Existing research has long considered service quality as a primary determinant of user satisfaction with information technology (IT) service delivery. In response to the knowledge-intensive and collaborative nature of IT service delivery in the contemporary business context, we advance the theoretical understanding of user satisfaction by re-conceptualizing IT service delivery as a bilateral, relational process between the IT staff and users. Based on this reconceptualization, we draw on social capital theory to examine the antecedents of user satisfaction with IT service delivery. Specifically, we posit that two major dimensions of social capital, i.e., cognitive capital and relational capital, not only positively affect user satisfaction but also strengthen the established relationship between service quality and user satisfaction. Furthermore, we propose that the effect of the other dimension of social capital—structural capital—on user satisfaction is fully mediated through cognitive capital and relational capital. A field study of 159 users in four financial companies provides general empirical support for our hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Aguirre-Urreta and Marakas (A&M) suggest in their simulation "Revisiting Bias Due to Construct Misspecification:Different Results from Considering Coefficients in Standardized Form," that, like Jarvis et al. (2003),MacKenzie et al. (2005), and Petter et al. (2007) before them, bias does occur when formative constructs are misspecified as reflective. But A&M argue that the level of bias in prior simulation studies has been exaggerated. They parameterize their simulation models using standardized coefficients in contrast to Jarviset al., MacKenzie et al., and Petter et al., who parameterize their simulation models using unstandardized coefficients. Thus, across these four simulation studies, biases in parameter estimates are likely to result in misspecified measurement models (i.e., using either unstandardized or standardized coefficients); yet, the biases are greater in magnitude when unstandardized coefficients are used to parameterize the misspecified model. We believe that regardless of the extent of the bias, it is critically important for researchers to achieve correspondence between the measurement specification and the conceptual meaning of the construct so as to not alter the theoretical meaning of the construct at the operational layer of the model. Such alignment between theory and measurement will safeguard against threats to construct and statistical conclusion validity.
The article presents a guide for the use of structural equation modeling (SEM) methods in scholarly writing. The author discusses the advantages of SEM, then describes how to choose an SEM technique. Several selection criteria are covered including exploratory and confirmative research objectives, lack of a robust theory base, a desire to avoid bias in estimations, and formative scales in the research model. Also provided is a discussion of the minimal statistics that should be presented in order to allow readers to evaluate conclusions an author draws from data.
The article discusses the relationship between entrepreneurship and information technology (IT), focusing on various reasons why the two have become intertwined. Topics discussed include the development of new technologies, the contributions of IT to economic development, and the role of market competitiveness in the creation of new entrepreneurial ventures. The author identifies increases in capital share per labor unit and spillover effects such as network externalities as the two links which explicitly exist between IT capital equipment and labor productivity growth.
The article discusses the common metrics used to assess the quality and ranking of academic journals. The author describes the importance of assessing journal quality for academics and scholars as well as the controversial practice of forced journal self-citation. Among the most important factors used to measure journal quality are the use of citation metrics including journal impact factors (JIF) and EigenFactor and Article Influence scores.
An introduction is presented for this issue which includes articles about information security in a digital economy, research methodology evaluation, and computer security.
The editorial argues that a journal's personality is the representative perspective of a collective of individuals' various motives and interests. The discussion focuses on how a journal's personality or perspective affects the authors who interact with a journal's editorial staff. Topics include communication within information security communities and the application of Theory Y to loose collectives or organizational structure.
The article discusses the importance of positive thinking in the field of information systems (IS). Too often the emphasis at conferences and in published papers is on relatively negative aspects such as whether IS qualifies as a discipline, an alleged identity crisis for IS, and other perceived shortcomings. The authors propose three principles for remedying this state of affairs. Scholars need to give due recognition to the successes that have been achieved in IS, they need to devote less effort to describing problems and more to solving them, and they need to act as more responsible stewards of IS.
While researchers go to great lengths to justify and prove theoretical links between constructs, the relationship between measurement items and constructs is often ignored. By default, the relationship between construct and item is assumed to be reflective, meaning that the measurement items are a reflection of the construct. Many times, though, the nature of the construct is not reflective, but rather formative. Formative constructs occur when the items describe and define the construct rather than vice versa. In this research, we examine whether formative constructs are indeed being mistaken for reflective constructs by information systems researchers. By examining complete volumes of MIS Quarterly and Information Systems Research over the last 3 years, we discovered that a significant number of articles have indeed misspecified formative constructs. For scientific results to be valid, we argue that researchers must properly specify formative constructs. This paper discusses the implications of different patterns of common misspecifications of formative constructs on both Type I and Type II errors. To avoid these errors, the paper provides a roadmap to researchers to properly specify formative constructs. We also discuss how to address formative constructs within a research model after they are specified.
For decades, information technology has been posited to have a major impact on firm performance. Investigations into this line of inquiry have almost always used constructs related to individual firm performance as their dependent measures, an approach that made sense under historical economic conditions. In recent years, however, value chains are giving way to digital supply networks with electronic interactions between tiers in the flow of goods and services. Such an environment makes it imperative to develop sophisticated measures of the performance of entire networks of firms, as opposed to individual firm performance. Using game-theoretic concepts, this paper explores several dimensions of networked organizational performance as a construct, as a set of measures, and as a construct within a nomology. It describes a program of research in which some empirical validation has already been completed and other work is now underway. We first validate measures for a dyadic view of network performance, followed by an n-firm perspective.
This paper investigates the persistence of managerial expectations in an IT outsourcing context where the traditional relationship between supervisor and subordinate changes to one of client-manager and contractor. A mixed-method approach was used, in which a qualitative methodology preceded a large-scale quantitative survey. Data were collected from 147 survivors of a government IT organization which had undergone IT outsourcing in the previous year. Findings show that role overload, the presence of strong ties between manager and contractor, and the lack of prior outsourcing experience increased the persistence of managerial expectations. In turn, persistence of expectations had a distinct influence on managerial perceptions of contractor performance.