rethinking the Role of Technology in Virtual Teams in Light of COVID-19

The use of virtual teams by organisations has grown tremendously as a strategic response to COVID-19. However, the concept of virtual teams is not something new, with many businesses over the past three decades gradually incorporating virtual and/or dispersed teams into their processes. Research on virtual teams has followed that of co-located face-to-face teams through lenses such as trust, communication, teamwork, leadership and collaboration. This paper introduces a new paradigm for examining the development of virtual teams, arguably one that would facilitate the consideration of technology as part of a virtual team rather than simply as an alternate to face-to-face teams. That is, viewing the development of virtual teams with embedded technology within an organisation through an innovation framework

How to encourage Australians to adopt the contact tracing app? – A privacy lens

Contact tracing apps have been increasingly used for fighting the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. Such apps can help control the epidemic if well adopted. The Australian government released a contact tracing app, COVIDSafe, in late April, for controlling the spread of COVID-19. Understanding the critical determinants for the adoption of the COVIDSafe app is becoming critical. This study investigates the critical determinants for the adoption of the COVIDSafe app. A research model is developed based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and the privacy calculus theory for better understanding the adoption of contact tracing apps. Such a model can then be tested and validated in the future study for better exploring the critical determinants of adopting contact tracing apps. This study provides a foundation for understanding the adoption of contact tracing apps. The findings can help the government formulate targeted strategies and policies for promoting the adoption of the contact tracing app. They can inform future epidemic control for better emergency management in Australia with the potential applicability on a global scale

A Multi-Criteria Analysis Approach for the Evaluation and Selection of IS Projects – A Sustainability Perspective

An effective tool for assessing the sustainability performance of information systems (IS) projects in project management is highly desirable. Such a tool, however, is absent from the literature. This paper presents a multi-criteria analysis approach for effectively evaluating the sustainability performance of IS projects in organizations by extending the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). The subjective assessments of the decision maker in the IS project evaluation and selection process are represented by linguistic variables approximated by fuzzy numbers. The geometric centre based defuzzification method is used for transforming the weighting fuzzy performance matrix into the crisp performance matrix on which TOPSIS is applied for calculating the overall performance of individual IS project across all the selection criteria and their associated sub-criteria. Such a multi-criteria decision making approach adequately provides organizations with a proactive mechanism for effectively evaluating and selecting IS projects from the sustainability perspective. An example is presented for demonstrating the applicability of the proposed approach in evaluating the sustainability performance of IS projects in organizations

DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS OF THE EFFICIENCY OF AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Understanding how teaching and research contribute to the overall efficiency of university operations is of great importance for universities to improve their performance. This paper adopts a holistic approach to evaluate the university efficiency from three perspectives including (a) the overall university operations efficiency, (b) the university teaching efficiency, and (c) the university research efficiency. It applies the technique of data envelopment analysis to thirty-six Australian universities in the period of 2011 to 2015 for evaluating their relative efficiency respectively from these perspectives. A strategic group analysis is further conducted for exploring the source of inefficiency of an individual university in its respective strategic group. Such an analysis provides individual universities with valuable information on how they can make full use of their resources for improving their efficiency in an increasingly competitive environment

Towards Understanding Enablers of Digital Transformation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Even though, digital transformation has attracted much attention of both academics and practitioners, a very limited number of studies have investigated digital transformation process in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the findings remain fragmented. Given the accessibility and availability of digital technologies to launch digital transformation initiatives and the importance of SMEs in the economy, a profound understanding of enablers of the digital transformation process in SMEs is a much-needed discussion. As such, to address this, in this paper we conducted a comprehensive review of related literature in information systems, management, and business disciplines, to identify key enablers for facilitating the digital transformation process in SMEs

