Does Technostress Inhibit Employee Innovation? Examining the Linear and Curvilinear Influence of Technostress Creators

Despite the increasing quantum of research on technostress, three particularly noteworthy gaps remain. First, though prior studies have described “technostress creators” through the five dimensions techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and techno-uncertainty in an aggregated way, they have not adequately considered how these technostress creators individually influence job outcomes. Second, though past organizational research suggests a curvilinear relationship between job stress and job outcomes, research has yet to examine whether the stress-performance dynamics for the technostress context follows the organizational stress literature. Third, even though the literature emphasizes information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled innovation in firms, research has not explored what influence the technostress creators have on ICT-enabled innovation in-depth. Grounding our arguments in the control theory of occupational stress and conservation of resources (COR) theory, we first theorize the linear and curvilinear relationships for each of the five technostress creators with ICT-enabled employee innovation and then test the hypothesized relationships via conducting a survey on organizational employees who regularly used ICTs for professional tasks. The results offer a nuanced understanding about the nature of individual technostress creators and their relationships with ICT-enabled employee innovation. On the practical front, our research paves the way for more meaningful technostress-management strategies in organizations

Bridging Cultural Discontinuities in Global Virtual Teams: Role of Cultural Intelligence

Prior research on global virtual teams (GVTs) identifies ‘cultural discontinuity’ as a salient boundary that needs to be bridged for better performance. Grounding the study in organizational discontinuity theory (ODT), we propose cultural intelligence (CQ) as one of the modalities through which cultural discontinuities in GVTs could possibly be bridged. Situating the discussion, in transactional model of stress and coping (TMSC), we develop a CQ nomological network describing the inter-relationships and mechanisms through which different CQ dimensions influence GVT performance. Further, leveraging compensatory adaptation theory (CAT) we hypothesize the significant role of structural adaptation (role structure adaptation), in addition to behavioral adaptation (CQ behavior), in the proposed CQ framework for the GVT context. The theorized model is tested via data collected through a two-wave survey design comprising 128 GVT members in 32 teams. Study provides support to the extended CQ nomological network and makes several valuable theoretical and practical contributions

Watch Out-It’s My Private Space! Examining the Influence of Technology Driven Intrusions on Employee Performance

In this research we draw upon organizational literature on spatial intrusion to identify two components of technology related employee intrusion concerns -- employee accessibility and employee visibility. Situating our arguments in learning and control perspectives, we theorize the influence of employee ‘accessibility’ and ‘visibility’ on two technology enabled employee outcomes of productivity and innovation. We test the proposed research model through a survey of senior organizational managers who regularly use organizational technologies for executing their routine tasks. Results indicate that employee accessibility generally has positive while employee visibility has negative relationship with performance outcomes. Findings have significant implications for research and practice because they show that spatial intrusion does not necessarily have a negative influence on employee performance

Examining Utilitarian and Hedonic Factors and their Moderators for Virtual World Collaborations

Although experts sense a big future for virtual worlds (VWs) in the workplace scenario, their use in the business world is still in a nascent stage. A key challenge for organizations is to motivate users for utilizing VW for workplace related tasks. This research investigates the behavioral intention (BI) to use VW as a workplace ‘collaboration tool’. The model, grounded in literature on ‘motivations’ and ‘task success characteristics’, not only examines the direct effects of ‘utilitarian’ and ‘hedonic’ factors on VW usage intentions but also the moderating role of ‘familiarity’ and ‘control’. Results suggest a salient role of ‘utilitarian’ as compared to ‘hedonic’ factors and demonstrate the importance of considering the moderating effects of ‘familiarity’ and ‘control’ in determining the intention to use VW for collaborations. Implications for research and practice are also discussed

Does the Strategic Orientation of a Firm Guide its Degree of Offshoring?

Despite the growing importance of information technology (IT) enabled offshore sourcing, there is relatively little academic research to understand the phenomenon. In this study, conceptualizing offshore sourcing as a strategic decision, and using the path dependency theory, we present a strategic sourcing model. Next, using secondary data, we empirically test the proposed model to study the role of the ‘strategic orientation’, in explaining the degree of offshoring. Overall, the findings suggest that a firm’s offshore decision is in tandem with its broad strategic orientation. Further, knowledge and innovation strategy emerges as the key factor explaining the degree of offshoring. Our results indicate that in contrast to the popular belief, a low-cost strategy may not necessarily be associated with offshoring decision. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the results for research and practice

Information System Quality Judgment for Continued E-Government Use: Theorizing the Role of Positive and Negative Affect

