Information Systems Journal最新文献

Technostress is an inevitable part of work life. This paper takes a step toward mastering it by focusing on positive stress that Information Systems (IS) creates for IS users, known as techno-eustress. Factors that create techno-eustress are known as techno-eustress creators, which we conceptualise as cognitions experienced by IS users, that IS positively challenges and motivates them to enhance their work. They are important to study because they represent foundational opportunities for professional achievement and growth emanating from IS use. Drawing from theories of psychological eustress, self-determination and proactive work, this paper theorises and validates an instrument to measure techno-eustress creators. We establish the construct's validity and examine its nomological relationships based on data collected from working professionals who used IT for their work. We draw on data from two qualitative studies (N = 35) and three quantitative surveys (N = 980) conducted at different points in time. We validate techno-eustress creators as a second-order reflective construct having four dimensions: techno-mastery, techno-autonomy, techno-enrichment and techno-relatedness. We examine its nomological relationships with factors that create techno-distress, IT strain, and user satisfaction. We contribute to the literature by theorising and validating four ways in which IS users are challenged and motivated by IS to enhance their work. We inform to managerial practice by drawing attention to how organisations can strengthen the different ways employees experience the creators of the ‘good’ stress that use of IS generates.

Although health information systems (HIS) play an important role in elevating health standards, a comprehensive understanding of how to effectively implement HIS in rural areas is lacking. This issue becomes more significant when considering that globally a majority of the approximately 1.5 million deaths of children under the age of five in 2019 that were attributable to vaccine-preventable diseases occurred in rural areas. Accordingly, we ask two questions. How does rurality influence the implementation of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) projects? How do organisations navigate challenges associated with rurality during the implementation of these projects? Our findings, derived from an in-depth case study of a social enterprise in rural India, reveal two paradoxes that pose challenges to the effective implementation of HIS in rural settings: the localisation paradox and the cultural embedding paradox. We found that contextually balanced engagement was comprised of four organisational responses—prioritising; localising; cultural adjustment; and engaging stakeholders—that help navigate the challenges posed by the localisation and cultural embedding paradoxes. Synthesising these findings, we develop a process model that shows how the implementation of HIS in rural areas is shaped by the descriptive and sociocultural characteristics of rurality. Further, organisations require a dynamic approach, engaging in multiple responses over time to navigate the paradoxes inherent in HIS implementation. We suggest that organisational responses to paradoxical tensions stemming from the descriptive and sociocultural characteristics of rurality lead to the development of HIS enabled for rurality. Our findings contribute the understanding of ICT4D projects implementation.

In this study, we examine the effects of bribery on the digitization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within Latin America. We apply neo-institutional theory as the overarching theoretical framework to establish that bribery negatively influences digitization. We propose that firm characteristics (i.e., managerial experience and firm size) affect the firm-level relationship between bribery and digitization. We also examine how the perceived tax burden mediates the effect of bribery on digitization. Our study is both theoretically and practically relevant. Theoretically, we are among the first to explicate the direct relationship between bribery and digitization. This novel perspective extends the information systems literature to explain digitization challenges in Latin America. For managers and policymakers, we present a path towards essential digitization for Latin American SMEs. Our empirical analysis uses secondary data from a World Bank survey of 1549 Latin American SMEs conducted over three years in six countries. Our findings show that bribery negatively influences digitization while SME characteristics positively moderate this relationship. In addition, we show that the perceived tax burden mediates the effects of bribery on digitization.

The growing adoption of smart meters enables the measurement of households' energy consumption, influenced not solely by building characteristics such as thermal insulation but also by residents' behavioural patterns, such as heating and ventilation practices. To motivate residents to adopt more sustainable behaviours, user interfaces on smartphones and laptops are increasingly using consumption data from households' smart meters to enable effective goal-setting. In contrast to previous research largely focusing on goal-setting in isolation, this study examines the role of specific social comparison-related design features that future research and practitioners can consider along with goal-setting to stimulate sustainable behaviours. Specifically, we look into the influence of residents' perception of their relative performance (i.e., whether their behaviour was better or worse than a reference group) on their ambition to act (i.e., targeted improvement goal) and their actual energy consumption behaviour. Moreover, we investigate the influence of a goal's evaluative standard (i.e., whether the goal refers to one's own or other's performance) on the relationship between relative performance, ambition to act, and energy consumption behaviour. Drawing on social comparison theory, we conducted a framed field experiment with 152 households. We find that a goal's evaluative standard influences residents' awareness of their relative performance, affecting their ambition to act and, ultimately, their energy consumption behaviour. More specifically, we find that whereas other- (vs. self-) referencing goals encourage residents from worse-than-average performing households more strongly to improve their energy consumption behaviour, they discourage better-than-average ones. Overall, our study provides novel insights into the interplay between relative performance and evaluative standards as a means of fostering social comparison in smart meter-facilitated goal-setting, highlighting their crucial role in effectively supporting sustainable behaviours.