AI Affordances Perception for the Transformation of Mobility Ecosystems

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can transform organisations, industries, and ecosystems. However, how different organisations in a given ecosystem perceive the action potentials of AI (i.e., AI affordances) has not been researched. To advance the AI affordances research and develop a nomological net of organisational and ecosystem factors that influence the AI affordances perception, this paper contributes a conceptual framework with the context of the mobility ecosystem transformation. The framework draws from two theories: the affordances theory and the social cognitive theory. The paper presents an in-depth interpretation of these theories for the perception of AI affordances and develops propositions to explain two distinct types of affordances perceptions: vicarious and autonomous. Our conceptual work offers a foundation for developing models for prediction and opens new avenues of investigating AI affordances perception. Future research could further test and validate the framework

AI Affordance Actualisation: Empirical Evidence from Mobility Ecosystem Organisations

One of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to transform urban mobility to be more accessible, efficient, safe, and sustainable. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be applied to address some critical urban mobility issues and facilitate the achievement of SDGs. However, there is a need to understand how mobility ecosystem organisations use AI in alignment with their organisational goals to contribute to SDGs. To address this puzzle, this study draws on the affordance theory and preliminary interviews with ten key informants from mobility organisations in Australia. The preliminary findings show that mobility organisations’ exploitation of AI systems and technologies leads to the emergence of decarbonising, optimising, conditioning asset management, and provisioning customer-centric services. To do so, they develop AI literacy, business-IT collaboration, change management, and technology and data foundation. The paper contributes a tentative framework linking AI affordances with mobility-related SDGs, serving as a guide for future research and practice

An Integrated Framework for Understanding Digital Work in Organizations

This paper presents an integrated framework for better understanding digital work in organizations. A systematic analysis of existing studies on digital work has been conducted from different perspectives. Such an analysis leads to the identification of the critical issues and emerging challenges to the adoption of digital work with the rapid development of information and communication technologies. To better tackle such issues and challenges, an integrated framework is proposed for better understanding digital work in organizations. Such a framework can further be tested and validated in various contexts for enhancing our knowledge in the adoption of digital work in modern organizations

Understanding Digital Work and its Use in Organizations from a Literature Review

Background: Digital work is becoming increasingly popular due to its benefits and the continuous surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite numerous studies in attempting at understanding the adoption of digital work and its impact from various perspectives, there is lack of a systematic review of such studies. As a result, a systematic review of this nature is becoming critical as such a review can summarize what has been done and provide a solid foundation for future research. Method: A comprehensive review of existing studies of digital work and its use in organizations is conducted in a systematic manner. This leads to the identification of 87 papers published between 2010 and 2020 in major journals from the mostly popular databases including ProQuest, Emerald, ScienceDirect and Web of Science. Such papers then have been critically analyzed and synthesized. Results: The review of the related literature leads to the formulation of a working definition for digital work, the identification of the characteristics of digital work, and the emerging issues that influence the adoption of digital work in organizations. An integrated framework is proposed for better understanding the adoption of digital work from the perspectives of individuals, organizations, and society. Conclusion: This study proposes an integrated framework for better understanding the adoption of digital work in organizations. Such a framework can be tested and validated in various contexts. The study contributes to existing research from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Theoretically, this study identifies the characteristics of digital work and the emerging issues for affecting the adoption of digital work through reviewing the related literature in a holistic manner. Practically, this study provides organizations with useful information on how to address the emerging issues in the adoption of digital work

A Compliance-Based Framework for Digital Identity Management

Managing the digital identity is critical for minimizing the potential loss from identity theft in organizations. How digital identity can be better managed, however, remains to be addressed. This study investigates what affects the adoption of a compliance-based approach for managing digital identities in organizations. A comprehensive review of the related literature has been conducted, leading to the development of a compliance-based framework by integrating the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and the general deterrence theory for better understanding the adoption of the compliance-based approach. This framework can then be tested and validated using structural equation modelling of the survey data collected, leading to the identification of the critical factors affecting the adoption of the compliance-based approach to manage digital identities. It contributes to existing digital identity management literature by proposing an integrated framework for better exploring the adoption of a compliance-based approach for managing digital identities