Although technology-enabled task performance has been a long-standing outcome of interest in information systems research, existing studies primarily emphasize characteristics of the technology and task, rather than the user, in shaping performance outcomes. Given that both technology and people have inherent limitations, a worthwhile research pursuit is to examine how one might compensate for the limitations of the other in order to achieve successful task performance. We propose a new conceptualization of user abilities, task-specific user capabilities, and examine their compensatory effects with technology capabilities in shaping performance outcomes within the context of e-consultations (i.e., technology-mediated expert consultations). Specifically, we theorize the user capabilities of presentation (information giving) and elicitation (information seeking) as the task-specific user capabilities in this context. Leveraging the theory of compensatory adaptation, we propose that these user capabilities can overcome the limitations of technology and result in successful task performance outcomes. We employ mixed methods (qualitative field study, survey field study, and a lab experiment) to develop and test our model within the context of telemedicine consultations, a form of e-consultation. Convergent findings across the studies suggest that both user capabilities and technology capabilities are important facilitators of task performance and that these capabilities compensate for each other.
The paper empirically examines the effects of social capital of the relationship between the chief information officer (CIO) and top management team (TMT) on organizational value creation based on responses from CIOs and matched TMT respondents from 81 hospitals in the United States. Specifically, we theorize how the three dimensions of social capital-structural, cognitive, and relational social capital-facilitate knowledge exchange and combination between the CIO and TMT resulting in the alignment between the organization's information systems (IS) strategy and business strategy. Results show that IS alignment significantly influences the firm's financial performance and mediates the relationship between CIO-TMT social capital and performance. The findings also indicate that cognitive and relational social capital influence information systems strategic alignment but that structural social capital exerts its influence through its effects on cognitive social capital. Recommendations are provided as to how organizations can develop CIO-TMT structural, cognitive, and relational social capital to positively influence firm performance via IS strategic alignment.
Despite recent interest in studying information system habits, our understanding of how these habits develop and operate in an organizational context is still limited. Within organizations, IS habits may develop over long periods of time and are typically embedded within larger, frequently practiced, higher-level work routines or task sequences. When new systems are introduced for the purpose of at least partially replacing incumbent systems, existing IS habits embedded in these routines may inhibit adoption and use of the new systems. Therefore, understanding how work-related IS habits form, how they enable and inhibit behavior, and how they can be disrupted or encouraged requires that we examine them within the context of organizational and individual level work routines. The current study integrates psychology and organizational behavior literature on cognitive scripts and work routines to examine IS habits as they occur embedded within larger, more complex task sequences. The objective of the paper is to contribute to the IS habit literature by (1) situating IS habits within the context of their associated work routines and task sequences, and (2) providing a theoretical understanding of how incumbent system habits can be disrupted, and how development of new system habits can be encouraged, within this context. We draw from extant research in psychology, organizational behavior, and consumer behavior to offer propositions about context-focused organizational interventions to break, or otherwise discourage, the continued performance of incumbent system habits and to encourage the development of new system habits. Specifically, our theoretical development includes script disruption techniques, training-in-context, and performance goal suspension as organizational interventions that disrupt incumbent system habits. We further theorize how stabilizing contextual variables associated with modified work routines can facilitate the development of new system habits. The paper concludes by discussing the importance of combining intervention strategies to successfully disrupt incumbent system habits and encourage development of new system habits and thus facilitate adoption of new systems
Large, multi-unit organizations are continually challenged to balance demands for centralization of information technology that lead to cost and service efficiencies through standardization while providing flexibility at the local unit level in order to meet unique business, customer, and service needs. This has led many organizations to adopt hybrid federated information technology governance (ITG) structures to find this balance. This approach to ITG establishes demand for various means to coordinate effectively across the organization to achieve the desired benefits. Past research has focused on the efficacy of various coordination mechanisms (e.g., steering committees, task forces) to coordinate activities related to information technology. However, we lack insights as to how and why these various coordination approaches help organizations achieve desired coordinated outcomes. This research specifically identifies coordinating as a process. Adopting the philosophy of critical realism, we conducted a longitudinal, comparative case study of two coordinating efforts in a federated ITG structure. Through a multifaceted approach to scientific logic employing deductive, inductive, and retroductive elements, we explicate two causal mechanisms, consensus making and unit aligning, which help to explain the coordinating process and the coordination outcomes observed in these efforts. We additionally elaborate the operation of the mechanisms through the typology of macro-micro-macro influences. Further, we demonstrate the value of the causal mechanisms to understanding the coordinating process by highlighting the complementarity in insights relative to the theories of power and politics and of rational choice. The study contributes to our understanding of coordinating as a process and of governance in federated IT organizations. Importantly, our study illustrates the value of applying critical realism to develop causal explanations and generate insights about a phenomenon.
Alignment of information systems (IS) strategy with business strategy is a top concern of both the chief information officer (CIO) and the top management team (TMT) of organizations. Even though researchers and key decision makers in organizations recognize the importance of IS strategic alignment, they often struggle to understand how this alignment is created. In this paper, we develop a nomological network in which shared understanding between the CIO and TMT about the role of IS in the organization (which represents the social dimension of IS strategic alignment) is posited to be a proximal antecedent of the intellectual dimension of IS strategic alignment. We further posit that shared language, shared domain knowledge manifest in the CIO's business knowledge and the TMT's strategic IS knowledge, systems of knowing (structural and social), and CIO-TMT experiential similarity are important determinants of this shared understanding. Data were collected from 243 matched CIO-TMT pairs. Results largely support the proposed nomological network. Specifically, shared understanding between the CIO and TMT is a significant antecedent of IS strategic alignment. Furthermore, shared language, shared domain knowledge, and structural systems of knowing influence the development of shared understanding between the CIO and the TMT. Contrary to expectations and to findings of prior research, social systems of knowing, representing informal social interactions between the CIO and TMT, and experiential similarity did not have a significant effect on shared understanding.
