Authors:Kevin Bauer et al. Abstract: Machine learning (ML) models often endogenously shape the data available for future updates. This is important because of their role in influencing human decisions, which then generate new data points for training. For instance, if an ML prediction results in the rejection of a loan application, the bank forgoes the opportunity to record the applicant’s actual creditworthiness, thereby impacting the availability of this data point for future model updates and potentially affecting the model’s performance. This paper delves into the relationship between the continuous updating of ML models and algorithmic discrimination in environments where predictions endogenously influence the creation of new training data. Using comprehensive simulations based on secondary empirical data, we examine the dynamic evolution of an ML model’s fairness and economic consequences in a setting that mirrors sequential interactions, such as loan approval decisions. Our findings indicate that continuous updating can help mitigate algorithmic discrimination and enhance economic efficiency over time. Importantly, we provide evidence that human decision makers in the loop who possess the authority to override ML predictions may impede the self-correction of discriminatory models and even induce initially unbiased models to become discriminatory with time. These findings underscore the complex sociotechnological nature of algorithmic discrimination and highlight the role that humans play in addressing it when ML models undergo continuous updating. Our results have important practical implications, especially considering the impending regulations mandating human involvement in ML-supported decision-making processes. PubDate: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 23:43:59 PDT
Authors:Boyka Simeonova et al. Abstract: The information systems (IS) field has not consistently dealt with the importance of power in theory, research, or practice, because of epistemological and theoretical challenges for studying power in IS. In responding to these issues, we develop an accessible “power-sensitive” framework, using the episodic/systemic view of power and an activity theory (AT) view of organizational practices. We draw on two cases of IS work. Case 1 focuses on information technology (IT) organizations in Bulgaria, and Case 2 focuses on a global development sector nongovernmental organization (NGO) in Thailand. While much of the IS literature emphasizes cutting-edge innovations, this paper highlights mundane yet widespread IS applications such as email and spreadsheets. We elaborate on lessons learned from the cases and develop a power-sensitive framework to support IS researchers and practitioners seeking to acknowledge power in different IS contexts. The paper has two main aims and contributions: to illustrate how power can be articulated using the episodic/systemic view and AT by providing a more dynamic perspective that goes beyond traditional views of power as possessive, hierarchical, and static, and to deploy the cases strategically as part of a broader call for more consideration of power in IS research, illustrating the important insights such a focus can provide. We argue against simply ignoring power or considering it as a “nuisance” in IS research. Instead, we argue that power is endemic to IS work and an integral aspect of everyday IS practices. We characterize this view of power as “present-in-actions” in IS. PubDate: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 23:43:58 PDT
Authors:Paul M. Di Gangi et al. Abstract: Microlabor markets engage workers in temporary employment contracts to complete short-duration tasks for micropayments. Because microlabor platforms often preclude worker interaction, independent microtasking communities have emerged to allow workers to exchange ideas and interact to improve their work performance. Research has yet to take an in-depth look at how workers utilize microtasking communities to mitigate unpaid coordination costs to improve their financial productivity. The present study uses political skill as a theorizing lens to investigate how microtask workers utilize the capabilities of these communities that influence their ability to avoid financial marginalization. Using pseudo-ethnography and thematic analysis, we employed a sequential mixed methods design to identify how community capabilities and ideological beliefs influence worker performance. These insights then informed the design of an empirical study using survey data from 253 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers who use microtasking communities to test our research model. We found that politically skilled individuals use community capabilities, subsequently influencing their hourly wage. We also found that microtasking ideology weakens the effects of political skill on community capabilities and their influence on hourly wages. We discuss several contributions to the political skill and microtask literature. PubDate: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 23:43:57 PDT
Authors:Marc T.P. Adam et al. Abstract: Flow is a mental state in which a person is fully immersed and actively involved in a task, even during extrinsically motivated activities at work. IT-mediated interruptions can disrupt flow, with ramifications for workers’ well-being and work performance. In this design science research paper, we develop and evaluate design knowledge for neuroadaptive flow support systems. Building on foundations in flow theory, we conduct expert interviews and present a conceptual framework, three meta-requirements, and five design principles for flow support systems. We then implement the design principles in three prototypes and evaluate these prototypes in a lab experiment and a field study. With this paper on flow and IT-mediated interruptions in the work domain, we present an approach toward flow support systems that enable intelligent interruption management. PubDate: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 23:43:56 PDT
