Using the Control Balance Theory to Explain Social Media Deviance

Online Social Media Deviance (OSMD) is one the rise; however, research in this area traditionally has lacked a strong theoretical foundation. Following calls to reveal the theoretical underpinnings of this complex phenomenon, our study examines the causes of OSMD from several novel angles not used in the literature before, including: (1) the influence of control imbalances (CIs) on deviant behavior, (2) the role of perceived accountability and deindividuation in engendering CI, (3) and the role of IT in influencing accountability and deindividuation. Using an innovative factorial survey method that enabled us to manipulate the IT artifacts for a nuanced view, we tested our model with 507 adults and found strong support for our model. The results should thus have a strong impetus not only on future SM research but also for social media (SM) designers who can use these ideas to further develop SM networks that are safe, supportive, responsible, and constructive

Unifying Conflicting Models of Trust and Distrust for Enhanced Understanding and Predictive Power in Organizational Relationships: Proposing the Unified Trust-Distrust Model

This paper proposes the Unified Trust-Distrust Model (UTDM) to reconcile the differences in the literature on the complex relationship between trust and distrust. Extant research on trust and distrust follows two main approaches that are built on contradictory assumptions: trust has been conceptualized as a different construct than distrust by some researchers, while others consider trust and distrust to represent opposite ends of a single continuum. UTDM expands upon both of these approaches while resolving their contradictions; thus, UTDM provides a novel view of the trust-distrust relationship that has the potential for more explanatory power than previous models. Further, UTDM introduces ambivalence to the trust-distrust literature as a possible consequence of contradictory trust and distrust attitudes, and as an antecedent of trusting intentions. Ambivalence was shown in previous research to attenuate the relationship between trusting beliefs and trusting intentions. UTDM further expands the trust-distrust literature by expanding the nomological network of distrust by proposing two new antecedents of distrust: suspicion and situational abnormality. The measurement of this model is then discussed along with future research possibilities that naturally result from this model

Sustaining Agriculture on the Moon

Mankind cannot go into space by itself. Plants and animals that are part of a sustainable biosphere will have to go with us. The key to developing a colony on the Moon, or anywhere else, will be the question of how it can feed itself. Tuber (Yam and Potato) agriculture on the Moon is not just a matter of finding water and building a greenhouse. First you have to create soil, then you have to go at least 10 meters underground to avoid cosmic rays, and still you need solar energy

Proposing the Multimotive Information Systems Continuance Model (MISC) to Better Explain End-User System Evaluations and Continuance Intentions

To ensure that users want to continue using a system, information system designers must consider the influence of users’ intrinsic motivations in addition to commonly studied extrinsic motivations. In an attempt to address this need, several studies have extended models of extrinsic motivation to include intrinsic variables. However, these studies largely downplay the role of users’ intrinsic motivations in predicting system use and how this role differs from that of extrinsic motivation. The role of met and unmet expectations related to system use is often excluded from extant models, and their function as cocreators in user evaluations has not been sufficiently explained. Even though expectations are a firmly established consequence of motivations and an antecedent of interaction evaluations, this area remains understudied. Our paper addresses these gaps by developing and testing a comprehensive model—the multimotive information systems continuance model (MISC)—that (1) explains more accurately and thoroughly the roles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, (2) explains how the fulfillment of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations affects systems-use outcome variables differently through met expectations, and (3) accounts for the effects of key design constructs

Towards A Cross-Cultural Model Of Online Whistle-Blowing Systems Use

Whistle-blowing has long been an important organizational phenomenon that improves organizations in the long-run. Online whistle-blowing systems are becoming increasingly prevalent channels for reporting organizational abuses. Given that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and similar financial laws throughout the world require multi-national firms to establish whistle-blowing procedures and systems, whistle-blowing research is even more important (Ernst & Young 2009). Existing whistle-blowing theory does not explicitly predict risk, trust, cross-cultural considerations, nor use of anonymous, online whistle-blowing systems. Yet, all of these are key considering in the whistle-blowing act and whistle-blowing in general. Furthermore, unless these systems are further understood, they may not be used, or they may not be used properly. This is a particular problem for multi-national financial firms that increasingly need to comply with whistle-blowing regulations. This research-in-process paper details our plans to create and extend baseline whistle-blowing theory, by uniquely considering anonymity, risk, trust, and cross-cultural considerations in using whistle-blowing systems. The model will be rigorously testing using working professionals in the USA, Middle East, and China. We propose our design and measures for testing the model

Improving language mapping in clinical fMRI through assessment of grammar.

