PROVIDER- VS. USER-GENERATED RECOMMENDATIONS ON E-COMMERCE WEBSITES – COMPARING COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE AND RELATIONAL EFFECTS

With the proliferation of recommendation functions (RF) on e-Commerce websites, there is growing confusion about how various RF types affect consumers’ beliefs and behavior. Despite the importance of understanding the differential effects of RF types, research focusing on the comparison between provider-generated recommendations (PGRs) and user-generated recommendations (UGRs) has received little attention. This paper reports on two empirical studies that examine the differential effects of PGRs and UGRs on cognitive, affective and relational aspects of consumer beliefs and show how these perceptions influence RF usage intentions. The findings from a field survey (N=366) and a laboratory experiment (N=161) indicate that UGRs (such as consumer reviews) have stronger impact on users’ trusting beliefs and perceived affective quality (i.e. on relational and affective perceptions respectively) than PGRs. Conversely, PGRs (such as collaborative filtering-based RFs) are superior to UGRs in affecting perceived usefulness (i.e. cognitive perceptions). Further, trusting beliefs and perceived affective quality were found to be stronger predictors of usage intentions than perceived usefulness in UGR rather than PGR contexts. By showing which RF types influence different consumer perceptions, the study provides practitioners with clear guidelines on how to design sales efficient e-Commerce websites while enhancing online-consumers’ overall shopping experience

Countermeasures for Mobile IT Distractions: An Exploratory Study

As mobile information technologies and smartphones became an integral part of our lives, it is important to understand their negative effects and how they can be controlled. Given the substantial demands multitasking exerts on the cognitive and attentional capacity of individuals, mobile IT multitasking (e.g., performing an IT task with a small device concurrently with a motor task) entails major safety risks as individuals miss important cues and become unaware of their environments. The objective of this research in progress paper is to answer: a) what are the countermeasures that are designed to curb the safety risks associated with mobile IT multitasking? and b) why do organizations choose to adopt a specific portfolio of these countermeasures? Through the lens of deterrence theory in IS we conceptualize the mobile IT multitasking countermeasures, and using an exploratory qualitative approach, we attempt to theorize the factors impacting the adoption of these countermeasures

Precision is in the Eye of the Beholder: Application of Eye Fixation-Related Potentials to Information Systems Research

This paper introduces the eye-fixation related potential (EFRP) method to IS research. The EFRP method allows one to synchronize eye tracking with electroencephalographic (EEG) recording to precisely capture users’ neural activity at the exact time at which they start to cognitively process a stimulus (e.g., event on the screen). This complements and overcomes some of the shortcomings of the traditional event related potential (ERP) method, which can only stamp the time at which a stimulus is presented to a user. Thus, we propose a method conjecture of the superiority of EFRP over ERP for capturing the cognitive processing of a stimulus when such cognitive processing is not necessarily synchronized with the time at which the stimulus appears. We illustrate the EFRP method with an experiment in a natural IS use context in which we asked users to read an industry report while email pop-up notifications arrived on their screen. The results support our proposed hypotheses and show three distinct neural processes associated with 1) the attentional reaction to email pop-up notification, 2) the cognitive processing of the email pop-up notification, and 3) the motor planning activity involved in opening or not the email. Furthermore, further analyses of the data gathered in the experiment serve to validate our method conjecture about the superiority of the EFRP method over the ERP in natural IS use contexts. In addition to the experiment, our study discusses important IS research questions that could be pursued with the aid of EFRP, and describes a set of guidelines to help IS researchers use this method

Nonlinearities Between Attitude and Subjective Norms in Information Technology Acceptance: A Negative Synergy?

Empirical results both from information technology acceptance research as well as from other fields suggest that attitude and subjective norms may have a nonlinear relationship. Based on the economic theory of complementarities, the present paper hypothesizes a substitution relationship or negative synergy between attitude and subjective norms in organizational IT use contexts. Employing two methods for modeling and measuring nonlinear effects of latent constructs, as well as two approaches for visualizing and interpreting interaction and quadratic terms, structural equation modeling analysis of data collected from 258 users of a variety of IT applications in 14 organizations provides support for the hypothesis that attitude and subjective norms were substitutes in predicting intention to use

Conceptualizing IT Service Management as a Management Control System for Business-IT Alignment

The present paper advances a new conceptualization of IT Service Management (ITSM) as a Management Control System. The paper develops a conceptual model on the organizational impacts of ITSM. The model argues that reaching the organizational objectives of ITSM implementations, that is, increased IT function productivity, customer satisfaction and IT function responsiveness, requires the fit (conceptualized as profile deviation) of five ITSM controls which include: 1) values, 2) planning, 3) rewards and compensation, 4) cybernetic systems and 5) administrative controls. This paper helps unpack the black-box of ITSM by theorizing on the mechanisms that generate outcomes for organization

Combining social shaping of technology and communicative action theory for understanding rhetorical closure in IT

International audiencePurpose – Proposes the concept of rhetorical closure to address the phenomenon of pervasive IT “fashions”. Suggests that prevailing discourses surrounding IT are dominated by the rhetoric of closure and that such closure, although mutually constructed by suppliers, consultants and managers, has had several adverse consequences in terms of organizational change and results. Stimulates a critical thinking regarding the persistence of successive waves of new IT fashions and the consequences of closure on practice. Design/methodology/approach – Theoretical framework informed by political views within the social shaping school combined with Habermas’ theory of communicative action. Illustration of the argument is based on 22 semi-structured interviews (senior practitioners from client-firms, software suppliers and consulting-firms working on ERP projects). Findings – Outlines the nature of the “chain reaction” produced by rhetorical closure from individual practices to the segment level. Identifies occasions for breaking down rhetorical closure at the three levels of analysis. At the individual level, opportunities are related to daily users’ practices. At the organizational level, opportunities are related to ongoing organizational decisions and negotiations regarding IT adoption. At the segment level, opportunities are related to forming coalitions, networks and groups of users. Originality/value – Adopts an original perspective, examining the concept of rhetorical closure from a combination of two approaches: social shaping of technology and communicative action theory. Connects different types of closure to different types of rationality, and recognizes the specific validity claims underlying them. Calls into question current decision-making processes that sustain IT pervasiveness and taken-for-granted assumptions of inevitability associated with new IT fashions. Keywords Communication technologies, Cost benefit analysis, Cost effectiveness, General management<br/

Information system use-related activity : An expanded behavioral conceptualization of individual-level information system use

International audienceDespite calls for improving current approaches to conceptualizing and measuring the construct of information system use, theoretical advances in this regard are still insufficient. The present paper proposes to expand the focus of existing conceptualizations that exclusively focus on technology interaction behaviors via the construct of IS use-related activity. Based on task-technology fit and activity theory, IS use-related activity is conceptualized as a second-order aggregate construct that comprises both technology interaction behaviors, as well as activities users undertake to adapt the task-technology-individual system. A multiple-indicators and multiple-causes analysis of data collected from 190 users in 21 organizations is found to support the proposed conceptualization.<br/