Authors:Yue (Katherine Feng et al. Abstract: Despite the proliferation of information technology applications worldwide, successful technology implementation in organizations remains a formidable challenge. Whether organizations can actualize the benefits of new technology depends critically on how end users evaluate and cope with it. Various intervention practices have been proven to be effective in facilitating user adaptation in the existing literature. However, research that systematically examines the impacts of intervention practices across implementation stages and usage contexts is still rare. Leveraging coping theory, we propose a 2×2 framework under the conditions of pre-/post-implementation stages and mandatory/voluntary usage contexts to investigate how various intervention practices adjust user appraisals of new technology via different coping mechanisms. We then extend the investigation into the downstream job outcomes and make comparisons of relevant relationships across usage contexts. Our empirical findings from two unique organizational settings, featured opposite degrees of usage voluntariness, support consistently significant effects of intervention practices, beliefs updating, and effects of usage behavior on job outcomes in both contexts while suggesting nuanced differences between the two contexts. Our research sheds light on how to manage technology implementations and help users cope with the change effectively in different contexts via various intervention practices in the technology implementation process. PubDate: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 23:43:56 PDT
Authors:Ghazwan Hassna et al. Abstract: Civic crowdfunding is a subgenre of crowdfunding wherein the crowd finances civic projects of value to communities. A unique aspect of civic crowdfunding is that projects regularly attract a mix of individuals and organizations, spanning the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. This diversity of stakeholders raises novel questions and challenges for platform operators and fundraisers. Here, we focus on such challenges as they relate to third-party endorsements. A lengthy literature has examined the signaling value of endorsements and prominent lead contributions, typically treating their sources as homogeneous. However, the varied backgrounds, motivations, and objectives of stakeholders in civic crowdfunding suggest that endorsers’ signaling value is likely to vary. We theorize how onlookers’ (potential backers’ or donors’) perception of lead organizational donors’ motivations and fit with the project’s objectives will influence the latter’s signaling value, hypothesizing differences across lead donor types (i.e., businesses, governments, nongovernmental organizations [NGOs]). Leveraging data on 303 projects from a leading civic crowdfunding platform, Spacehive, we show that lead donations are significantly more beneficial when supplied by NGOs rather than businesses or government entities. Further, based on perceptual measures reported by human coders about the more than 500 organizational lead donations in our sample, we confirm our theorized mechanisms, finding that lead donor involvement is more likely to be perceived as credible, and to lead to support for a project, when the lead’s involvement is believed to be a result of value motives (rather than strategic motives), and when the lead is a natural fit with the project (i.e., congruence). We discuss the implications of our work for both theory and practice. PubDate: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 23:43:55 PDT
Authors:Shihe Pan et al. Abstract: Because phishing attacks often exploit individuals’ inexperience in detecting them, it is important for managers to provide workers with proper feedback on their reactions to phishing scams. However, little is known about what types of feedback are more effective in facilitating antiphishing training behavior and performance. The objectives of this study are to identify (1) the determinants of decision avoidance and detection accuracy, (2) the contextual effect of type of feedback in antiphishing training, (3) the impacts of perceived detection efficacy on training outcomes, and (4) the interaction effects between feedback characteristics and perceived detection efficacy/phishing characteristics on training outcomes. Drawing upon goal-setting theory, skill acquisition theory, and antiphishing training literature, our model provides a theoretical account of how feedback characteristics (e.g., type, quantity), phishing characteristics (e.g., phishing cue saliency), and perceived detection efficacy affect antiphishing training outcomes (e.g., decision avoidance and detection accuracy). To empirically test the model, we performed four experiments with 652 subjects in the United States from three different online panels via Amazon Mechanical Turk, Esearch.com, and Clickworker.com. Our results indicate that example-based feedback is superior to abstract feedback in teaching how to correctly discern between phishing and legitimate emails in the context of link-embedded emails. We also show that perceived detection efficacy is essential for a better understanding of antiphishing training behavior and performance. Finally, we show an interaction effect between feedback quantity and phishing cue saliency on antiphishing training behavior and performance. PubDate: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 23:43:54 PDT
