As competition online increases, website owners investigate ways in which they can attract and retain more users. One avenue is to reduce frustration and stress for the users. Furthermore, many website users are rushed when browsing for specific information on a website. To save time and prevent frustration, website owners should try to maximize information scent, that is, visual, audio, and semantic cues that are meant to lead or guide the user to his or her informational goal. This paper presents and tests a model to predict how information scent can reduce the amount of stress that consumers experience when seeking information under time constraints. The study also demonstrates the relationships between information scent, time constraints, stress, performance, and attitudes toward the website. Results demonstrate that high information scent is an important design goal for a website, and latent semantic analysis can be a useful tool for measuring scent. In addition, rather than an attribute of an overall site, the concept of scent is demonstrated to be dependent on both the website and the task(s) being performed by the user. This finding demonstrates that to maximize users' satisfaction and ability to accomplish their goals, website designers need to determine what tasks users need to accomplish, and to make sure that the links on each page point clearly to the appropriate destination to meet those goals. The latent semantic analysis tool can provide an indication of strength and clarity of the links. Clear links gain even more importance when considering the time constraints of users. Measurable stress explains some of the variance in performance and attitudes. > >
Because violations of information security (ISec) and privacy have become ubiquitous in both personal and work environments, academic attention to ISec and privacy has taken on paramount importance. Consequently, a key focus of ISec research has been discovering ways to motivate individuals to engage in more secure behaviors. Over time, the protection motivation theory (PMT) has become a leading theoretical foundation used in ISec research to help motivate individuals to change their security-related behaviors to protect themselves and their organizations. Our careful review of the foundation for PMT identified four opportunities for improving ISec PMT research. First, extant ISec studies do not use the full nomology of PMT constructs. Second, only one study uses fear-appeal manipulations, even though these are a core element of PMT. Third, virtually no ISec study models or measures fear. Fourth, whereas these studies have made excellent progress in predicting security intentions, none of them have addressed actual security behaviors.
Online whistle-blowing reporting systems (WBRS) have become increasingly prevalent channels for reporting organizational failures. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and similar international laws now require firms to establish whistle-blowing (WB) procedures and WBRSs, increasing the importance of WB research and applications. Although the literature has addressed conventional WB behavior, it has not explained or measured the use of WBRSs in online contexts that could significantly alter elements of anonymity, trust, and risk for those using such reporting tools. This study proposes the WBRS model (WBRS-M). Using actual working professionals in an online experiment of hypothetical scenarios, we empirically tested the WBRS-M for reporting computer abuse and find that anonymity, trust, and risk are highly salient in the WBRS context. Our findings suggest that we have an improved WB model with increased explanatory power. Organizations can make WB less of a professional taboo by enhancing WBRS users' perceptions of trust and anonymity. We also demonstrate that anonymity means more than the mere lack of identification, which is not as important in this context as other elements of anonymity.
Information systems journal rankings and ratings help scholars focus their publishing efforts and are widely used surrogates for judging the quality of research. Over the years, numerous approaches have been used to rank IS journals, approaches such as citation metrics, school lists, acceptance rates, and expert assessments. However, the results of these approaches often conflict due to a host of validity concerns. In the current scientometric study, we make significant strides toward correcting for these limitations in the ranking of mainstream IS journals. We compare expert rankings to bibliometric measures such as the ISI Impact Factor™, the h-index, and social network analysis metrics. Among other findings, we conclude that bibliometric measures provide very similar results to expert-based methods in determining a tiered structure of IS journals, thereby suggesting that bibliometrics can be a complete, less expensive, and more efficient substitute for expert assessment. We also find strong support for seven of the eight journals in the Association for Information Systems Senior Scholars' "basket" of journals. A cluster analysis of our results indicates a two-tiered separation in the quality of the highest quality IS journals-with MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, and Journal of Management Information Systems belonging, in that order, to the highest A+ tier. Journal quality metrics fit nicely into the sociology of science literature and can be useful in models that attempt to explain how knowledge disseminates through scientific communities.
Firms need to balance efficiency gains obtained through exploiting existing knowledge assets with long-term competitive viability achieved through exploring new knowledge resources. Because the use of knowledge management systems (KMSs) continues to expand, understanding how these systems affect exploration and exploitation practices at the individual level is important to advance both knowledge management theory and practice. This study reports the results of a multi-industry survey investigating how psychological climate and KMS access influence solution reuse (exploitation) and solution innovation (exploration) in the context of technical support work. Our results show that KMS access does not directly determine solution innovation or solution reuse. Instead, KMS access strengthens the positive relationship between a climate for innovation and solution innovation and reverses the positive relationship between a climate for autonomy and solution innovation. The implications for knowledge management research and practice are discussed.
Information technology (IT) adoption research recognizes theoretical limitations in discerning if and when user behavior results from perceived external influences or from personal volition. A clear understanding of this issue requires a precise distinction between mandatory and volitional behaviors. Consistent with organismic integration theory (OIT), this study situates the locus of user motivations inside the user. Drawing upon an endogenous view of behaviors, this research makes three key contributions. First, it develops the theoretical basis for clearly discerning if and when behavior results from perceived external influences or from personal volition. Specifically, it examines how endogenous psychological feelings of autonomy, freedom, conflict, and external pressure can predict and explain user intentions. Second, it proposes that behavior may result from combinations of perceived external influences and personal volition. Recognizing how such "collections of motivations" together influence behavior advances our understanding beyond the "dichotomy" of extrinsic versus intrinsic motivations often adopted in prior research. Third, it proposes that some desired behaviors may be thwarted or impeded by a conflict between perceived external influences and personal volition. The theoretically grounded research model was empirically validated in a field study on Blackboard, a Web-based education platform at a large university. Data collected from a sample of 211 users were tested using structural equation models of initial system adoption and experienced use. Empirical support was found for the proposed model and related hypotheses. The results of this study advance our understanding about user motivations for adopting IT.
