Le Wang, Xin (Robert) Luo, Liangfei Qiu, Feng Xu, Xueying Cui
Literature has long assumed that unethical behaviors are fueled by competition. This study challenges this prevailing notion by introducing a conceptual distinction between rivalry and competition. We show that rivalry-induced deterrence triggers the formation of mutual forbearance in self-injecting favorable reviews. Mutual forbearance collapses when one party unilaterally engages in self-injecting behaviors, prompting the other party to retaliate by increasing their self-injecting activities. The presence of an additional rival leads to a 3.2% decrease in self-injecting intensity. Furthermore, self-injecting intensity increases by 0.095% for every 1% rise in that of the rivals and increases by 0.041% for a 1% rise in that of the nonrival competitors. Given the apparent role of rivalry in reducing self-injecting behaviors, platforms should strategically consider how system designs and policies can cultivate firms’ feelings of rivalry and avoid non-rival competition. We recommend platforms consider including evaluations from peer hotels as an alternative index for recommending hotels to potential consumers. Introducing peer evaluations to the current online review systems could attenuate the bias of consumer ratings and facilitate the formation of rivalry, which hinders self-injecting behaviors.
{"title":"Win by Hook or Crook? Self-Injecting Favorable Online Reviews to Fight Adjacent Rivals","authors":"Le Wang, Xin (Robert) Luo, Liangfei Qiu, Feng Xu, Xueying Cui","doi":"10.1287/isre.2023.0179","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.0179","url":null,"abstract":"Literature has long assumed that unethical behaviors are fueled by competition. This study challenges this prevailing notion by introducing a conceptual distinction between rivalry and competition. We show that rivalry-induced deterrence triggers the formation of mutual forbearance in self-injecting favorable reviews. Mutual forbearance collapses when one party unilaterally engages in self-injecting behaviors, prompting the other party to retaliate by increasing their self-injecting activities. The presence of an additional rival leads to a 3.2% decrease in self-injecting intensity. Furthermore, self-injecting intensity increases by 0.095% for every 1% rise in that of the rivals and increases by 0.041% for a 1% rise in that of the nonrival competitors. Given the apparent role of rivalry in reducing self-injecting behaviors, platforms should strategically consider how system designs and policies can cultivate firms’ feelings of rivalry and avoid non-rival competition. We recommend platforms consider including evaluations from peer hotels as an alternative index for recommending hotels to potential consumers. Introducing peer evaluations to the current online review systems could attenuate the bias of consumer ratings and facilitate the formation of rivalry, which hinders self-injecting behaviors.","PeriodicalId":48411,"journal":{"name":"Information Systems Research","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142261059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study explores the crucial yet underexamined labor supply side of the information technology (IT) job market, focusing on how IT professionals can strategically manage their knowledge diversity structures for career advancement. By introducing and operationalizing two novel metrics—knowledge omnificence and knowledge differentiation—the research examines their impact on IT workers’ salaries and job security. Through an extensive analysis of IT career data spanning from 2000 to 2016, the study reveals that moderate levels of knowledge omnificence and differentiation lead to the most favorable economic outcomes for IT professionals. Specifically, knowledge omnificence is associated with higher salary potential and career mobility, whereas knowledge differentiation is linked to enhanced job security. These findings provide actionable insights for IT workers aiming to optimize their career trajectories. Additionally, the study highlights the role of these knowledge structures in reducing gender disparities in the IT labor market, with women particularly benefiting from increased knowledge omnificence and differentiation. The research underscores the importance of strategic knowledge management for IT workers and offers valuable guidance for firms and policymakers to support a dynamic and equitable IT workforce.