Authors:Dan Pienta et al. Abstract: When cybersecurity units conduct vulnerability assessments to evaluate the security of organizations, they can have unintended consequences for employees. Although cybersecurity personnel may view tactics such as fake phishing attacks and email scanning as protective measures, employees may view them as threats because being singled out as a security risk can harm their standing in the organization. To understand the implications of vulnerability assessments, we examine how organizations’ use of different tactics to identify user vulnerabilities can lead employees to feel betrayed by the cybersecurity unit, resulting in negative cybersecurity outcomes. Drawing on the theory of betrayal aversion, we develop a model that shows that when employees perceive these tactics as harmful, they can lead to an affective state of cybersecurity betrayal, resulting in a damaged relationship with the cybersecurity unit. In collaboration with an organization’s cybersecurity unit, we evaluated our model using an experimental vignette survey, post hoc interviews, and a cross-sectional survey with two samples (i.e., employees in the organization and employees from a panel). We found that when organizations conduct vulnerability assessments to enhance cybersecurity, they often induce an affective state of betrayal and increase employees’ active resistance to cybersecurity (i.e., abandonment, avoidance, and sabotage of cybersecurity policies, technologies, and units). The paper concludes with implications for research and practice that explain the unintended consequences of vulnerability assessment and betrayal. PubDate: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 23:43:53 PDT
Authors:Qiping Wang et al. Abstract: The rise of financial technology (fintech) has motivated practitioners and researchers to explore alternative data sources and enhanced credit scoring methods for better assessment of consumers’ credit risk. In this study, we examine whether deep-level diversity derived from consumers’ multimodal social media posts (i.e., alternative data) can enhance credit risk assessment or not. First, we propose novel lifestyle-based risk constructs (e.g., opinion risk) to capture consumers’ deep-level diversity. Second, we incorporate these lifestyle-based risk constructs into econometric models to empirically evaluate the relationship between consumers’ deep-level diversity and their credit risk. Using a credit scoring dataset provided by a fintech firm listed on Nasdaq, our econometric analysis reveals that consumers’ opinion risk constructs extracted from their multimodal social media posts are positively associated with their credit risk. Furthermore, our results show that the proposed opinion risk constructs can significantly improve the effectiveness of predicting consumers’ credit risk. Interestingly, our empirical results also show that combining the opinion risk constructs derived from images and text can significantly improve the effectiveness in credit risk prediction. This work contributes to the fintech domain by proposing novel lifestyle-based risk constructs for decision support in the credit scoring context. PubDate: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 23:43:51 PDT
Authors:Alexander Rieger et al. Abstract: Effective identity management is essential for secure organizational processes, but organizations often do not approach it strategically. To break this trajectory, organizational policymakers need to define a clear and sustainable identity management strategy. This paper presents an overview and guidelines to help shape such strategy. It analyzes the key characteristics and trade-offs of today’s identity management models. Moreover, it offers practical recommendations for organizational policymakers when choosing among these models. PubDate: Sun, 05 May 2024 14:10:27 PDT
Authors:Kambiz Saffarizadeh et al. Abstract: The use of conversational AI agents (CAs), such as Alexa and Siri, has steadily increased over the past several years. However, the functionality of these agents relies on the personal data obtained from their users. While evidence suggests that user disclosure can be increased through reciprocal self-disclosure (i.e., a process in which a CA discloses information about itself with the expectation that the user would reciprocate by disclosing similar information about themself), it is not clear whether and through which mechanism the process of reciprocal self-disclosure influences users’ post-interaction trust. We theorize that anthropomorphism (i.e., the extent to which a user attributes humanlike attributes to a nonhuman entity) serves as an inductive inference mechanism for understanding reciprocal self-disclosure, enabling users to build conceptually distinct cognitive and affective foundations upon which to form their post-interaction trust. We found strong support for our theory through two randomized experiments that used custom-developed text-based and voice-based CAs. Specifically, we found that reciprocal self-disclosure increases anthropomorphism and anthropomorphism increases cognition-based trustworthiness and affect-based trustworthiness. Our results show that reciprocal self-disclosure has an indirect effect on cognition-based trustworthiness and affect-based trustworthiness and is fully mediated by anthropomorphism. These findings conceptually bridge prior research on motivations of anthropomorphism and research on cognitive and affective bases of trust. PubDate: Sun, 05 May 2024 14:10:26 PDT