Affect and emotions play an important role in how individuals form judgments. Yet, the literature on technological judgments has primarily relied on the cognitive belief perspective. By segregating emotions into positive and negative affect, we incorporate affect in addition to cognitions to understand what drives perceptions about IS quality and, specifically, e-government website quality. Grounding our discussion in the affect infusion model (AIM) and prospect theory, we examine the mechanisms through which positive and negative affect infuse into IS quality judgments. We also theorize that both positive and negative affect have a moderating role in the relationships between cognitions and IS quality perceptions. We tested the model via surveying e-government website users and found that affect had a significant direct role in how they judged IS quality. While negative affect significantly moderated the relationship between experienced usefulness and how individuals perceived the three IS quality measures (i.e., information quality, system quality, and service quality), positive affect did not moderate this relationship. Finally, we theorize about the differential role that affect has on how individuals perceive the three IS quality measures depending on their affect infusion potential. We conclude by discussing our study’s theoretical and practical implications

The Relationship between E-Government and National Competitiveness: The Moderating Influence of Environmental Factors

Using secondary data from 113 countries and the literature on Resource Based View [RBV] and Information Technology [IT] impact as the guiding theoretical lenses, we examine the relationships of e-government development and e-participation with national business competitiveness. E-government development represents the level of functional sophistication of e-government Web sites in a nation whereas e-participation is the level of country’s willingness to engage citizens in e-government processes. In addition, we analyze the moderating role of country environment on the relationships between e-government development and business competitiveness and also between e-participation and business competitiveness. Our results highlight strong association of e-government development as well as e-participation with national business competitiveness. Further, our results also show the moderating role of human capital, public institutions and macro-economic conditions on the relationship between e-government development and business competitiveness of a nation. Human capital and public institutions positively moderate this relationship whereas macro-economic environment marginally moderates the relationship in the negative direction. In contrast to this, the relationship between e-participation and business competitiveness is positively moderated only by national human capital. Further, we also analyze the combined relationship of e-government development and e-participation (e-government maturity) with national business competitiveness and observe that e-government maturity is also significantly related to national business competitiveness. Through this research, we make some important contributions that have implications for research and practice

Information Systems Development Outsourcing: The Role of Control Configurations

The Control Theory has provided a useful theoretical foundation for Information Systems development outsourcing (ISD-outsourcing) to examine the co-ordination between the client and the vendor. Recent research identified two control mechanisms: structural (structure of the control mode) and process (the process through which the control mode is enacted). Yet, the Control Theory research to-date does not describe the ways in which the two control mechanisms can be combined to ensure project success. Grounded in case study data of eight ISD-outsourcing projects, we derive three ‘control configurations’; i) aligned, ii) negotiated, and 3) self-managed, which describe the combinative patterns of structural and process control mechanisms within and across control modes

Performance Impacts of E-Government: An International Perspective

Though policy makers and governments are interested in understanding the impacts of e- Government on national performance, there are relatively few empirical studies that analyze this aspect. Using secondary data from 99 countries and the IT impact literature as the guiding theoretical perspective, we first examine the impact of e-Government on first order government efficiency parameters (resource allocation and internal operations efficiency) and subsequently the impact of these first order outcomes on the two second order dimensions of national performance (social welfare and business competitiveness). Our initial analysis reveals a significant relationship between e-government development and resource allocation efficiency and also between e-Government development and internal operations efficiency. For the second order model, we find that the relationship between internal operations efficiency and social welfare competitiveness is not significant. We conducted a post-hoc analysis which revealed that the relationship between internal operational efficiency and social welfare competitiveness is fully mediated through national business competitiveness. Hence, business competitiveness emerges as an important aspect for realizing the social welfare benefits of e-Government. Through this research, we make some important contributions and implications for researchers, practitioners and policy makers

Information Systems (IS) Discipline Identity: A Review and Framework

The recent debate about crisis in the Information Systems (IS) discipline is largely attributed to its having a fluid discipline identity. Myriad conceptualizations of IS discipline identity have resulted in a plethora of unstructured and disconnected recommendations for the survival and growth of the IS field. It is therefore essential to have a theoretical framework which explains: What is IS discipline identity? In this study, we address this void in the identity literature. By extending and borrowing from the concepts of organizational and self-identity, we propose a theoretical framework for discipline identity and explicate its dimensions with respect to the IS discipline. The three contextual questions of discipline identity about purpose, period, and place set the stage for an in-depth inquiry of the three constitutive questions (or dimensions): periphery, perspective, and process, to provide a holistic framework for conceptualizing IS discipline identity. Further, we conceptualize IS discipline identity process as consisting of four recursive and iterative sub-processes: copy, consolidate, differentiate, and demonstrate (CCDD). We posit that an iterative hermeneutic focus on these four sub-processes is vital for the health of the discipline and neglecting even one of them will lead to an imbalanced identity structure. Through this paper, we seek to stimulate and further the ongoing debate on the topic