本研究探讨了信息技术(IT)就业市场中至关重要但却未得到充分研究的劳动力供应方面,重点关注 IT 专业人员如何战略性地管理其知识多样性结构,以促进职业发展。通过引入和操作两个新的指标--知识全能性和知识差异化,研究探讨了这两个指标对信息技术工作者的薪酬和职业保障的影响。通过对 2000 年至 2016 年的 IT 职业数据进行广泛分析,研究揭示了中等水平的知识全面性和知识差异化会为 IT 专业人员带来最有利的经济成果。具体来说,知识全面性与更高的薪资潜力和职业流动性相关,而知识差异化则与更高的工作安全性相关。这些发现为旨在优化职业发展轨迹的 IT 从业人员提供了可操作的见解。此外,研究还强调了这些知识结构在缩小 IT 劳动力市场性别差异方面的作用,女性尤其能从知识的全面性和差异化中获益。这项研究强调了战略性知识管理对 IT 从业人员的重要性,并为企业和政策制定者提供了宝贵的指导,以支持建立一支充满活力、公平的 IT 员工队伍。
{"title":"Omnificence or Differentiation? An Empirical Study of Knowledge Structure and Career Development of IT Workers","authors":"Yingjie Zhang, Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng, Bin Gu","doi":"10.1287/isre.2022.0634","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.0634","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the crucial yet underexamined labor supply side of the information technology (IT) job market, focusing on how IT professionals can strategically manage their knowledge diversity structures for career advancement. By introducing and operationalizing two novel metrics—knowledge omnificence and knowledge differentiation—the research examines their impact on IT workers’ salaries and job security. Through an extensive analysis of IT career data spanning from 2000 to 2016, the study reveals that moderate levels of knowledge omnificence and differentiation lead to the most favorable economic outcomes for IT professionals. Specifically, knowledge omnificence is associated with higher salary potential and career mobility, whereas knowledge differentiation is linked to enhanced job security. These findings provide actionable insights for IT workers aiming to optimize their career trajectories. Additionally, the study highlights the role of these knowledge structures in reducing gender disparities in the IT labor market, with women particularly benefiting from increased knowledge omnificence and differentiation. The research underscores the importance of strategic knowledge management for IT workers and offers valuable guidance for firms and policymakers to support a dynamic and equitable IT workforce.","PeriodicalId":48411,"journal":{"name":"Information Systems Research","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142188709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Vitali Mindel, Aleksi Aaltonen, Arun Rai, Lars Mathiassen, Wael Jabr
Online peer-production systems create value by enabling people to participate in the production of a common good such as an open encyclopedia by building freely on each other’s work. Fixing quality problems in peer production in a timely manner is critical because millions of people rely on peer-produced content for learning and decision making. The longer low-quality content remains in place, the more it can harm the reputation of a peer-production system and diminish the capability of the system to maintain its contributor base. We study different mechanism affecting the timeliness of quality problem resolution in Wikipedia and find that the speedy resolution of quality problems depends on the successful integration of software robots (bots) and the careful calibration of policy citations to the different levels of experience among contributors. Most control mechanisms found in firm-based production do not apply to peer production, and instead, quality control in peer production must leverage the strengths of different contributors and harness the benefits of technological support and adaptive policy frameworks to improve productivity and achieve high-quality outcomes.
{"title":"Timely Quality Problem Resolution in Peer-Production Systems: The Impact of Bots, Policy Citations, and Contributor Experience","authors":"Vitali Mindel, Aleksi Aaltonen, Arun Rai, Lars Mathiassen, Wael Jabr","doi":"10.1287/isre.2020.0485","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2020.0485","url":null,"abstract":"Online peer-production systems create value by enabling people to participate in the production of a common good such as an open encyclopedia by building freely on each other’s work. Fixing quality problems in peer production in a timely manner is critical because millions of people rely on peer-produced content for learning and decision making. The longer low-quality content remains in place, the more it can harm the reputation of a peer-production system and diminish the capability of the system to maintain its contributor base. We study different mechanism affecting the timeliness of quality problem resolution in Wikipedia and find that the speedy resolution of quality problems depends on the successful integration of software robots (bots) and the careful calibration of policy citations to the different levels of experience among contributors. Most control mechanisms found in firm-based production do not apply to peer production, and instead, quality control in peer production must leverage the strengths of different contributors and harness the benefits of technological support and adaptive policy frameworks to improve productivity and achieve high-quality outcomes.","PeriodicalId":48411,"journal":{"name":"Information Systems Research","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142188708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ayushi Tandon, Swanand J. Deodhar, Abhas Tandon, Abhinav Tripathi
How can digital platforms and applications engage users? This question remains of foremost interest to managers of such digital settings. In this study, we offer an informational answer to this problem, showing that digital contexts that engage users through contests and competitions can leverage information signals about rivals to influence engagement. More precisely, we show that the effect of relative and absolute information about rival expertise has a distinct influence on the focal user’s engagement in a two-player online vocabulary game. Our findings offer several recommendations for the formulation and disclosure of rival expertise information. First, we suggest that information about rival expertise should have a dynamic salience based on the actual gameplay outcomes. Second, we recommend that platforms collect information about players’ motivational framing (competitive versus learning) and use it as input when disclosing rival expertise information, as we find significant heterogeneity based on their motivational framing in their responses to such information.