This paper examines the question of doing information systems (IS) research from a location, particularly from a developing country like India. Our analysis reveals that IS publications from India are relatively few in number, though increasing in recent years; hardly focussed on context-specific issues and concerns; and are largely in lower-ranked journals. Using neo-institutional theory, we show that the reasons are dominantly coercive (measuring up to rankings and accreditation agencies) and mimetic (following leaders). Normative (influence of professional bodies) forces appear to counterbalance this by necessitating continuous improvement in research outputs and emphasising location-specific, impactful research. Institutional responses to these forces manifest in policies and mechanisms to operationalise them, such as resource availability, balancing teaching load with research expectations, promotion and tenure policies amongst others. We examine the paths by which more rigorous and relevant research, responsible to a location can be achieved, based on the insights from a series of talks given by eminent IS scholars. We opine that there is a need to consciously seek out such paths, perhaps by actively seeking collaboration with other disciplines and practitioners; establishing programmes of research; and building contextualised theories. We conclude with a relook at the underlying dynamics of the various institutional responses, recommended paths and some policy implications of our findings.

This study explores how digital platforms generate economic and non-economic value for a specific group of users: mumpreneurs. We collected qualitative data from 26 mumpreneurs in the United Kingdom who have caring responsibilities for young children and are running a business on the community-based platform Instagram. We found that through using Instagram and its algorithms, mumpreneurs can create various types of value in this context. Drawing on previous research into value creation, we make several contributions to the information systems literature. First, we unpack and explain alternative forms of value generated by digital platforms. Our findings show that through community-based platforms such as Instagram, mumpreneurs can create various types of economic and non-economic value—engagement, cognitive, economic, and self-preservation value—that is consistent with their business, social, and personal needs. Second, we propose a process model of value creation; and we identify two mechanisms that lead to value creation through Instagram's algorithms: recommended connectivity and adaptability. Third, we identify a temporal dimension of value creation through Instagram. This article contributes to the theory in the growing body of literature on value creation linked to digital platforms and explains several implications for theory and practice.

We report on a study of high performing IT professionals in a global IT services company, whose exceptional performance in a highly demanding work environment raises the question of how they cope with their occupational demands. While literature has focused primarily on technology-induced stressors and associated coping behaviours of IT users, our study examines distinctive coping behaviours of IT professionals in response to diverse occupational demands. We combine qualitative interviews and heart rate variability data from an exemplar sample of 15 high performing IT professionals to provide insights into their psychological and physiological strain levels respectively. Our participants exhibit four strain levels, each related to a distinctive combination of coping behaviours, which we abductively theorise as coping portfolios. We find that high performing IT professionals with both a low psychological and physiological strain level apply a broad and varied portfolio of coping behaviours in response to diverse occupational demands. We contribute to IS research on IT professionals by studying the coping behaviours of an exemplar sample of high performing IT professionals in a leading IT firm. Theoretically, we complement the established concepts of coping flexibility and coping repertoires by introducing the notion of coping portfolios.

Today's Information Systems (IS) design research projects pursue digital innovation to conquer complex societal challenges. Many of these projects reach out beyond disciplinary and organisational boundaries, as evident in interdisciplinary consortia and academia-industry collaboration. The design activities in each project differ based on contextual requirements and the team's underlying design logic. As diversity increases, shared understanding is essential for project success. Established design research methodologies need complementary tools to support design researchers in configuring their design activities and representing them faithfully, dimensions that contribute to a shared understanding. This article presents Baustein as an instance of such design tools. Baustein is tailorable to the contextual requirements of each design research project, comprising an ensemble of card-deck, ready-made configurations, and a manual. To ensure theoretical and practical relevance, the design of Baustein is based on primary empirical data (workshop and interviews with 16 IS design researchers) and a literature analysis of 99 published IS design research projects. We demonstrate its proof-of-value through three main evaluation episodes, altogether involving over 110 IS design researchers. With Baustein, design research teams can balance the trade-off between creative messiness and standardised configurations of design activities.