What kind of cause unites a crowd? Understanding crowdfunding as collective action

This paper explores the types of shared goals that underlie fundraising activities in web-enabled charitable crowdfunding, as well as how these goals unite donors and fundseekers. A grounded theory analysis is undertaken using a stratified sample of records from Pledgie.com, a crowdfunding website dedicated to charitable causes. Content analysis of these records reveals three types of information sharing associated with successful fundraising (1) information supporting impact (2) information supporting morality and (3) information supporting external relationships. These information types are related back to existing literature on collective action to explain how and why communities of donors form around specific fundraising initiatives. Findings suggest that while most existing models of charitable crowdfunding adopt a view of information sharing based on dyadic communication between donors and fundseekers, charitable crowdfunding should also be viewed as a technological paradigm capable of forming action-oriented collectives based around specific causes, beliefs, and/or identities

Images of Quantum Computing: Taking Stock and Moving Forward

Quantum computing is attracting increasing attention due to both the threats and the opportunities it may present. Nonetheless, the technology is still nascent and thus far lacks substantive commercial applications that can demonstrate, let alone validate, its potential impact. This uncertainty challenges organizations’ ability to make strategic decisions concerning quantum computing. In this study, we explored the practitioners’ discourse about quantum computing and the metaphors used to describe the technology and its prospective value. Building on a thematic analysis of 140 video presentations by quantum computing practitioners, we identified ten distinct metaphors of quantum computing. Subsequently, we sorted the metaphors based on the perceived feasibility and strategic potential of the technology to reveal four ways quantum computing may impact the prevailing digital logic. These findings shed light on the alternative development paths of quantum computing business applications and extend the theoretical foundation of this incipient discourse

HUMAN-CENTRED DESIGN: EXISTING APPROACHES AND A FUTURE RESEARCH AGENDA

This paper presents an analysis of Human-Centred Design (HCD), using a metatriangulation of scientific literature. This metatriangulation comprises a systematic overview of recent HCD research, in which literature is categorised and analysed using both engineering lens and cognitive science paradigmatic lenses. The study reveals that the most popular HCD approaches do not accommodate software aimed at a broad or anonymous user-base. This shortcoming can be attributed, at least in part, to the popularity of HCD approaches focusing on highly-conscious user cognition based on conceptual models. These forms of cognition rely upon learned conventions and accumulated understanding and, as a result, design approaches focusing upon them are fundamentally limited to catering for a specific subset of the human population. We identify an emerging HCD approach, which we label \u27Foundational Design\u27. This approach focuses on cognitive regularities which exist in less-conscious processing, independent of culture or individual experience, and thus possibly offers a solution to the dilemma described above. Thus a future research agenda focused on the Foundational Design approach and the emerging NeuroIS research stream is proposed and discussed

Identifying and exploiting tacit processes in design thinking: what can Phineas Gage teach us about making better systems?

This study presents a design thinking technique that facilitates the discovery and exploitation of tacit processes in advanced system users. The design thinking technique targets tacit processes that have accumulated over prolonged periods of technology use, in the absence of conscious reflection. Such tacit processes may be impossible for users to verbalize, as the manner in which they have been learned means that users may be unaware that they exist. This makes them difficult or even impossible to uncover with traditional discursive and participatory approaches. For this reason, the proposed technique offers a means of ‘lesioning’ information sources, i.e. removing aspects of the information system and observing how and when behavior breaks down. This deconstruction allows dependencies to be exposed, resulting in a better understanding of tacit processes, and consequently, improved assimilation of them into design ideation. This technique is tested over multiple experimental iterations in the context of Twitter, a social network and micro-blogging service. These iterations present several insights regarding how users determine which users to follow, as well as how information is consumed on a user’s content feed