{"title":"Does David Make A Goliath? Impact of Rival’s Expertise Signals on Online User Engagement","authors":"Ayushi Tandon, Swanand J. Deodhar, Abhas Tandon, Abhinav Tripathi","doi":"10.1287/isre.2022.0282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.0282","url":null,"abstract":"How can digital platforms and applications engage users? This question remains of foremost interest to managers of such digital settings. In this study, we offer an informational answer to this problem, showing that digital contexts that engage users through contests and competitions can leverage information signals about rivals to influence engagement. More precisely, we show that the effect of relative and absolute information about rival expertise has a distinct influence on the focal user’s engagement in a two-player online vocabulary game. Our findings offer several recommendations for the formulation and disclosure of rival expertise information. First, we suggest that information about rival expertise should have a dynamic salience based on the actual gameplay outcomes. Second, we recommend that platforms collect information about players’ motivational framing (competitive versus learning) and use it as input when disclosing rival expertise information, as we find significant heterogeneity based on their motivational framing in their responses to such information.","PeriodicalId":48411,"journal":{"name":"Information Systems Research","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142188706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A bug bounty program (BBP) is an innovative crowdsourcing security solution increasingly adopted by organizations. We use a game-theoretical model to analyze how key characteristics impact BBPs and offer practical insights into managing a BBP as part of an organization’s vulnerability management for better cost-effectiveness. Our findings indicate that organizations with high patching complexity should announce lower bounties, especially if they face limited security resources. BBPs should complement, not substitute, an organization’s security characteristics. Evaluating patching complexity and security posture is crucial when designing a BBP. Furthermore, security researchers drive BBP performance. Higher productivity in researchers doesn’t always require higher bounties even with high postdiscovery costs. Novice productivity can increase total costs if unit postdiscovery costs are high, whereas expert productivity consistently reduces costs. Organizations should disclose high-level product and information technology (IT) features to increase expert productivity. The number of security researchers in a BBP is important, but increasing their numbers doesn’t always necessitate higher bounties. A larger crowd may not always be cost-effective. Lastly, enhanced legal protection for security researchers might not increase organizational risks, especially in organizations with robust security or less sophisticated IT infrastructure. Industrial associations and policymakers should consider these factors in standards and legal frameworks.
{"title":"How to Make My Bug Bounty Cost-Effective? A Game-Theoretical Model","authors":"Leting Zhang, Emre M. Demirezen, Subodha Kumar","doi":"10.1287/isre.2021.0349","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2021.0349","url":null,"abstract":"A bug bounty program (BBP) is an innovative crowdsourcing security solution increasingly adopted by organizations. We use a game-theoretical model to analyze how key characteristics impact BBPs and offer practical insights into managing a BBP as part of an organization’s vulnerability management for better cost-effectiveness. Our findings indicate that organizations with high patching complexity should announce lower bounties, especially if they face limited security resources. BBPs should complement, not substitute, an organization’s security characteristics. Evaluating patching complexity and security posture is crucial when designing a BBP. Furthermore, security researchers drive BBP performance. Higher productivity in researchers doesn’t always require higher bounties even with high postdiscovery costs. Novice productivity can increase total costs if unit postdiscovery costs are high, whereas expert productivity consistently reduces costs. Organizations should disclose high-level product and information technology (IT) features to increase expert productivity. The number of security researchers in a BBP is important, but increasing their numbers doesn’t always necessitate higher bounties. A larger crowd may not always be cost-effective. Lastly, enhanced legal protection for security researchers might not increase organizational risks, especially in organizations with robust security or less sophisticated IT infrastructure. Industrial associations and policymakers should consider these factors in standards and legal frameworks.","PeriodicalId":48411,"journal":{"name":"Information Systems Research","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142188707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mike Seymour, Lingyao (Ivy) Yuan, Kai Riemer, Alan R. Dennis
Practice- and policy-oriented abstract:Companies are increasingly deploying highly realistic digital human agents (DHAs) controlled by advanced AI for online customer service, tasks typically handled by chatbots. We conducted four experiments to assess users’ perceptions (trustworthiness, affinity, and willingness to work with) and behaviors while using DHAs, utilizing quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, direct observations, and neurophysiological measurements. Our studies involved four DHAs, including two commercial products (found to be immature) and two future-focused ones (where participants believed the AI-controlled DHAs were human-controlled). In the first study, comparing perceptions of a DHA, chatbot, and human agent from descriptions revealed few differences between the DHA and chatbot. The second study, involving actual use of a commercial DHA, showed participants found it uncanny, robotic, or difficult to converse with. The third and fourth studies used a “Wizard of Oz” design, with participants believing a human-controlled DHA was AI-driven. Results showed a preference for human agents via video conferencing, but no significant differences between DHAs and human agents when visual fidelity was controlled. Current DHAs, despite communication issues, trigger more affinity than chatbots. When DHAs match human communication abilities, they are perceived similarly to human agents for simple tasks. This research also suggests DHAs may alleviate algorithm aversion.
