Incumbent companies across industries such as banking, insurance, and enterprise software have begun transforming their existing product platform ecosystems into innovation platforms ecosystems to increase generativity in their ecosystems. Such ecosystem transformations not only entail technological challenges as the underlying platform technology changes but also organizational challenges in that ecosystem actors such as partners and customers need to become part of the transformed ecosystem. To study how incumbent companies can govern ecosystem transformations successfully, we interpret ecosystems as organizational fields and ecosystem transformations as changes to the fields’ institutional infrastructure. Based on a multiyear, grounded theory study of the transformation of SAP’s on-premises ERP system, we first identify institutionalization challenges that arise when institutional infrastructure is changed during an ecosystem transformation. We then show how field-level governance mechanisms address these challenges and how the new institutional infrastructure gains legitimacy among ecosystem actors, ultimately leading to the institutionalization of the transformed ecosystem. These findings contribute to the literature on ecosystem transformations and platform governance by highlighting the role that institutional forces play in ecosystem transformations. Furthermore, we add to the literature on institutional theory by providing insights into the dynamics of institutional infrastructure as it becomes infused with digital technologies.
{"title":"From Product Platform Ecosystem to Innovation Platform Ecosystem: An Institutional Perspective on the Governance of Ecosystem Transformations","authors":"Maximilian Schreieck, Manuel Wiesche, H. Krcmar","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00764","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00764","url":null,"abstract":"Incumbent companies across industries such as banking, insurance, and enterprise software have begun transforming their existing product platform ecosystems into innovation platforms ecosystems to increase generativity in their ecosystems. Such ecosystem transformations not only entail technological challenges as the underlying platform technology changes but also organizational challenges in that ecosystem actors such as partners and customers need to become part of the transformed ecosystem. To study how incumbent companies can govern ecosystem transformations successfully, we interpret ecosystems as organizational fields and ecosystem transformations as changes to the fields’ institutional infrastructure. Based on a multiyear, grounded theory study of the transformation of SAP’s on-premises ERP system, we first identify institutionalization challenges that arise when institutional infrastructure is changed during an ecosystem transformation. We then show how field-level governance mechanisms address these challenges and how the new institutional infrastructure gains legitimacy among ecosystem actors, ultimately leading to the institutionalization of the transformed ecosystem. These findings contribute to the literature on ecosystem transformations and platform governance by highlighting the role that institutional forces play in ecosystem transformations. Furthermore, we add to the literature on institutional theory by providing insights into the dynamics of institutional infrastructure as it becomes infused with digital technologies.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"11 1","pages":"9"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88681851","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}
Ali Tafti, P. Rahmati, Sunil Mithas, M. S. Krishnan
This study examines the important roles that human resources (HR) for information technology (IT) professionals and information systems (IS) practices for all workers in an organization play in shaping returns on firms’ IT investments. In particular, we consider how incentives, autonomy, and training for IT professionals can enable a firm to better leverage the value of its IT investments. We argue that well-trained, motivated, and empowered IT professionals can help firms make better strategic choices in allocating IT investments and implementing IT projects. We also demonstrate how this moderating relationship depends upon collaborative IS and autonomy-enhancing IS practices that affect other knowledge workers in the firm. We leverage archival data for 228 firms with 736 firm-year observations and document two key findings. We find (1) that empowering HR practices for IT professionals positively moderate the effect of IT investments on firm performance, and (2) that the alignment between empowering HR practices for IT professionals and firm-wide collaborative IS practices enhances the value that firms derive from IT investments. Our results suggest that the business value of IT investments is linked to the rewards and opportunities offered to IT professionals, who have a pivotal role in the effective deployment of IT in organizations.