IntroductionBrain surgery in the language dominant hemisphere remains challenging due to unintended post-surgical language deficits, despite using pre-surgical functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) and intraoperative cortical stimulation. Moreover, patients are often recommended not to undergo surgery if the accompanying risk to language appears to be too high. While standard fMRI language mapping protocols may have relatively good predictive value at the group level, they remain sub-optimal on an individual level. The standard tests used typically assess lexico-semantic aspects of language, and they do not accurately reflect the complexity of language either in comprehension or production at the sentence level. Among patients who had left hemisphere language dominance we assessed which tests are best at activating language areas in the brain.MethodWe compared grammar tests (items testing word order in actives and passives, wh-subject and object questions, relativized subject and object clauses and past tense marking) with standard tests (object naming, auditory and visual responsive naming), using pre-operative fMRI. Twenty-five surgical candidates (13 females) participated in this study. Sixteen patients presented with a brain tumor, and nine with epilepsy. All participants underwent two pre-operative fMRI protocols: one including CYCLE-N grammar tests (items testing word order in actives and passives, wh-subject and object questions, relativized subject and object clauses and past tense marking); and a second one with standard fMRI tests (object naming, auditory and visual responsive naming). fMRI activations during performance in both protocols were compared at the group level, as well as in individual candidates.ResultsThe grammar tests generated more volume of activation in the left hemisphere (left/right angular gyrus, right anterior/posterior superior temporal gyrus) and identified additional language regions not shown by the standard tests (e.g., left anterior/posterior supramarginal gyrus). The standard tests produced more activation in left BA 47. Ten participants had more robust activations in the left hemisphere in the grammar tests and two in the standard tests. The grammar tests also elicited substantial activations in the right hemisphere and thus turned out to be superior at identifying both right and left hemisphere contribution to language processing.ConclusionThe grammar tests may be an important addition to the standard pre-operative fMRI testing

Explaining the Engenderment and Role of Consumer Ambivalence in E-Commerce

Although trust and distrust are both crucial in online truster-trustee relationships, researchers disagree as to whether trust and distrust are distinct from each other. Given this debate, it is important to consider how distrust could be distinguished from trust. Accordingly, this paper extends the nomological network of distrust and introduces two novel antecedents never introduced in e-commerce literature: situational abnormalities and suspicion. We also propose that trust and distrust coexist in an online e-commerce relationship and can result in ambivalence when they both have high attitudinal values (represented in emotions, beliefs, or behaviours). Using a study of online consumer behaviour with 521 consumers, we largely validated our newly proposed model. We find that situational abnormalities and suspicion are separate, important novel antecedents to distrust. We also examine the effect of ambivalence on the truster’s intentions towards the website and find a small positive effect that increases the user’s intentions towards the website. Finally, we demonstrate the coexistence of trust and distrust as separate constructs, and highlight that distrust has a much larger impact on the truster’s intentions than trust. We conclude with implications to theory and practice, along with a discussion of the limitations and future opportunities

“Remind Me Later” in Mobile Security Notifications: What Factors Lead to Users’ Deferred Security Coping Behavior?

Smartphone users often find mobile security notifications (MSNs) to be annoying and intrusive. MSNs are security warnings displayed on mobile interfaces designed to protect mobile phone users from security attacks. Traditionally, users are forced to choose between “Yes” (“Accept”) or “No” (“Ignore” or “Deny”) decisions in response to MSNs. However, in practice, to make MSNs less intrusive, a new “Remind Me Later” button is often added to MSNs as a third option. Consequently, this “Remind Me Later” option causes new problems of deferred security coping behaviors. In other words, hesitant users do not take appropriate actions immediately when security threats take place. Grounding our theoretical basis on choice deferral and dual-task inference, we designed two experiments to understand the key factors affecting users’ deferred security coping decisions in a three-option MSN scenario (“Yes”, “No”, “Remind Me Later”), to determine which MSN message and design features facilitate immediate security coping

Online Payment Gateways Used to Facilitate E-Commerce Transactions and Improve Risk Management

As online transactions continue to increase and become a significant part of the global economy, the ability to accept payments online becomes more important for businesses. This paper evaluates the literature and provides current information for IS researchers and instructors focusing on electronic commerce. In this paper, we explore the components of e-credit providers (conventional, person-to-person, and third-party) and explain how each system processes a single transaction. We then analyze several market leaders in each segment and summarize the strengths and weaknesses of each company. We provide guidelines for selecting an e-credit provider and highlight the options that apply best to online businesses. Finally, we outline potential areas of future research and provide a simple tutorial on creating a business account with PayPal website Payments Standard as an example of an online payment provider

Enhancing electrochemical detection by scaling solid state nanogaps

The ability to quickly and inexpensively fabricate planar solid state nanogaps has enabled research to be effectively performed on devices down to just a few nanometers. Here, nanofabricated electrode pairs with electrode-to-electrode spacings of <4, 6 and 20 nm are utilized for monitoring an electroactive molecules, dopamine, in ionic solution. The results show a several order of magnitude enhancement of the electrochemical signal, collected current, for the solid state nanogaps with 6 nm electrode-electrode spacings as compared to traditional microelectrodes. The data from the <4 nm and 20 nm solid state nanogaps verify that this enhancement is due to cycling of the redox molecules in the confined geometry of the nanogap. In addition the data collected for the <4 nm nanogap emphasizes and reinforces that scaling does have limits and that as device sizes move to the few nanometer scale, the influence of a molecule's size and other physical properties becomes increasingly important and can eventually dominate the generated signals