实践与政策导向摘要:越来越多的公司正在部署由高级人工智能控制的高度逼真的数字人类代理(DHA),用于在线客户服务,这些任务通常由聊天机器人处理。我们利用定量调查、定性访谈、直接观察和神经生理学测量方法进行了四项实验,以评估用户在使用 DHA 时的感知(可信度、亲和力和合作意愿)和行为。我们的研究涉及四种 DHA,包括两种商业产品(不成熟)和两种面向未来的产品(参与者认为人工智能控制的 DHA 由人类控制)。在第一项研究中,我们比较了参与者对 DHA、聊天机器人和人类代理的看法,结果发现 DHA 和聊天机器人之间几乎没有差别。第二项研究涉及商业 DHA 的实际使用,结果显示,参与者认为它很怪异、像机器人或难以交谈。第三项和第四项研究采用了 "绿野仙踪 "设计,让参与者相信由人类控制的 DHA 是人工智能驱动的。结果显示,通过视频会议,人们更喜欢人类代理,但在控制视觉保真度的情况下,DHA 与人类代理之间没有显著差异。尽管存在沟通问题,但当前的 DHA 比聊天机器人更能激发亲和力。当 DHA 与人类的交流能力相匹配时,在完成简单任务时,人们对它们的感知与人类代理相似。这项研究还表明,DHA 可以减轻算法厌恶。
{"title":"Less Artificial, More Intelligent: Understanding Affinity, Trustworthiness, and Preference for Digital Humans","authors":"Mike Seymour, Lingyao (Ivy) Yuan, Kai Riemer, Alan R. Dennis","doi":"10.1287/isre.2022.0203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.0203","url":null,"abstract":"Practice- and policy-oriented abstract:Companies are increasingly deploying highly realistic digital human agents (DHAs) controlled by advanced AI for online customer service, tasks typically handled by chatbots. We conducted four experiments to assess users’ perceptions (trustworthiness, affinity, and willingness to work with) and behaviors while using DHAs, utilizing quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, direct observations, and neurophysiological measurements. Our studies involved four DHAs, including two commercial products (found to be immature) and two future-focused ones (where participants believed the AI-controlled DHAs were human-controlled). In the first study, comparing perceptions of a DHA, chatbot, and human agent from descriptions revealed few differences between the DHA and chatbot. The second study, involving actual use of a commercial DHA, showed participants found it uncanny, robotic, or difficult to converse with. The third and fourth studies used a “Wizard of Oz” design, with participants believing a human-controlled DHA was AI-driven. Results showed a preference for human agents via video conferencing, but no significant differences between DHAs and human agents when visual fidelity was controlled. Current DHAs, despite communication issues, trigger more affinity than chatbots. When DHAs match human communication abilities, they are perceived similarly to human agents for simple tasks. This research also suggests DHAs may alleviate algorithm aversion.","PeriodicalId":48411,"journal":{"name":"Information Systems Research","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142188710","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pratice- and Policy-oriented AbstractVolunteer (human) moderators have been the essential workforce for content moderation to combat growing inappropriate online content. Because volunteer-based content moderation faces challenges in achieving scalable, desirable, and sustainable moderation, many online platforms have started to adopt algorithm-based content moderation tools (bots). However, it is unclear how volunteer moderators react to the bot adoption in terms of their community-policing and -nurturing efforts. Our research collected public moderation records by bots and volunteer moderators from Reddit. Our analysis suggests that bots can augment volunteer moderators. Augmentation results in volunteers shifting their efforts from simple policing work to a broader set of moderations, including policing over subjective rule violations and satisfying the increased needs for community-nurturing activities following the policing actions. This paper has implications for online platform managers looking to scale online activities and explains how volunteers can achieve more effective and sustainable content moderation with the assistance of bots.