{"title":"How Human Resource and Information Systems Practices Amplify the Returns on Information Technology Investments","authors":"Ali Tafti, P. Rahmati, Sunil Mithas, M. S. Krishnan","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00758","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00758","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the important roles that human resources (HR) for information technology (IT) professionals and information systems (IS) practices for all workers in an organization play in shaping returns on firms’ IT investments. In particular, we consider how incentives, autonomy, and training for IT professionals can enable a firm to better leverage the value of its IT investments. We argue that well-trained, motivated, and empowered IT professionals can help firms make better strategic choices in allocating IT investments and implementing IT projects. We also demonstrate how this moderating relationship depends upon collaborative IS and autonomy-enhancing IS practices that affect other knowledge workers in the firm. We leverage archival data for 228 firms with 736 firm-year observations and document two key findings. We find (1) that empowering HR practices for IT professionals positively moderate the effect of IT investments on firm performance, and (2) that the alignment between empowering HR practices for IT professionals and firm-wide collaborative IS practices enhances the value that firms derive from IT investments. Our results suggest that the business value of IT investments is linked to the rewards and opportunities offered to IT professionals, who have a pivotal role in the effective deployment of IT in organizations.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"22 10 1","pages":"6"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80267778","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}
H. Salmela, Abayomi Baiyere, Tommi J. Tapanainen, R. Galliers
It goes without saying that digital technologies have been forming an increasingly crucial component of companies’ value offerings in recent times. In many industries, this trend has led to converging markets, where traditional firms compete and collaborate with software firms and digital startups. One central competitive factor in these markets is the ability to capitalize on digital options faster than the competition. Prior research on agility in this context has advanced our knowledge on managerial and employee behaviors, as well as structures supporting such behaviors, to enable agility both in traditional and software firms. The challenge for firms in digitally converging markets is that agility now requires a combination of organizational and IS development agility—perceiving these concepts as separate entities is no longer appropriate or instructive. Building on prior work on agile behaviors and structures, and published cases on digital firms, we develop an integrative conception of digital agility in line with the realities of the digital era.
{"title":"Digital Agility: Conceptualizing Agility for the Digital Era","authors":"H. Salmela, Abayomi Baiyere, Tommi J. Tapanainen, R. Galliers","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00767","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00767","url":null,"abstract":"It goes without saying that digital technologies have been forming an increasingly crucial component of companies’ value offerings in recent times. In many industries, this trend has led to converging markets, where traditional firms compete and collaborate with software firms and digital startups. One central competitive factor in these markets is the ability to capitalize on digital options faster than the competition. Prior research on agility in this context has advanced our knowledge on managerial and employee behaviors, as well as structures supporting such behaviors, to enable agility both in traditional and software firms. The challenge for firms in digitally converging markets is that agility now requires a combination of organizational and IS development agility—perceiving these concepts as separate entities is no longer appropriate or instructive. Building on prior work on agile behaviors and structures, and published cases on digital firms, we develop an integrative conception of digital agility in line with the realities of the digital era.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"38 1","pages":"8"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79225307","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}
{"title":"How to Write an \"A\" Paper","authors":"Gerald C. Kane","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00765","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00765","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"1 1","pages":"9"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72893267","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}
Business continuity (BC) management is an organizational approach to preparing information systems (IS) for incidents, but such approaches are uncommon among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Past research has indicated a gap in approaches that are designed for SMEs since BC management approaches tend to originate from larger organizations and SMEs lack the resources to implement them. To fill this gap, and to respond to a practical need by an IT consultancy company, we employed design science research (DSR) to develop a BC approach for SMEs coined as the thrifty BC management approach. Jointly with the company’s practitioners, we developed a set of meta-requirements for BC approaches for SMEs anchored in prior BC literature, practitioners’ practical expertise, and the theories of collective mindfulness and sociotechnical systems. We evaluated our thrifty BC management approach with multiple SMEs. These evaluations suggest that the designed approach mostly meets the defined meta-requirements. Moreover, the evaluations offered ample opportunities for learning. The design process, unfolding in a real-world setting, was precarious, rife with contingencies and ad hoc decisions. To render the design process transparent, we adapted four writing conventions from the confessional research genre familiar to ethnographic research but novel to DSR. We offer a threefold contribution. First, we contribute to SMEs’ BC with meta-requirements and their instantiation in a new BC approach (artifact); second, we contribute with four practices of confessional writing for transparency of DSR research; and third, we contribute with reflections on our theoretical learning from throughout the design process.
