An Evolutionary Information-Processing Theory of Knowledge Creation

Past Information Systems (IS) research on knowledge creation has not adequately accounted for the evolutionary nature of knowledge. Research limitations also exist in depicting the roles of information in the knowledge creation process. These two problems present difficulties for practitioners when attempting to successfully implement Information Technology (IT) to facilitate knowledge creation. Based on a problem-solving paradigm, this research analyzes knowledge creation from both the evolutionary and information-processing perspectives. The resultant theory outlines a process whereby tentative knowledge is generated from varied existing knowledge and applied to a problem, producing information to test the extent to which the problem can be solved. An iterative process continues until the tentative knowledge with the highest potential to solve the problem is found, yielding the information to best meet the goal. This process is further embedded in an organization-wide problem-solving hierarchy where new knowledge is developed via the integration of knowledge elements of sub-problems. By incorporating the evolutionary nature of knowledge, this research provides a deeper understanding of the knowledge creation process and the key determinants of its success. More importantly, by clearly specifying the roles of information in the process, it offers promise in the better design of IT to improve knowledge creation performance. We develop a framework based on this Evolutionary Information-Processing Theory to aid practitioners in IS design

Why People Continue to Use Social Networking Services: Developing a Comprehensive Model

Social networking (SNW) services such as Facebook and MySpace are growing exponentially. While many people are spending an increasing amount of their time on the services, others use them minimally or discontinue use after a short period of time. This research is asking the question: What are the salient factors influencing individuals to continue using and extending the range of SNW services after their initial acceptance? This research recognizes that long-term viability and the eventual success of these services depends on continued usage rather than initial acceptance, and usage continuance of SNW services at the individual level is fundamental to the survival of many social technology-empowered businesses and organizations. We look to the Expectation-Confirmation Model of information systems (IS) continuance and a series of social theories as the underlying theoretical foundations. We develop the Usage Continuance Model of SNW Services to investigate continued usage behavior and enduring impacts of SNW services. The model proposes that usage continuance behavior of SNW services is a joint function of individuals’ perceptions of (1) intrinsic flow experience of SNW services, expected instrumentality of SNW services in managing and improving informational and relational values, and social influence as the outgrowth of social capital, and (2) costs in informational risks and participative efforts of time and social exchanges. The joint function is moderated by individuals’ use history of SNW features. The proposed model and hypotheses offer a comprehensive framework for empirically extending the IS continuance research to the ever pervasive SNW context

Striking the Right Balance When Users are Good at IT Too!: Partnering for Enterprise System Success

Enterprise-level information system (IS) implementations are risky endeavors that require the active engagement of diverse parties from within the organization to meet the technical and functional requirements of the implementation, and mitigate possible resistance to the implemented system. Past research on IS implementation has traditionally pointed to the IT department as the sole source of technical competence, and confined the potential contribution of the user base to functional expertise. Furthermore, this line of research consistently identifies the IT department as the leaders of such projects, further confining the user base to sideline consulting roles during these initiatives. However, today’s business professionals increasingly possess IT competence and capability of contributing to the technical side of IS implementations. This study focuses on the balance of IT competence within the multi-functional enterprise-level IS implementation team, brought on by a more technically competent user base, and examines its impact on project success

A Three Level Model of SOA Maturity: Toward Achieving Sense and Respond

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has been proposed as both a technical and managerial solution in making firms more agile in addressing ever changing business needs. This conceptual paper identifies 3 levels of SOA implementation maturity: 1. Stability, 2. Flexibility, 3. Sense and Respond. A process and governance strategy on how to achieve each level is theorized and supported by case examples. The highest level conceptualized, Level 3, holds promise whereby SOA intelligence informates business activities and decisions. A case illustration concerning the use of a Customer Priority Index (CPI), derived from Level 3 SOA, outlines how a customer focused Sense and Respond capability might be achieved

Giving to Get Well: Patients’ Willingness to Manage and Share Health Information on AI-Driven Platforms

The digitalization of healthcare makes for the widespread availability of patient-provided data. Artificial Intelligence (AI) relies on this data. In this information-intensive environment, it is imperative to understand the contributing factors of an individual’s willingness to manage and share personal health information (PHI). Drawing from the health belief model, we identify the factors that motivate individuals to manage and share their PHI in an AI-driven health platform to obtain its intended benefits. We recognize security risks and present the use of a blockchain database as a representative means of securely managing and controlling an individual’s PHI. Data collected from a nationally representative sample of allergy sufferers indicate that the health belief model strongly predicts willingness to share PHI on a personalized AI-supported platform. Our study makes significant contributions by investigating the factors that motivate patients to use an AI-driven health platform to manage their health