The Internet has the potential to fundamentally change the structure of marketing channels, but only if consumers choose to adopt electronic channels. Thus, this paper aims to develop a more nuanced understanding of consumer channel choices. Specifically, it contends that it is important to examine consumers' intent to adopt electronic channels, not as a monolithic decision, but as a choice they make at each of four stages in the purchase process: requirements determination, vendor selection, purchase, and after-sales service. Innovation diffusion theory suggests that consumers make adoption decisions based on their perceptions of the relative advantage of the innovation. The relative advantage of electronic channels is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct involving a cumulative assessment of the perceived relative merits of channels on three dimensions: convenience, trust, and efficacy of information acquisition. Combining the multidimensional nature of relative advantage with the multistage purchase process, the central assertion, and intended contribution, of this paper is to show that the relative advantage of electronic channels, and the influence of each dimension of relative advantage on the adoption of electronic channels, will vary across the different stages of the purchase process. Survey data were collected from faculty and staff at a large university about their intention to use the web for auto insurance transactions. The results provide support for the multidimensional nature of relative advantage, although the emergent factors do not align neatly with the hypothesized dimensions (convenience, trust, and efficacy of information acquisition) or stages. Results of the study support three conclusions. First, the dimensions along which consumers assess relative advantage blend hypothesized dimensions such as trust and convenience with stages of the purchase process. Second, consumers consider the relative advantage of channels at two distinct...
Prior research has examined age, gender, experience, and voluntariness as the main moderators of beliefs on technology acceptance. This paper extends this line of research beyond these demographic and situational variables. Motivated by research that suggests that behavioral models do not universally hold across cultures, the paper identifies espoused national cultural values as an important set of individual difference moderators in technology acceptance. Building on research in psychological anthropology and cultural psychology that assesses cultural traits by personality tests at the individual level of analysis, we argue that individuals espouse national cultural values to differing degrees. These espoused national cultural values of masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance are incorporated into an extended model of technology acceptance as moderators. We conducted two studies to test our model. Results indicated that, as hypothesized, social norms are stronger determinants of intended behavior for individuals who espouse feminine and high uncertainty avoidance cultural values. Contrary to expectations, espoused masculinity/femininity values did not moderate the relationship between perceived usefulness and behavioral intention but, as expected, did moderate the relationship between perceived ease of use and behavioral intention.
Theoretical and empirical research in technology acceptance, while acknowledging the importance of individual beliefs about the compatibility of a technology, has produced equivocal results. This study focuses on further conceptual development of this important belief in technology acceptance. Unlike much prior research that has focused on only a limited aspect of compatibility, we provide a more comprehensive conceptual definition that disaggregates the content of compatibility into four distinct and separable constructs: compatibility with preferred work style, compatibility with existing work practices, compatibility with prior experience, and compatibility with values. We suggest that the form of the multidimensional compatibility construct is best modeled as a multivariate structural model. Based on their conceptual definitions, we develop operational measures for the four compatibility variables. We assess the nomological validity of our conceptualization by situating it within the technology acceptance model. In contrast to prior research, which has regarded beliefs of compatibility as an independent antecedent of technology acceptance outcomes, we posit causal linkages not only among the four compatibility beliefs, but also between compatibility beliefs and usefulness, and ease of use. We test our theoretical model with a field sample of 278 users of a customer relationship management system in the context of a large bank. Scale validation indicates that the operational measures of compatibility developed in this study have acceptable psychometric properties, which support the existence of four distinct constructs. Results largely support the theorized relationships.
A separate and distinct interaction with both the actual e-vendor and with its IT Web site interface is at the heart of online shopping. Previous research has established, accordingly, that online purchase intentions are the product of both consumer assessments of the IT itself--specifically its perceived usefulness and ease-of-use (TAM)--and trust in the e-vendor. But these perspectives have been examined independently by IS researchers. Integrating these two perspectives and examining the factors that build online trust in an environment that lacks the typical human interaction that often leads to trust in other circumstances advances our understanding of these constructs and their linkages to behavior. Our research on experienced repeat online shoppers shows that consumer trust is as important to online commerce as the widely accepted TAM use-antecedents, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Together these variable sets explain a considerable proportion of variance in intended behavior. The study also provides evidence that online trust is built through (1) a belief that the vendor has nothing to gain by cheating, (2) a belief that there are safety mechanisms built into the Web site, and (3) by having a typical interface, (4) one that is, moreover, easy to use.
The article discusses the paper "Time Flies When You're Having Fun: Cognitive Absorption and Beliefs About Information Technology Usage," by Ritu Agarwai and Elena Karahanna.
The process of information technology adoption and use is critical to deriving the benefits of information technology. Yet from a conceptual standpoint, few empirical studies have made a distinction between individuals' pre-adoption and post-adoption (continued use) beliefs and attitudes. This distinction is crucial in understanding and managing this process over time. The current study combines innovation diffusion and attitude theories in a theoretical framework to examine differences in pre-adoption and post-adoption beliefs and attitudes. The examination of Windows technology in a single organization indicates that users and potential adopters of information technology differ on their determinants of behavioral intention, attitude, and subjective norm. Potential adopter intention to adopt is solely determined by normative pressures, whereas user intention is solely determined by attitude. In addition, potential adopters base their attitude on a richer set of innovation characteristics than users. Whereas pre-adoption attitude is based on perceptions of usefulness, ease-of-use, result demonstrability, visibility, and trialability, post-adoption attitude is only based on instrumentality beliefs of usefulness and perceptions of image enhancements.