{"title":"Designing a Thrifty Approach for SME Business Continuity: Practices for Transparency of the Design Process","authors":"Jonna Järveläinen, Marko Niemimaa, M. Zimmer","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00771","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00771","url":null,"abstract":"Business continuity (BC) management is an organizational approach to preparing information systems (IS) for incidents, but such approaches are uncommon among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Past research has indicated a gap in approaches that are designed for SMEs since BC management approaches tend to originate from larger organizations and SMEs lack the resources to implement them. To fill this gap, and to respond to a practical need by an IT consultancy company, we employed design science research (DSR) to develop a BC approach for SMEs coined as the thrifty BC management approach. Jointly with the company’s practitioners, we developed a set of meta-requirements for BC approaches for SMEs anchored in prior BC literature, practitioners’ practical expertise, and the theories of collective mindfulness and sociotechnical systems. We evaluated our thrifty BC management approach with multiple SMEs. These evaluations suggest that the designed approach mostly meets the defined meta-requirements. Moreover, the evaluations offered ample opportunities for learning. The design process, unfolding in a real-world setting, was precarious, rife with contingencies and ad hoc decisions. To render the design process transparent, we adapted four writing conventions from the confessional research genre familiar to ethnographic research but novel to DSR. We offer a threefold contribution. First, we contribute to SMEs’ BC with meta-requirements and their instantiation in a new BC approach (artifact); second, we contribute with four practices of confessional writing for transparency of DSR research; and third, we contribute with reflections on our theoretical learning from throughout the design process.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"68 1","pages":"3"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75713057","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}
V. Venkatesh, Qin Weng, Arun Rai, Likoebe M. Maruping
The use of multilevel analysis has steadily increased in information systems (IS) research. Many studies are doing an admirable job of integrating two-level models into their examination of IS phenomena. However, two-level models are limited in how well they enable researchers to (1) more explicitly incorporate context into theory development and testing and (2) bridge the existing gap between micro- and macrolevel research by focusing on intervening mechanisms that link hierarchically distal levels of analysis. Three-level models have emerged as a potential way to address these limitations. While the literature has clearly outlined the mechanics of how to estimate three-level models, there is very little, if any, guidance on when and how to integrate the use of such models with theory development. Consequently, IS researchers have little guidance to inform their decisions about integrating the use of three-level models with their theory development and testing. In this article, we identify the circumstances under which IS researchers should consider the use of three-level models, develop guidelines about how to map the use of three-level model estimation to the theoretical objectives, and provide an illustration of how to implement the guidelines.
{"title":"Guidelines for the Development of Three-Level Models: Bridging Levels of Analysis and Integrating Contextual Influences in IS Research","authors":"V. Venkatesh, Qin Weng, Arun Rai, Likoebe M. Maruping","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00778","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00778","url":null,"abstract":"The use of multilevel analysis has steadily increased in information systems (IS) research. Many studies are doing an admirable job of integrating two-level models into their examination of IS phenomena. However, two-level models are limited in how well they enable researchers to (1) more explicitly incorporate context into theory development and testing and (2) bridge the existing gap between micro- and macrolevel research by focusing on intervening mechanisms that link hierarchically distal levels of analysis. Three-level models have emerged as a potential way to address these limitations. While the literature has clearly outlined the mechanics of how to estimate three-level models, there is very little, if any, guidance on when and how to integrate the use of such models with theory development. Consequently, IS researchers have little guidance to inform their decisions about integrating the use of three-level models with their theory development and testing. In this article, we identify the circumstances under which IS researchers should consider the use of three-level models, develop guidelines about how to map the use of three-level model estimation to the theoretical objectives, and provide an illustration of how to implement the guidelines.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"118 1","pages":"7"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83691979","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}
With the ubiquity of the internet and social media platforms, open innovation (OI) opportunities now extend to individuals with creative ideas and interests in innovation. Understanding why individuals are willing to engage in open innovation and how their diverse goals affect their participation is important for assessing the viability of various OI models and to inform platform design. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model that examines the impact of three categories of human goals extrinsic, intrinsic, and internalized extrinsic on actors continuous intentions to participate in three general categories of open innovation behaviors: ideation, collaboration, and socialization. The model also considers how perceived platform participation affordances mediate the influence of goals on these innovation behaviors. We validate this goals-affordances-behavior model via a field survey of participants on a social product development (SPD) platform. By theorizing and empirically examining how goals influence participation in the SPD context, our study advances knowledge about open innovation behaviors, provides a foundation for future research across various OI models, and highlights practical insights for OI platform design.