Although its popularity is widespread, the Web is well known for one particular drawback: its frequent delay when moving from one page to another. This experimental study examined whether delay and two other website design variables (site breadth and content familiarity) have interaction effects on user performance,attitudes, and behavioral intentions. The three experimental factors (delay, familiarity, and breadth) collectively impact the cognitive costs and penalties that users incur when making choices in their search for target information. An experiment was conducted with 160 undergraduate business majors in a completely counterbalanced, fully factorial design that exposed them to two websites and asked them to browse the sites for nine pieces of information. Results showed that all three factors have strong direct impacts on performance and user attitudes,in turn affecting behavioral intentions to return to the site, as might be expected. A significant three-way interaction was found between all three factors indicating that these factors not only individually impact a user's experiences with a website, but also act in combination to either increase or decrease the costs a user incurs. Two separate analyses support an assertion that attitudes mediate the relationship of the three factors on behavioral intentions. The implications of these results for both researchers and practitioners are discussed. Additional research is needed to discover other factors that mitigate or accentuate the effects of delay, other effects of delay, and under what amounts of delay these effects occur.
Providing profitable online content has been an elusive goal, challenging many companies such as the New York Times, Disney/ABC/ESPN, and Microsoft/Slate. Charging for content has been hit-or-miss, attributable to a lack of generally applicable models of information value. Previous studies in the management information systems literature emphasized extrinsically motivated content (addressing tangible gains), while many sites target intrinsic goals such as entertainment or education. This study examines potential factors influencing willingness to pay for intrinsically motivated online content. Data from 392 college students indicate that even when analyzing content whose potential rewards are intangible and nonquantifiable, potential consumers focus on "expected benefits" as the main antecedent for willingness to pay. Other antecedents, such as perceived quality and provider reputation, only affected willingness to pay indirectly through expected benefits. Researchers are offered a baseline model for future study, and practitioners are advised to provide initial visitors a clear message about benefits of use to entice them to pay for content.
Although there has been a great deal of research on impression formation, little application of that research has been made to electronic commerce. A research model was constructed that hypothesized errors, poor style, and incompleteness to be inversely related to the users' level of perceived quality of an online store. Further, this perceived quality of the online store's Web site would be directly related to users' trust in the store and, ultimately, to users' intentions to purchase from the store. An experimental study with 272 undergraduate and graduate student volunteers supported all the hypotheses. In addition, it was found that the relationship between the factors and perceived quality was mediated by the perception of the flaws. The perception of flaws rather than the actual flaws influenced users' perception of quality. Supplemental analysis also seemed to indicate a pattern of diminishing effects with each subsequent flaw.
Theft of software and other intellectual property has become one of the most visible problems in computing today. This paper details the development and empirical validation of a model of software piracy by individuals in the workplace. The model was developed from the results of prior research into software piracy, and the reference disciplines of the theory of planned behavior, expected utility theory, and deterrence theory. A survey of 201 respondents was used to test the model. The results indicate that individual attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are significant precursors to the intention to illegally copy software. In addition, punishment severity, punishment certainty, and software cost have direct effects on the individual's attitude toward software piracy, whereas punishment certainty has a significant effect on perceived behavioral control. Consequently, strategies to reduce software piracy should focus on these factors. The results add to a growing stream of information systems research into illegal software copying behavior and have significant implications for organizations and industry groups aiming to reduce software piracy.
The pervasiveness and impact of electronic spreadsheets have generated serious concerns about their integrity and validity when used in significant decision-making settings. Previous studies have shown that few of the errors that might exist in any given spreadsheet are found, even when the reviewer is explicitly looking for errors. It was hypothesized that differences in the spreadsheets' presentation and their formulas could affect the detection rate of these errors. A sample of 113 M.B.A. students volunteered to search for eight errors planted in a one-page spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was presented in five different formats. A 2 x 2 design specified that four groups were given apparently conventional spreadsheets for comparing paper and screen and the presence or absence of formulas. A fifth group received a special printed spreadsheet with formulas visibly integrated into the spreadsheet printed in a small font directly under the resultant values. As in previous studies, only about 50 percent of the errors were found overall. Subjects with printed spreadsheets found more errors than their colleagues with screen-only spreadsheets but they took longer to do so. There was no discernible formula effect; subjects who were able to refer to formulas did not outperform subjects with access to only the final numbers. The special format did not facilitate error finding. Exploratory analysis uncovered some interesting results. The special experimental integrated paper format appeared to diminish the number of correct items falsely identified as errors. There also seemed to be differences in performance that were accounted for by the subjects' self-reported error-finding strategy. Researchers should focus on other factors that might facilitate error finding, and practitioners should be cautious about relying on spreadsheets' accuracy, even those that have been "audited."
Recent advances in computer technology have been accompanied by significant changes in the roles of both users and developers. One well-known example is end-user development, which here provides a context for the application of role theory to IS issues. A framework is proposed for classifying IS roles in a way that can be used for role behavior analysis. The framework takes the form of a matrix, with activities relating to the construction and use of information systems on one axis, and activities relating to generic organizational levels on the other. Role theory permits analysis of organizational phenomena from either a structural or a process-oriented perspective. Propositions from both perspectives are presented which can be used to direct empirical studies.