{"title":"Platform Governance with Algorithm-Based Content Moderation: An Empirical Study on Reddit","authors":"Qinglai He, Yili Hong, T. S. Raghu","doi":"10.1287/isre.2021.0036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2021.0036","url":null,"abstract":"Pratice- and Policy-oriented AbstractVolunteer (human) moderators have been the essential workforce for content moderation to combat growing inappropriate online content. Because volunteer-based content moderation faces challenges in achieving scalable, desirable, and sustainable moderation, many online platforms have started to adopt algorithm-based content moderation tools (bots). However, it is unclear how volunteer moderators react to the bot adoption in terms of their community-policing and -nurturing efforts. Our research collected public moderation records by bots and volunteer moderators from Reddit. Our analysis suggests that bots can augment volunteer moderators. Augmentation results in volunteers shifting their efforts from simple policing work to a broader set of moderations, including policing over subjective rule violations and satisfying the increased needs for community-nurturing activities following the policing actions. This paper has implications for online platform managers looking to scale online activities and explains how volunteers can achieve more effective and sustainable content moderation with the assistance of bots.","PeriodicalId":48411,"journal":{"name":"Information Systems Research","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142188713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tao Lu, Lihong Zhang, Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang, Zhenling Zhao
This paper addresses the critical yet often overlooked concept of distribution uncertainty (ambiguity) in decision making, emphasizing its importance alongside traditional outcome uncertainty (risk). It introduces a novel quantitative measure of ambiguity that accurately captures distribution uncertainty. This measure enhances empirical models, yielding more reliable parameter estimates and improving decision-making processes. The study demonstrates the practical value of this ambiguity measure using financial market decision making as an example. The measure helps identify and adjust for uncertainties in underlying distributions, supporting more robust financial models and better risk management. The findings advocate for integrating ambiguity considerations into data analytics models and developing more reliable methodologies for empirical research and practical applications. This study promotes a nuanced understanding of uncertainty, offering significant implications for research methodologies and practical risk management across various fields.
{"title":"Beyond Risk: A Measure of Distribution Uncertainty","authors":"Tao Lu, Lihong Zhang, Xiaoquan (Michael) Zhang, Zhenling Zhao","doi":"10.1287/isre.2022.0089","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.0089","url":null,"abstract":"This paper addresses the critical yet often overlooked concept of distribution uncertainty (ambiguity) in decision making, emphasizing its importance alongside traditional outcome uncertainty (risk). It introduces a novel quantitative measure of ambiguity that accurately captures distribution uncertainty. This measure enhances empirical models, yielding more reliable parameter estimates and improving decision-making processes. The study demonstrates the practical value of this ambiguity measure using financial market decision making as an example. The measure helps identify and adjust for uncertainties in underlying distributions, supporting more robust financial models and better risk management. The findings advocate for integrating ambiguity considerations into data analytics models and developing more reliable methodologies for empirical research and practical applications. This study promotes a nuanced understanding of uncertainty, offering significant implications for research methodologies and practical risk management across various fields.","PeriodicalId":48411,"journal":{"name":"Information Systems Research","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142188744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The terms theory and theoretical contributions evoke mixed reactions in the information systems discipline, especially among empirical researchers in the economics of information systems (Econ-IS) area. Although some see such contributions as the raison d’etre for academic scholars engaged in research, others feel that the discipline has developed a fetish for theory, with reviewers and editors often demanding an unreasonable level of theoretical contributions for empirical manuscripts to succeed in the review process. Moreover, there exists a great deal of diversity in the conception of what constitutes a reasonable theoretical contribution, especially within empirical work, across editors and reviewers, leading to frustration with the review process and disappointment with editorial decisions. Given the different types of theoretical contributions that may be suitable for a given manuscript and recognizing the changing nature of empirical work within Econ-IS, we attempt to shed some light on theoretical contributions within empirical Econ-IS research, paying attention to their nature, types, and impact. Specifically, we start by reflecting on the typical theory-related comments we have seen in review packets that we generalize to a set of critiques often related to empirical papers. Subsequently, we provide a working definition of a theoretical contribution and the components that make up such a contribution. We then propose a taxonomy of theoretical contributions typically observed in Information Systems Research (ISR). Based on this taxonomy of contributions, the typical critiques observed in empirical Econ-IS papers, and a set of published papers, we provide some broad guidelines for how authors may craft an effective theoretical contribution for submission to ISR. We also discuss a pathway for manuscripts that do not (seek to) offer significant theoretical contributions. Such manuscripts are welcome, but we believe that a very high bar of practical impact must be met for them to succeed in the review process. Based on the guidelines and suggestions made here, our hope is that authors and evaluators will participate in the review process with a shared understanding of the elusive notion of theoretical contributions.