Authors:Owen Eriksson et al. Abstract: Digital institutionalization processes are fundamentally changing society. They occur when rules and norms are encoded into a digital infrastructure and change practices. For institutionalization to occur, numerous actors must alter their behavior similarly, which accompanies a shift in infrastructural technology. Digital infrastructures and their design play a crucial role in institutionalization processes, as they enable and restrict social interaction in the exchange of digital institutional entities across contexts. Such entities are constitutive of digital institutional systems—medical prescriptions, money, insurance, and taxes are all institutional entities that have been digitalized. Although several studies have described the challenges of digital infrastructure design, there has been little consideration of the institutional context that legitimizes the design. To fill this research gap, we applied the critical perspective of designers, who intentionally perform and are responsible for the design and legitimacy of digital institutional systems. To address the challenge of institutional design, we developed an exchange contract within an institutional context featuring a change in digital infrastructure and practices. Through this, we illuminate several design principles for digital institutionalization. This contribution captures critical design decisions and the knowledge acquired through insights gained from the design of a highly impactful scalable digital infrastructure, which ultimately transformed an institutional system. We also provide theoretical reflections informed by speech act theory and institutional theory and thereby emphasize the need to rethink institutionalization processes in an era of digitalization. PubDate: Sun, 05 May 2024 14:10:25 PDT
Authors:Martin Adam et al. Abstract: Information systems (IS) research has largely treated IS certifications (i.e., graphical cues that prove the endorsement of independent third parties) as universally effective at improving website visitors’ perceptions of trustworthiness. However, inconclusive findings on the effectiveness of IS certifications on websites have emerged, critically challenging their usefulness. We seek to reconcile these inconclusive findings by drawing on swift trust theory and the notion of humans as cognitive misers. Specifically, we investigate whether the effects of IS certifications are contingent on visitors’ expectations and the website’s baseline trustworthiness (i.e., the original website before adding and visitors’ processing of IS certifications). Through a multistudy investigation combining an online (N = 191) and a follow-up field experiment with up to €4 million in sales volume (N = 306), we reveal the contingent effects of IS certifications on the trustworthiness of websites: Below (but not above) a certain level of a website’s baseline trustworthiness (i.e., the trust tipping point), IS certifications significantly increase trustworthiness. We also show that IS certifications do not increase the likelihood of user registrations (i.e., trust-related behavior) when a website’s baseline trustworthiness surpasses this trustworthiness threshold. Overall, we provide an important new perspective that explains and resolves previous inconsistent findings on the (in)effectiveness of IS certifications for trustworthiness and subsequent trust-related behaviors. We equip practitioners with valuable and actionable guidance on the usefulness of IS certifications to strengthen their digital businesses. PubDate: Sun, 05 May 2024 14:10:24 PDT
Authors:Xianghua Lu et al. Abstract: Given the significant influence of online product reviews on consumer purchases, firms are trying to be more proactive in leveraging the influence of reviews. One way of doing this is to offer free product samples to consumers to incentivize product reviews, displaying them along with a disclosure in the existing pool of organic reviews in the hopes of stimulating sales. However, it is not clear whether such product sampling reviews are indeed beneficial to sales, considering that they may have a nontrivial influence on the generation of organic reviews. Based on data from a leading e-commerce platform in China, we found that sponsored product sampling reviews promoted product sales but also reduced the volume of organic reviews for the targeted product. However, the net effect on sales remained positive, suggesting that e-tailers may wish to utilize sponsored product sampling reviews. We also conducted a scenario-based experiment to reveal how the nature of product sampling reviews affects consumers’ brand quality and fairness perceptions. Based on our findings we offer future research directions to improve the understanding of how to better harness the power of sponsored reviews. PubDate: Sun, 05 May 2024 14:10:23 PDT
Authors:Shadi Shuraida et al. Abstract: Mobile device applications are the largest segment of IS with an estimated 5 billion users. Yet despite their widespread and growing use, there is little research examining how these mobile applications evolve with each new release update. To ensure market success, developers need to satisfy their user base by incorporating users’ reviews and feedback on the one hand and exploring new features and content that allow them to stay competitive on the other. Drawing on the organizational learning and innovation literature, the findings of the present study suggest that a mix of these two activities of exploitation and exploration in consequent app updates is likely to result in the app’s success. We further contribute to this body of work by examining the influence of users’ online review characteristics on exploitation and exploration activities in app development. The findings suggest that users’ convergence on similar issues (review concurrence) is likely to favor an orientation prioritizing exploitation over exploration activities, while the number of user reviews (review volume) has a curvilinear relationship with it. PubDate: Sun, 05 May 2024 14:10:22 PDT
