Information Systems Journal最新文献

The literature on formative modelling (“formative measurement”) in the information systems discipline claims that measurement model misspecification, where a reflective model is used instead of a more appropriate formative model, is widespread. In this research, we argue that this cannot be true because models misspecified in this way would fail the measurement validation procedures used with reflective models and thus would not be publishable. To support this argument, we present two extensive simulation studies. The simulation results show that in most cases where data originates from a formative model, estimating a reflective model would not produce results that satisfy the commonly used measurement validation guidelines. Based on these results, we conclude that widespread publication of models where the direction of measurement is misspecified is unlikely in IS and other disciplines that use similar measurement validation guidelines. Moreover, building on recent discussions on modelling endogenous formatively specified latent variables, we demonstrate that the effects of misspecification are minor in models that do pass the model quality check. Our results address important issues in the literature on the consequences of measurement model misspecification and provide a starting point for new advances in this area.

In contemporary society, the increased reliance on social media as a vital news source has facilitated the spread of disinformation that has potential polarising effects. Disinformation, false information deliberately crafted to deceive recipients, has escalated to the extent that it is now acknowledged as a significant cybersecurity concern. To proactively tackle this issue, and minimise the risk of negative outcomes associated with disinformation, this research presents a typology of disinformation intentionality and impact (DII) to understand the intentionality and impact of disinformation threats. The typology draws upon information manipulation theory and risk management principles to evaluate the potential impact of disinformation campaigns with respect to their virality and polarising impact. The intentionality of disinformation spread is related to its believability among susceptible consumers, who are likely to propagate the disinformation to others if they assess it to be believable. Based on the dimensions of intentionality and impact, the DII typology can be used to categorise disinformation threats and identify strategies to mitigate its risk. To illustrate its utility for evaluating the risk posted by disinformation campaigns, the DII typology is applied to a case study. We propose risk mitigation strategies as well as recommendations for addressing disinformation campaigns spread through social media platforms.

Blockchain technology offers the potential to create an open, decentralised governance structure that empowers stakeholders to participate in decentralised engagement. However, how blockchain platforms configure their design elements to establish and maintain decentralised systems with high levels of user governance engagement requires further research. This study investigates the key design elements of blockchain platforms and their ideal configurations for promoting user governance engagement. Due to the complex and interdependent nature of the design elements, we adopt a configurational perspective accompanied by a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to uncover complex nonlinear relationships among key conditions that are relevant to decentralised governance. Our research identifies five key design elements that facilitate distributed governance (Access to decision rights, Process visibility, Protocol automation, Incentives for developers/miners, and Incentives for other stakeholders) based on existing blockchain governance literature. We analyse 14 unique blockchain platform cases that adopted on-chain governance. Our fsQCA results reveal three ideal types of blockchain governance configurations that are sufficient for high generative user governance engagement: Centralised incentive model, Impartial incentive model, and Automation-driven model, whereas achieving high evaluative governance engagement requires the presence of all the design elements (Comprehensive model). Also, we found Access to decision rights and Protocol automation are necessary conditions for generative governance engagement, and Access to decision rights together with Process visibility is a combined necessary condition for evaluative governance engagement. Relevant theoretical and practical implications for platform designers as well as methodological implications for applying QCA to emerging IS phenomena are discussed.

Digital platforms are increasingly dominating markets by bringing together two or more groups of users and facilitating the exchange of value between them. Although several significant issues concerning the dynamics of digital platforms have been addressed, much of the research effort has focused on the platform owner. On the other hand, research on complementors neither takes into account the individual level nor clearly shows what an individual complementor can do to benefit from platform participation. By studying the evolving relationship between YouTube and its ecosystem of complementors (content creators), we shed light on the strategies that complementors use to progressively avoid but still benefit from platform governance. We find that content creators are, first, in a mutual relationship with the YouTube platform, benefiting from direct monetization. Then, they shift to commensalism as the relationship evolves, allowing them to avoid YouTube's governance and take advantage of multi-homing. Our findings illuminate the effects of platform governance, particularly how it shapes the actions of complementors.

