Information & Management最新文献

This study examines different types of interactions in online communities for e-commerce sellers. Drawing on social exchange theory and using machine learning techniques to differentiate individuals’ interactions in the online community, we examine the impact of exchanging two major types of resources—tangible assistance and knowledge—on e-commerce sellers’ online sales. The findings demonstrate that online sellers engaging in more interactions that involve receiving tangible assistance or knowledge tend to realize better online sales performance, while interactions involving providing tangible assistance or knowledge also may benefit sellers’ sales performance through increasing the receipt of resources. In addition, sellers more active in receiving knowledge tend to have higher sales in markets in which they face greater competition intensity. Our study contributes to both research and practice with a more nuanced understanding of interactions in online communities—that is, providing and receiving different types of resources—and their associated sales outcomes.

The adoption of ICTs for facilitating interactions can create barriers for those who identify as outsiders in technology-mediated groups. We use an experiment to investigate how outsiders pursue social integration strategies, including group assimilation and resistance, to empower themselves in short-term technology-mediated groups. We find the effectiveness of detached group members depends on the social integration strategies they employ and the social presence offered by the communication technologies they use. Our findings demonstrate that group members who are already feeling detached from others can become even more detached — indeed marginalized — when their group shifts to technology-mediated communications. They can improve their personal effectiveness by altering their social integration strategies and the technology being used to facilitate communication. This study has important theoretical and practical implications for outsiders’ social inclusion and effectiveness in short-term technology-mediated groups.

This study examines the financial and environmental effects of carbon management systems (CMSs) used in publicly traded companies worldwide. Market reactions to companies that announce the adoption of a CMS are analyzed, as are changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for CMS adopters. A method for conducting international event studies is introduced, and a Monte Carlo simulation indicates that such a method may be necessary to avoid bias. Empirical results suggest that CMS adoption announcements might not generate positive abnormal returns across a variety of specifications. In contrast, estimation results suggest that adoption of a CMS may mitigate increases in GHG emissions.

With the steady increase in connectivity and the development of new dynamic, interconnected, and distributed technologies, management teams are seeing opportunities to digitally transform organizational processes. Following a case of Internet of Things (IoT) implementation, the aim of this paper is to explore the transformational potential of IoT and the mechanisms and processes that support or constrain IoT-enabled digital transformation in practice. Through a qualitative case study of an IoT implementation project over a period of two years, we show that IoT can create an opportunity for digital transformation by fundamentally changing organizational and individual perception of work identity and work practices. Furthermore, we show that successful IoT adoption requires proactive leadership that identifies and accounts for both technological capabilities and different stakeholder perspectives. To make use of IoT's capabilities and simultaneously mitigate the risk of privacy infringements one must leverage the role of the observer and the observed.

Configurational dispersion describes the distribution of team members across sites. Two of its dimensions include how unevenly members are distributed—i.e., configurational imbalance—and the extent to which members work in isolation from other team members—i.e., configurational isolation. We examine the combined influence of configurational dispersion, information and communication technologies (ICTs) use, and leader coaching on team performance mediated by interpersonal process asymmetry. The model is tested via a year-long field study of 88 teams and their leaders with members dispersed across China, India, and the United States. Results show that leaders should minimize their coaching when configurationally isolated teams use synchronous ICTs and when configurationally imbalanced teams use asynchronous ICTs.

The execution of augmented reality (AR) has become a new method for companies to create a favorable shopping experience. This study investigates consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) in the mobile AR context, especially regarding high- vs. low-innovativeness consumers. We identify three key attributes to signify AR's embedding and embodiment experience—perceived augmentation, simulated physical control, and response time—and confirm their positive influences on overall brand equity through cognitive, affective, and sensory brand association dimensions. The findings also demonstrate that consumer innovativeness moderates the influences of these AR attributes on brand associations. The study provides valuable implications for researchers and managers.

This study investigates the impact of cryptocurrency rewards and token prices on user-generated content (UGC) provision by content creators on a blockchain-based platform. Analyzing data from the Steemit platform, we find that although an increase in total reward value incentivizes UGC contributions, the rise in token prices alone does not lead to a surge in UGC. Instead, token prices have a mediating role in the relationship between total rewards earned by content creators and the volume of UGC they produce. Furthermore, we observe that an increase in UGC does not lead to a corresponding rise in the platform's market capitalization, as increased website traffic intensifies competition for rewards from a constant pool, suggesting that heightened user engagement does not translate to enhanced market capitalization. These findings imply that carefully designed reward mechanisms are crucial for sustaining user engagement and content creation amidst market fluctuations. Our study underscores the importance of a comprehensive approach to incentivizing user participation and ensuring platform growth, as a mere increase in token prices may not guarantee sustained engagement or an associated increase in market capitalization.

Extensive efforts have been made by both academics and practitioners to understand the inter-firm competitive relationship owing to its profound impacts on multiple key business goals, e.g., company benchmarking, marketing strategy planning, and talent acquisition. However, it has never been an easy task to fully characterize firms and assess the competitive relationship among them, mainly due to the challenge of information heterogeneity. In this regard, we propose a novel IT artifact for firm profiling and inter-firm competition assessment guided by Information System Design Theory (ISDT). We start by constructing a Heterogeneous Occupation Network (HON) using employees’ occupation details and educational attainments. Then we adopt a Metapath2vec-based heterogeneous network embedding model to learn firms latent profiles (embeddings). Using the firm features and embeddings as input, we train multiple supervised classifiers to assess the competitive relationship among the firms. Following the principles of design as a search process, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our IT artifact through extensive experimental studies and detailed discussions. Our research has also discovered that the occupation and education specifics of employees are key factors in identifying potential competitors of a focal firm.

The professional social networks of physicians are an essential source of health-related user-generated content and online social capital. Yet limited research has examined how social networks of physicians emerge at the level of relationships between physicians. To help fill this gap, this study investigates the formation of followship between physicians (i.e., when one physician follows another) from the perspectives of network structures, actor attributes, and external contextual factors. Using exponential random graph models and strategic network formation models, this study analyzes the effects of reciprocity and transitive closure, physicians’ social media and online healthcare community (OHC) engagement, and physicians’ interaction networks. The results reveal that physicians’ professional social networks have a reciprocated and open structure. Physicians’ social media connectivity and content, online service performance, professional capital, and social identity homophily facilitate the formation of professional social networks. In addition, the interaction networks have an entrainment effect on professional social networks. This study reveals the mechanism of social processes, including reciprocity, preferential attachment, and homophily, in the formation of social networks. The results also extend social cognitive theory and signaling theory into the context of physicians’ professional social networks.

During public health crises, people's self-efficacy determines their mental and physical health. However, little is known about the influence of digital technology on self-efficacy in response to public health crises. To better understand these effects, we conducted a mixed methods study based on Chinese digital technology users; we interviewed 17 and surveyed 607 users. The results indicated that the digital affordances of information sharing, knowledge sharing, and socializing can increase people's perceived social support, which enhances their self-efficacy in terms of their health and general life. Additionally, risk perception moderates the influence of social support on self-efficacy.