Authors:Dimitrios Tsekouras et al. Abstract: Firms increasingly use consumer information to target and personalize communication with consumers. This paper focuses on explicit targeting, a practice where firms saliently (yet subtly) reveal the information used to target consumers in their advertisement text. How to craft ad messages to convey product benefits without triggering privacy concerns is a nontrivial task. Results from a field experiment reveal that consumers respond negatively to explicit targeting, yet such a negative effect can be partially alleviated by using hedonic instead of utilitarian information framing. In a controlled online experiment, we show that explicit targeting increases consumers’ privacy concerns relative to the perceived benefits of personalization, leading to less positive consumer responses. Interestingly, an extension of the online experiment suggests that providing consumers with a clear description of why they are targeted seems to offset the negative effects of explicit targeting. This study offers important academic implications for the personalization literature and valuable practical insights for firms and policymakers. PubDate: Sun, 05 May 2024 14:10:21 PDT
Authors:Ecem Basak et al. Abstract: Social ties play a prominent role in individuals’ political decision-making. They influence partisan defections, political participation, voting decisions, and political information acquisition. Much of the literature focuses on personal social networks or geographically close networks. Yet one’s social network might also include acquaintances or other connections in more distant places that are maintained via online networks. In this study, we exploit Facebook’s Social Connectedness Index, which reflects social connections across the United States, and we investigate the role of social connectedness in political decision-making among individuals who are located across distant geographical regions. Our results suggest that social connectedness between counties has a homogenizing effect on voting for the same presidential candidate, either Democratic or Republican. On the other hand, social connectedness is likely to have a differentiating effect on voting for an independent or a third-party candidate. Moreover, this effect is moderated by the socioeconomic characteristics of the counties, such as education, race, population density, household income, industry, and gender composition. PubDate: Sun, 05 May 2024 14:10:20 PDT
Authors:Friedrich Holotiuk et al. Abstract: Digital transformation alters companies’ core value-defining activities. Companies must establish new work practices and change the work environment to create new value propositions leveraging digital technologies. Specifically, to maximize their investments in digital transformation while remaining competitive, they must achieve ambidexterity, which is the capability to balance exploration and exploitation flexibly. More and more companies strive to achieve ambidexterity by establishing digital innovation labs (DILs), where employees explore the opportunities afforded through digital technologies and ensure their successful integration into the main organization. This study analyzes data collected from nine DILs, examining how companies utilize them to achieve organizational ambidexterity. Our analysis reveals a nuanced view on the conceptualization of ambidexterity and how it helps in digital transformation: (1) DILs contribute mainly by transferring employees temporarily from the main organization to the DIL and back. Recombining mechanisms of different theoretical forms of ambidexterity addresses typical issues and tensions stemming from leveraging digital technologies in innovation activities. (2) We find that implementing ambidexterity through organizational design features of DILs provides a successful basis for digital transformation by creating innovations that complement companies’ value propositions with digital technologies. PubDate: Sun, 05 May 2024 14:10:19 PDT
Authors:Shahla Ghobadi et al. Abstract: Social movement organizations (SMOs) have increasingly embraced digital activism, using social media and networking tools to advocate for a cause, to mobilize globally distributed consumers and pressure businesses to change their practices. Past research primarily focuses on how SMOs have used viral social media posts to prompt businesses to take immediate action on an issue. This article proposes a shift in the discourse to explore how SMOs’ digital activism can promote broader social change through collaborative agreements rather than merely demanding narrow concessions or compliance. We examine the online campaigns of a large international SMO and show how the campaigns influenced three global businesses to alter their environmental practices and industry standards. We find that the SMO used contrasting combinations of content positioning and social networking strategies to mobilize consumers, ultimately achieving collaboration agreements by influencing businesses’ risk perceptions and the potential strategic gains from collaboration with the SMO. The comparative analysis yields insights into how SMOs may vary their digital activism strategies depending on consumers’ loyalty to a business and its offerings, including its products and services. We develop a theoretical perspective that explains why and how consumer loyalty can shape SMOs’ selection of digital activism strategies and the process of achieving collaboration agreements. The findings also advance the literature on digital activism strategies by introducing the notion of ambivalent content positioning and emphasizing the significance of social networking for risk management and sustaining SMOs’ digital activism. PubDate: Sun, 05 May 2024 14:10:17 PDT
Open Access journal
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