{"title":"On Crafting Effective Theoretical Contributions for Empirical Papers in Economics of Information Systems: Some Editorial Reflections","authors":"Anandasivam Gopal, Pei-yu Chen, Wonseok Oh, Sean Xin Xu, Suprateek Sarker","doi":"10.1287/isre.2024.editorial.v35.n3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2024.editorial.v35.n3","url":null,"abstract":"The terms theory and theoretical contributions evoke mixed reactions in the information systems discipline, especially among empirical researchers in the economics of information systems (Econ-IS) area. Although some see such contributions as the raison d’etre for academic scholars engaged in research, others feel that the discipline has developed a fetish for theory, with reviewers and editors often demanding an unreasonable level of theoretical contributions for empirical manuscripts to succeed in the review process. Moreover, there exists a great deal of diversity in the conception of what constitutes a reasonable theoretical contribution, especially within empirical work, across editors and reviewers, leading to frustration with the review process and disappointment with editorial decisions. Given the different types of theoretical contributions that may be suitable for a given manuscript and recognizing the changing nature of empirical work within Econ-IS, we attempt to shed some light on theoretical contributions within empirical Econ-IS research, paying attention to their nature, types, and impact. Specifically, we start by reflecting on the typical theory-related comments we have seen in review packets that we generalize to a set of critiques often related to empirical papers. Subsequently, we provide a working definition of a theoretical contribution and the components that make up such a contribution. We then propose a taxonomy of theoretical contributions typically observed in Information Systems Research (ISR). Based on this taxonomy of contributions, the typical critiques observed in empirical Econ-IS papers, and a set of published papers, we provide some broad guidelines for how authors may craft an effective theoretical contribution for submission to ISR. We also discuss a pathway for manuscripts that do not (seek to) offer significant theoretical contributions. Such manuscripts are welcome, but we believe that a very high bar of practical impact must be met for them to succeed in the review process. Based on the guidelines and suggestions made here, our hope is that authors and evaluators will participate in the review process with a shared understanding of the elusive notion of theoretical contributions.","PeriodicalId":48411,"journal":{"name":"Information Systems Research","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142188739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a transformative addition to real estate platforms, creating an interactive three-dimensional (3D) environment for consumers to explore property information, revolutionizing property presentation. Using a large-scale data set from a leading real estate platform, we demonstrate that VR serves as an efficiency enhancer rather than a market value influencer. Specifically, VR reduces a property’s selling time by 28%–49%, without influencing the selling price, challenging the conventional premise that VR may help increase selling price. Our further analysis highlights VR’s role as a provider of rich and credible information: our findings reveal that properties requiring greater effort to evaluate, those of higher quality, or where agent service is lacking, benefit most from the technique. Our work benefits property sellers by identifying which properties are more suitable for VR presentation and showing VR as a technological supplement when agent service is not satisfactory. Platforms can leverage the result to target sellers to apply VR, particularly when resources are limited. The acceleration effect of VR can benefit agents by allowing them to manage properties more efficiently and help platforms to build an efficient and sustainable market.
{"title":"Does Virtual Reality Help Property Sales? Empirical Evidence from a Real Estate Platform","authors":"Zhenbin Yan, Zixuan Meng, Yong Tan","doi":"10.1287/isre.2021.9138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2021.9138","url":null,"abstract":"Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a transformative addition to real estate platforms, creating an interactive three-dimensional (3D) environment for consumers to explore property information, revolutionizing property presentation. Using a large-scale data set from a leading real estate platform, we demonstrate that VR serves as an efficiency enhancer rather than a market value influencer. Specifically, VR reduces a property’s selling time by 28%–49%, without influencing the selling price, challenging the conventional premise that VR may help increase selling price. Our further analysis highlights VR’s role as a provider of rich and credible information: our findings reveal that properties requiring greater effort to evaluate, those of higher quality, or where agent service is lacking, benefit most from the technique. Our work benefits property sellers by identifying which properties are more suitable for VR presentation and showing VR as a technological supplement when agent service is not satisfactory. Platforms can leverage the result to target sellers to apply VR, particularly when resources are limited. The acceleration effect of VR can benefit agents by allowing them to manage properties more efficiently and help platforms to build an efficient and sustainable market.","PeriodicalId":48411,"journal":{"name":"Information Systems Research","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2024-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142188741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}