{"title":"Inventing Together: The Role of Actor Goals and Platform Affordances in Open Innovation","authors":"K. Abhari, E. Davidson, B. Xiao","doi":"10.17705/1JAIS.00721","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1JAIS.00721","url":null,"abstract":"With the ubiquity of the internet and social media platforms, open innovation (OI) opportunities now extend to individuals with creative ideas and interests in innovation. Understanding why individuals are willing to engage in open innovation and how their diverse goals affect their participation is important for assessing the viability of various OI models and to inform platform design. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model that examines the impact of three categories of human goals extrinsic, intrinsic, and internalized extrinsic on actors continuous intentions to participate in three general categories of open innovation behaviors: ideation, collaboration, and socialization. The model also considers how perceived platform participation affordances mediate the influence of goals on these innovation behaviors. We validate this goals-affordances-behavior model via a field survey of participants on a social product development (SPD) platform. By theorizing and empirically examining how goals influence participation in the SPD context, our study advances knowledge about open innovation behaviors, provides a foundation for future research across various OI models, and highlights practical insights for OI platform design.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"42 1","pages":"4"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83222075","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}
Energy and carbon management systems (ECMS) are a class of green information systems that has the potential to increase environmental sustainability in organizations and across supply chains. Employing a design science research approach, we define the scope of ECMS in the supply chain context, identify requirements, design an expository instantiation, and develop an information systems design theory, including key constructs and design principles. We instantiate this theory in four supply chain contexts to validate and revise the proposed design in two rounds. We identify six system components data collection, energy monitoring, supply chain coordination, ECMS workflow engine, reporting, and carbon footprint estimator that integrate and coordinate four types of information flows (transactional, contextual, energy, and product environmental), and formulate design principles. Our evaluation indicates that the ECMS design theory, if instantiated, supports energy and carbon measurement and environmentally aware decision-making and practice in supply chains. We also highlight how considering energy information flows in combination with material features that afford environmentally aware decision-making and practice are key to qualifying information systems as green.
{"title":"A Design Theory for Energy and Carbon Management Systems in the Supply Chain","authors":"Eleni Zampou, I. Mourtos, K. Pramatari, S. Seidel","doi":"10.17705/1JAIS.00725","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1JAIS.00725","url":null,"abstract":"Energy and carbon management systems (ECMS) are a class of green information systems that has the potential to increase environmental sustainability in organizations and across supply chains. Employing a design science research approach, we define the scope of ECMS in the supply chain context, identify requirements, design an expository instantiation, and develop an information systems design theory, including key constructs and design principles. We instantiate this theory in four supply chain contexts to validate and revise the proposed design in two rounds. We identify six system components data collection, energy monitoring, supply chain coordination, ECMS workflow engine, reporting, and carbon footprint estimator that integrate and coordinate four types of information flows (transactional, contextual, energy, and product environmental), and formulate design principles. Our evaluation indicates that the ECMS design theory, if instantiated, supports energy and carbon measurement and environmentally aware decision-making and practice in supply chains. We also highlight how considering energy information flows in combination with material features that afford environmentally aware decision-making and practice are key to qualifying information systems as green.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"58 1","pages":"2"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85618453","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 turnover of IT professionals is a perpetual challenge for non-IT organizations. Based on self-categorization theory, this study proposes that IT employees’ turnover may be mitigated by fostering their identification with non-IT organizations, which can be done by meeting various facilitative conditions. Guided by intergroup contact theory, we identify IT employees’ perceived alignment between IT and the core business of an organization (business-IT alignment), the extent of boundary-spanning activities that IT employees engage in, and the closeness of the relationships between IT and non-IT employees as the drivers of their organizational identification. Using survey data collected from organizations in different industries, we obtained empirical evidence supporting the positive effects of the perceived business-IT alignment, the extent of boundary-spanning activities, and the relationship closeness between IT and non-IT employees on IT employees’ organizational identification. Additionally, there was a three-way interaction effect among the three drivers such that the relationship closeness between IT and non-IT employees reduced the positive effect of the extent of boundary-spanning activities on IT employees’ organizational identification when business-IT alignment was low. However, this negative moderating effect diminished when business-IT alignment increased. The findings of this research advance the literature and offer practical guidelines for non-IT organizations on how to enhance their IT employees’ organizational identification and how to mitigate their turnover intentions.