Procedurally Transparent Design Science Research: A Design Process Model

This paper presents a process model for Information Systems (IS) scholars conducting Design Science Research (DSR). The paper argues that the impact of DSR on the IS discipline has been inhibited by perceived limitations in the rigor of DSR studies, and that such perceptions are often due to a lack of procedural transparency surrounding the development process in DSR studies. To help address this issue, the paper presents the Process Model for increased Procedural Transparency (PMPT). A range of design literature is analyzed to identify and characterize the distinct stages of design-oriented research. These stages are laid out in a process model, which is then bound in a recursive instantiation, and demonstrated through an application. The paper concludes with a discussion of the contribution of PMPT, as well as opportunities for future research

The Emotional Impact of Pictures when Crowdfunding for Healthcare: An Experimental Study

This study investigates how visual stimuli influence cancer-related charitable online giving. Particularly, the study investigates how different types of crowdfunding campaign pictures affect donors’ decision to contribute to specific campaigns. We gathered crowdfunding campaigns from GoFundMe and divided them according to the main picture used in each campaign, i.e., cancer-related pictures vs. non-cancer-related pictures and pictures of individuals vs. pictures of groups. We then conducted an online experiment and a laboratory experiment using physiological measures. The results from the experiments show that cancer-related pictures receive more money and more immediate attention and arousal than non-cancer-related pictures. Furthermore, group pictures receive more money and more total attention than individual pictures. The physiological measures from the laboratory experiment provide valuable knowledge about the underlying emotional mechanisms involved in the donation process

The Proliferation of End Users as a Success Metric for Cryptocurrencies

Over the last decade, numerous studies have examined the remarkable appreciation of cryptocurrencies and have typically focused on their price and the factors that predict them. In contrast, this paper argues that the success of a cryptocurrency is determined not only by its monetary value but also by the proliferation of its end users. Specifically, we hypothesize that changes in developers’ and miners’ activities drive the growing proliferation of a cryptocurrency’s end users. Building on the Bitcoin case, we use a time-series model based on 4,285 Bitcoin daily observations to suggest that changes in the number of end users are anticipated by surges or drops in activity by the developers and miners who develop and maintain the network. We further find a limited relationship between these variables and the price of Bitcoin. These results support an alternative view of cryptocurrencies’ success and highlight further research avenues in this nascent domain

Reviewing the Contributing Factors and Benefits of Distributed Collaboration

Distributed collaboration has become increasingly common across domains ranging from software development to information processing, the creative arts, and entertainment. As of early 2020, distributed collaboration has entered the limelight as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced employees across the world to work from home. However, while researchers have applied myriad terms to define these operations, we first address this issue by defining distributed collaboration in a way that represents all its forms. Existing research has identified several factors that contribute to distributed collaborations’ success. Yet, researchers and practitioners typically discuss these factors in modular theoretical terms, which means that they often struggle to identify and synthesize literature that spans multiple domains and perspectives. In this paper, we systematically review the literature to synthesize core findings into one amalgamated model. This model categorizes the contributing factors for distributed collaboration along two axes 1) whether they are social or material and 2) whether they are endemic or relational. We also explicitly discuss the relationships between factors in the model. The model further links these contributing factors to different collaborative outcomes, specifically mutual learning, relationship building, communication, task completion speed, access to skilled personnel, and cost savings

The Impact of Layer 2 Technologies on the Adoption and Security of Blockchain

Numerous studies have raised concerns over the limited scalability of blockchain technologies and, in particular, Bitcoin. Layer 2 technologies have emerged as an advanced array of complementary innovations designed to solve this problem. Despite the growing optimism around layer 2 technologies, however, there is little evidence to show how they impact blockchain’s long-term success. This paper argues that the use and expansion of layer 2 technologies have a positive impact on the adoption and security levels of the underlying blockchain systems. Building on the Bitcoin and Lightning Network case, we use a time-series model based on 1,494 daily observations to demonstrate that the growing activity on the Lightning Network precipitates increased use and better security for Bitcoin. These results highlight the importance of layer 2 technologies for blockchain systems and suggest several further research avenues in this nascent domain of inquiry