Multimedia in Requirements Elicitation: When to Show, to Speak, to Animate, or to Simulate

Requirements elicitation is considered to be the most difficult and most critical phase in software development due to the abstract information that is communicated during this process. Cross-functional team members communicate requirements to ultimately reach shared understanding of the user’s needs. Given the increasing adoption of interactive simulation tools to facilitate the requirements elicitation process, we propose a study that investigates the impact of animations and simulations in combination with verbal information presented visually and auditorily on requirements elicitation performance through the lens of two theories from the education and learning domain: dual-coding theory and multimedia learning theory

Assimilation of Enterprise Systems: The Mediating Role of Information Integration of Information Impact

Firms have invested heavily in information systems that collectively form an enterprise’s system. While many senior executives believe their enterprises’ systems have been “deployed” successfully they also believe they fall short of their potential informational impact. This research bridges deployment-related and impact-related assimilation research by recognizing the important role information integration plays in achieving significant informational impact from enterprise systems. We define information integration as the extent to which enterprise systems have been integrated to enable delivery of the right information to the right person at the right time and information impact as the extent to which information is utilized to support and enable business strategies and activities. After investigating the relationship between information integration and information impact, we identify and test the antecedents to information integration including external pressure and information systems resources. This research, when completed, will provide an important extension to the assimilation and information research streams

IT-enabled Interorganizational Information Sharing Under Co-opetition in Disasters: A Game-Theoretic Framework

Increasing uncertainty in the business world requires organizations to establish temporary, IT-enabled interorganizational information exchanges on short notice. Information sharing among disaster relief organizations represents an extreme case of these ad hoc interorganizational information exchanges, and therefore provides a good reference point for analyzing firms’ strategic competitive and cooperative considerations (co-opetition). While ad hoc IT-enabled interorganizational information sharing is particularly crucial in facilitating efficient disaster response, little research has outlined the main barriers and benefits of participation in these ad hoc information relationships, with the existing literature often overlooking the competitive aspects. We demonstrate that the ad hoc humanitarian context of natural disasters provides additional insights to existing understandings of information sharing costs and benefits under co-opetition. An elaborated game-theoretic model is developed that provides a theoretical foundation for empirical and modeling research on IT-enabled interorganizational information sharing, under co-opetition in disaster relief, as well as in other business contexts

Running on Hybrid: Control Changes when Introducing an Agile Methodology in a Traditional “Waterfall” System Development Environment

Prior to implementing “Agile” software development methods, organizations rooted in traditional “Waterfall” software development employed heavy upfront project design and limited changes and feedback during and between project stages. Waterfall methods make heavy use of outcome controls primarily monitored by the information systems function (ISF). This paper explores the control mechanisms used by the ISF and business function (BF) during and after the introduction of a major Agile project at a large U.S. company steeped in the traditional Waterfall method. Outcome control, the predominant control mechanism used in the case company, gave way to a hybrid-like control that possessed mechanisms of emergent control while maintaining vestiges of some Waterfall-like outcome control. We observed that, prior to the introduction of Agile, the software-development process was firmly in the hands of the ISF. The introduction of Agile shifted some of the controller authority over the development process from the ISF to the BF. Lessons learned from the case study point to the complexity of designing control mechanisms during a transition from the Waterfall method to an Agile approach

Personal Information Breach as a Service Failure: Examining Relationships among Recovery Efforts, Justice, and Customer Responses

Information service users are required to provide personal information to service providers. Accordingly, Personal Information Breach (PIB) and side-effects have recently emerged. This study will seek answers to the following research questions: (1) In a PIB context, which types of PI are regarded as sensitive, and which recovery efforts are important?, (2) What effects do the company’s recovery efforts have on perceived justice, and how do these relationships vary according to the type of PIB?, and (3) What are the relationships between justice and customers’ responses? This study is significant since it views PIB as a type of service failure, and suggests a research model based on service failure/recovery processes and justice theory, and will empirically be tested. This study aims at strengthening its validity by employing a multi-method approach combining a survey and an experiment. Thus, the research findings will provide theoretical and practical contributions to information privacy areas