Interactive decision aids (IDAs) on websites often require users to disclose relevant information (e.g., preferences, contact information) to help users in making decisions (e.g., product choice). With technological advances in IDAs, websites increasingly switch from static, non-conversational IDAs (e.g., web forms) to conversational ones (e.g., chatbots) to boost user information disclosure that nurtures the websites' economic viability. While this novel form of IDAs is already widely employed in practice, information systems research has yet to examine the defining dialogue design features of conversational IDAs and their effects on eliciting user information. Drawing on persuasion theory and particularly on consistency and reciprocity as influence techniques, we develop a research model around two crucial dialogue design features of conversational IDAs. Specifically, we investigate the distinct and joint effects of conversational style (i.e., absence vs. presence of a conversational presentation of requests) and reciprocation triggers (i.e., absence vs. presence of reciprocity-inducing information) on user information disclosure (i.e., email addresses). By combining the complementary properties of a randomised field experiment (N = 386) and a follow-up online experiment (N = 182), we empirically provide evidence in support of the distinct and joint effects of conversational style and reciprocation triggers of IDAs on user information disclosure. Moreover, we demonstrate that these dialogue design features have indirect effects on information disclosure via perceptions of social presence and privacy concerns. Thus, our paper provides theoretical and practical insights into whether, how, and why critical IDA dialogue design features can better elicit user information for website services.

Organisational information security (ISec) protection is undergoing a turbulent shift in the workplace environment. In an environment of ever-increasing risks of insider threats and external cyberattacks, individual employees are often expected to take the initiative to solve organisational security problems. This study therefore focuses on employees' proactive information security behaviours (ISBs)—behaviours that are self-initiated, change-oriented, and future-focused—and the motivations that compel employees to protect organisational assets. We ground our study in Parker et al. (2010) proactive motivation theory (ProMT) and develop an integrated multilevel model to examine the respective effects of proactive motivational states, that is, can-do, reason-to, and energised-to motivations, on employees' proactive ISBs. We also explore the roles of individual differences and contextual factors—namely, proactive personality and supervisory ISec support—and their influences on proactive motivational states. Data were collected from 210 employees situated in 55 departments distributed among multiple organisations located in China. The results show that supervisory ISec support positively influences employees' proactive motivational states and thereby boosts employees' proactive ISBs. Proactive personality negatively moderates the effect of supervisory ISec support on flexible security role orientation (reason-to motivation). By identifying the antecedents of employees' proactive ISBs, we make key theoretical contributions to ISec research and valuable practical contributions to organisational ISec management.

It is well known that corporations rely on open source software as part of their product development lifecycle. Given these commitments, understanding the health of open source communities is a central concern in today's business setting. Our research uses social comparison theory as a framework for understanding how open source communities consider community health beyond any single metric within any single open source community—including a broader view of how others are using these health indicators in practice. Using methods from engaged field research, including 38 interviews, we examine practices of social comparison as an advancement in understanding open source community health—and subsequently engagement with open source communities. The results of this study show that open source community health is not a single set of discrete metrics but is an ongoing social construction. Through our study, we advance theoretical and applied knowledge regarding issues of open source community health, open source community engagement, and social comparison.

Prosocial punishments by social media bystanders could block the path from misinformation spread to social media-induced polarization (SMIP). However, prosocial punishments are inadequate for SMIP management because of the personal costs, and few studies propose effective ways to mobilize bystanders. The Chinese government implemented a regulation in 2017 to mobilize bystanders on social media through allocating accountability to act as misinformation supervisors. In China's guanxi culture, prosocial punishments are less observed considering the additional personal costs caused by breaking guanxi. Therefore, assessing the effectiveness of China's cyberspace accountability mobilization can help identify an effective tool for other governments to mitigate SMIP. We used a vignette survey experiment to collect data from WeChat users and applied a random regression model to analyse the data. Accountability mobilization significantly promotes bystanders' prosocial punishment to block the misinformation-spread-to-SMIP path. Guanxi negatively moderates the relationship between accountability mobilization and prosocial punishment to the above path. The government could encourage the public to actively take prosocial punishments by using the new tool of accountability mobilization. Guanxi culture reduces the effectiveness of the tool.