{"title":"Mitigating IT Professionals' Turnover in Non-IT Organizations: An Organizational Identification Perspective","authors":"Xinwei Wang, Xueping Yang, H. Ye","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00762","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00762","url":null,"abstract":"The turnover of IT professionals is a perpetual challenge for non-IT organizations. Based on self-categorization theory, this study proposes that IT employees’ turnover may be mitigated by fostering their identification with non-IT organizations, which can be done by meeting various facilitative conditions. Guided by intergroup contact theory, we identify IT employees’ perceived alignment between IT and the core business of an organization (business-IT alignment), the extent of boundary-spanning activities that IT employees engage in, and the closeness of the relationships between IT and non-IT employees as the drivers of their organizational identification. Using survey data collected from organizations in different industries, we obtained empirical evidence supporting the positive effects of the perceived business-IT alignment, the extent of boundary-spanning activities, and the relationship closeness between IT and non-IT employees on IT employees’ organizational identification. Additionally, there was a three-way interaction effect among the three drivers such that the relationship closeness between IT and non-IT employees reduced the positive effect of the extent of boundary-spanning activities on IT employees’ organizational identification when business-IT alignment was low. However, this negative moderating effect diminished when business-IT alignment increased. The findings of this research advance the literature and offer practical guidelines for non-IT organizations on how to enhance their IT employees’ organizational identification and how to mitigate their turnover intentions.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"48 1","pages":"2"},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82276159","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}
In July 2014, Airbnb, one of the biggest firms in the sharing economy, decided to change the way that guests and hosts reviewed each other on the platform. Prior to this change, guests/hosts could post reviews about their experiences asynchronously, the guest/host would be able to see the other partys review whenever it was posted. In contrast, the new review policy rolled out a simultaneous review system, making reviews viewable only after both the guest/host post their own reviews. This study empirically evaluates the impacts of this new review policy on the informativeness of guest reviews, measured by both informational content (semantic diversity and objectivity) and personal opinions (sentiment and sentiment heterogeneity). Using regression discontinuity design and a variety of techniques in the text analytics domain including a novel adaptation of BERT, we demonstrate that Airbnb review policy change enhanced the informational content of guest reviews in terms of semantic diversity and objectivity. We also show that review sentiment was reduced but became more diverse. Subgroup analysis revealed that low-quality listings were subject to more changes than high-quality listings. We further explore the short-term and long-term effects of the review policy change and demonstrate that the simultaneous review system has had a long-lasting impact on the informativeness of guest reviews.
{"title":"Examining the Impacts of Airbnb Review Policy Change on Listing Reviews From Other Worlds: Speculative Engagement Through Digital Geographies","authors":"Reza Mousavi, K. Zhao","doi":"10.17705/1jais.00720","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00720","url":null,"abstract":"In July 2014, Airbnb, one of the biggest firms in the sharing economy, decided to change the way that guests and hosts reviewed each other on the platform. Prior to this change, guests/hosts could post reviews about their experiences asynchronously, the guest/host would be able to see the other partys review whenever it was posted. In contrast, the new review policy rolled out a simultaneous review system, making reviews viewable only after both the guest/host post their own reviews. This study empirically evaluates the impacts of this new review policy on the informativeness of guest reviews, measured by both informational content (semantic diversity and objectivity) and personal opinions (sentiment and sentiment heterogeneity). Using regression discontinuity design and a variety of techniques in the text analytics domain including a novel adaptation of BERT, we demonstrate that Airbnb review policy change enhanced the informational content of guest reviews in terms of semantic diversity and objectivity. We also show that review sentiment was reduced but became more diverse. Subgroup analysis revealed that low-quality listings were subject to more changes than high-quality listings. We further explore the short-term and long-term effects of the review policy change and demonstrate that the simultaneous review system has had a long-lasting impact on the informativeness of guest reviews.","PeriodicalId":51101,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Association for Information Systems","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88445868","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}
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